Michael Ruland

GlobalIndex A Sociological Approach to Globalization Measurement

This article suggests a multidimensional globalization measure, encompassing economic, (socio)technological, cultural and political dimensions of global change. This measure builds on previous work...This article suggests a multidimensional globalization measure, encompassing economic, (socio)technological, cultural and political dimensions of global change. This measure builds on previous work by Dreher, Lockwood and Redoano, the OECD and Kearney, but extends it by additional dimensions and indicators that represent central facets of a genuine sociological concept of globalization. The article first describes in detail the multidimensional nature of the globalization process and then develops an overall sociological index of globalization, which the authors call GlobalIndex. This index covers the development of globalization in 97 different countries from 1970 to 2002. Using the GlobalIndex, the authors describe the development of globalization on a worldwide scale as well as for different country contexts. Finally, they include the GlobalIndex as an explanatory variable in two micro-level longitudinal analyses of labour market transitions during the early career period in Germany and the UK.

Collecting Life-Course Data in a Panel Design: Why and How We Use Proactive Dependent Interviewing

The National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) has to combine the retrospective collection of life-course data with repeated competence measurements in a panel design by updating life-course information on an ongoing basis. The greatest challenge to updating life courses in a panel study is ensuring the overall consistency and completeness of the life course across multiple waves and preventing seam effects. These effects occur in the transitions between different states of interest from one panel wave to the next, and their number is much higher when the data for each period come from two different interviews than when the reports come from the same interview. To minimize this effect and to ensure that episodes collected in different panel waves are connected with each other, NEPS researchers use dependent interviewing techniques that draw on information collected in previous panel waves in order to phrase questions and direct respondents through the questionnaire. Proactive Dependent Interviewing—whereby information from the previous interview (named preload) is used to stimulate the memory as part of the questioning process—is particularly widely used because of its potential to lower respondent burden, increase efficiency, and reduce measurement errors, such as seam effects. Against the background of findings from cognitive psychology, we describe how we implemented this technique in the NEPS Starting Cohort 6-Adults. We then evaluate the quality of this kind of “anchoring” by empirically analyzing the conditions under which respondents disagree with preloaded data.

Why Do We Collect Data on Educational Histories Over the Life Course the Way We Do ? Core Questionnaire Design Decisions in Starting Cohort 6—Adults

Starting Cohort 6—Adults is one of six samples of the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) and covers members of the adult population living in Germany from multiple birth cohorts. It aims at collecting data on educational processes and competence development in adult life as well as on learning environments, decision processes, and returns. To achieve these objectives, it is necessary to gather life-course information, particularly in the area of education and employment. In this chapter, we describe our core questionnaire design and justify why we collect life-course data the way we do. We begin by presenting theoretical principles of life course research and discussing their consequences for questionnaire design. Subsequently, we describe how the process of recalling events and their dating is supported by instrument design in order to guarantee that retrospective life course data will be complete and consistent. Finally, we illustrate the analysis potential of the collected life course data.

Data-Revision Module—A Beneficial Tool to Support Autobiographical Memory in Life-Course Studies

The key objective of the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) is to enable analyses of the development of competencies, educational processes, educational decisions, and returns to education throughout the life span. These analyses are only possible by collecting complete and consistent educational and employment histories as well as the relevant contexts in which these histories are embedded, in other words, life-course data. In this respect, the most important challenge is remembering life histories retrospectively. To support both the cognitive memory capacity and the temporal integration of reported episodes in the life course, we decided to use a modular technique for collecting life-course data retrospectively. However, modularization makes it more difficult for respondents to recall the temporal integration of the episodes reported in the different life domains. To compensate for this disadvantage, we implemented a data-revision module that integrates all reported episodes from the different life domains immediately after collecting all relevant life-course data. In the data-revision module, the interviewer can edit all existing temporal inconsistencies in the life course in collaboration with the respondent by correcting the time span of episodes, by deleting and inserting episodes, and by clarifying overlaps of episodes. The module also pays attention to episodes with incomplete or missing calendar dates that can—by using estimates—be included in the life-course data and be edited directly during the interview in collaboration with the respondent. The result is a marked improvement in the data quality and validity of the recorded life histories.

Auswirkungen der Administration von Kompetenztests im Rahmen einer Panelerhebung für Erwachsene

Kompetenztests werden ublicherweise einmalig im Rahmen von Klassenraumbefragungen bei Schulern durchgefuhrt. In der Erwachsenenbefragung des Nationalen Bildungspanels (NEPS) hingegen wurden Kompetenztests im Rahmen einer jahrlich wiederholten, personlichen Befragung einer grosen Stichprobe der Erwachsenenbevolkerung eingesetzt. Die Erhebung von Kompetenzen in einem solchen Kontext kann sich insofern als problematisch erweisen, als negative Auswirkungen der Testdurchfuhrung auf Nonresponse und Panelmortalitat zu befurchten sind.

GlobalIndex – Ein soziologischer Ansatz zur Messung von Globalisierung

Der Prozess der Globalisierung zahlt zweifelsohne zu den in jungerer Vergangenheit meist diskutierten Gegenstandsbereichen in den Sozialwissenschaften. Trotz des wachsenden thematischen Interesses sind jedoch Ansatze zur quantitativen Erfassung des Globalisierungsprozesses bislang vage oder konzentrieren sich nur einseitig auf die Erfassung der okonomischen Komponente der Globalisierung. Bislang fehlt somit ein adaquates sozialwissenschaftliches Messinstrument, mittels dessen sich Globalisierungsprozesse quantitativ erfassen und z. B. als erklarende Variable in die Analyse von Befragungsdaten integrieren lassen.