Keynote Lectures
Cheryl Poth
Professor, Centre for Research in Applied Measurement and Evaluation
University Of Alberta
Title: Opening New Possibilities: Mixed Methods Research for a Complex World
Wednesday, October 28th at 17:30 – 19:00
Abstract:
We recognize that the world is complex, yet our research designs do not always evolve with the changing conditions, capture interdependent relationships, and adapt to unfolding developments that shape the problems we study. Plans suited to initial study conditions may no longer fit as circumstances change. Familiar ways of defining study boundaries may obscure consequential influences. And gathering evidence from multiple perspectives and sources, without the expertise to integrate it, may leave opportunities for novel insights unrealized. These methodological vulnerabilities invite us to explore new possibilities and reconsider how we design research for a complex world.
To examine these vulnerabilities, I draw on my own researcher journey and ongoing work and explore how intentional engagement with complexity can open new possibilities for mixed methods design. Integrating qualitative and quantitative evidence can do more than bring findings together at the end of a study. It can help us revisit our initial understanding of a system, trace relationships across perspectives and levels in our procedures, and use emerging integrated insights to inform subsequent research decisions.
I invite us, as a global research community, to bring our varied professional and methodological expertise and experiences into productive dialogue. How might we design for uncertainty and interdependence, remain responsive to what emerges, and integrate evidence to generate novel insights? What might engaging productively with complexity ask of each of us, now, and in the future as we grapple with complex problems?
Cheryl Poth, PhD, is a professor, award-winning instructor, and author in the Centre for Research and Applied Measurement and Evaluation in the Faculty of Education at the University of Alberta in Canada. She co-founded and leads the Alberta Community and Clinical Evaluation and Research Team and serves as the methodologist on several cross-disciplinary research teams. Her collaborations with governments, professional associations, community organizations, students, clinicians, teachers, and academics have examined a range of issues related to enhancing capacity for impactful research and evaluation across diverse contexts and varying conditions of complexity. Complex conditions require adaptive responses to changing circumstances. Working under these conditions is challenging because outcomes are unpredictable and established pathways for generating solutions are lacking. Her work spans education, psychology, and health sciences. She is the past president of the Mixed Methods International Research Association, current associate editor of the Journal of Mixed Methods Research, and editor of The SAGE Handbook of Mixed Methods Research Design (2023, Sage). Her books, Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design (5th ed.), co-authored with John Creswell (2024, Sage); Innovation in Mixed Methods Research: Guiding Practices for Integrative Thinking with Complexity (2018, Sage); and Research Ethics (2021, Sage), are inspired by the dilemmas she hears in the field.
Bernhard Kittel
Institut für Wirtschaftssoziologie, Universität Wien
Title: The Babel Tower of Validity in Social Science Methodology
Friday, October 30th at 11:00-12:30
Abstract:
It is a truism that the ability to trust research findings is crucial for the cumulation of knowledge. However, the social sciences are characterized by a multitude of cleavages between ontologies, epistemologies, and methodologies which result in a variety of perspectives on what is good science. The social sciences have witnessed a long tradition of mutual contempt and fierce debates, only occasionally interrupted by temporary armistices but never appeased. Even less have the social sciences been able to turn diversity into an asset which lies in the exploration of the complementarities between the various perspectives. This circumstance is a severe liability to the social sciences’ ability to foster cumulative research. The concept of validity is located at the core of trust in research findings. However, different perspectives tend to speak of different things when they use the same term and use different terms when they speak of the same thing. In the present lecture, I will try to loosen some of the entangled threads and to clarify the meanings of validity in different methodological contexts, hoping to contribute to the development of a more productive handling of methodological diversity.
Bernhard Kittel is professor of economic sociology at the University of Vienna. Much of his work focuses on justice attitudes, group decision making and marginal groups in the labor market, using experimental methods, population surveys and interviews. He is one of five co-authors of Experimental Sociology. Outline of a Scientific Field (Cambridge University Press, 2025) and co-editor of Priority of Needs? An Informed Theory of Need-based Justice (Springer, 2024). 2020-2023 he has directed the Austrian Corona Panel Project on the societal implications of the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2017-18, he has been a member of the questionnaire design team for the module on Fairness and Justice in Europe in round 9 of the European Social Survey. He has been academic convenor of the ECPR Methods School in Ljubljana (2006-2015) and he is currently chairperson of the scientific advisory board of GESIS.