A CaseStudy in the Methodological Challenges of CrossNational Survey Analysis Joshua Hayes MA About Me Joshua Hayes UC Davis PhD ABD Sociology UC Davis MA Sociology Stanford University MA Religious Studies ID: 740125
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Slide1
There’s No Place Like Japan:
A Case-Study in the Methodological Challenges of Cross-National Survey Analysis
Joshua Hayes, M.A.Slide2
About Me
Joshua Hayes
U.C. Davis, PhD (ABD) SociologyU.C. Davis, M.A. SociologyStanford University, M.A. Religious StudiesMichigan State University, B.A. East Asian Languages and CulturesSlide3
Dissertation Research
National Identity
ISSP National Identity Module 1995/2003/2013 Not Religion ModuleReligious foundations for creating a symbolic identityReligion as an axis for inclusion and exclusionBegan in United StatesNow contains an international comparison component
But how to grapple with “religion” in international comparisons?Slide4
Options For Dealing With Religion
Just don’t do use religion…
Objective Coding -Consistent Analogy: Using an absolute value for R’s income, across two locationsExample: Reltrad
; or design an alternativeRelative Coding –Changes based on the context Analogy: Using percentiles to determine R’s relative position within economy, respective to R’s locationSlide5
Relative Measure for Religious
Affiliation:Dominant In-Group vs
Minority Out-Group
Country
Dominant
Minority
Total
Germany
2,731
1,457
4,188
absolute value
65.2134.79100 row percentageIreland2,6083272,935 88.8611.14100Japan1,2021,6802,882 41.7158.29100Norway3,2036023,805 84.1815.82100Spain2,9034713,374 86.0413.96100Sweden2,3318453,176 73.3926.61100United States2,8536743,527 80.8919.11100Total17,8316,05623,887 74.6525.35100
Each nation in the survey adapted the module to their own context. Namely, regarding:
”to be a true [nationality]”
“to speak [language]”
“to be [religion]”
I used the religion named in each survey as the “Dominant Religion” for that nation. Then recoded respondents’ religious affiliation as a dummy variable for “In Dominant Religion: Yes or No”Slide6
Relative Measure for Religious
Affiliation:Dominant In-Group vs
Minority Out-Group
Country
Dominant
Minority
Total
Germany
2,731
1,457
4,188
absolute value
65.2134.79100 row percentageIreland2,6083272,935 88.8611.14100Japan1,2021,6802,882 41.7158.29100Norway3,2036023,805 84.1815.82100Spain2,9034713,374 86.0413.96100Sweden2,3318453,176 73.3926.61100United States2,8536743,527 80.8919.11100Total17,8316,05623,887 74.6525.35100
Each nation in the survey adapted the module to their own context. Namely, regarding
”to be a true [nationality]”
“to speak [language]”
“to be [religion]”
I used the religion named in each survey as the “Dominant Religion” for that nation. Then recoded respondents’ religious affiliation as a dummy variable for “In Dominant Religion: Yes or No”Slide7Slide8Slide9
Evident Challenges
Localized Distributions of Religious AffiliationMany countries have a dominant religion and minority religions
Japan does not fit this model; in the survey data:It is more common in Japan for individuals to have multiple-affiliation Difference between “belief” and “practice”More complex landscapeViews on “Importance of Religion”
Japan bucks the In-Group/Out-Group trend seen in many other countriesThe nature of the question changes when religious affiliations are not exclusiveIdentity, Behavior, and Belief are related but also divergeVery hard to create buckets for individuals when they sit at the intersection of many bucketsI study religion, but I cannot be a specialist of every nationSlide10
Potential Solutions
Avoid the topicFind a Dataset that includes everything we want
Behavior measures and Belief measuresIdeally combine Religion and National Identity modulesMay require gathering own forms of data, lose connection with past surveysNarrow our focusLook at a single country: Japan only
Compare two cases: show how US and Japan differReductionismCollapse people into single categoriesLose richness of differing contextsTransparency in Research Design is Key