Dear Colleagues,
on behalf of Lena Hipp (WZB), Dimitri Prandner (JK University of
Linz)and Martin Weichbold (University of Salzburg) I wish to invite you
to submit an abstract for our session "Sampling Hard-to-Reach
Populations" at the ESRA Conference on July 15-19, 2019 in Zagreb.
Session Details URL:
https://www.europeansurveyresearch.org/conferences/sessionCategories?sess=27
Deadline: November 18th 2019
Submission URL:
https://www.europeansurveyresearch.org/conferences/register
(Registration required)
For your convenience, I also copied the session details below my
signature into the body of this e-mail.
Many regards
Ulrich Kohler
--
Prof. Dr. Ulrich Kohler
University of Potsdam
Public interest in learning more about demographic groups that are
either small, hidden, mobile, or engaged in illicit behaviors has grown
in recent years. Prominent examples of these “hard-to-reach” populations
are drug addicts, homeless people, or prostitutes as well as very rich
people and migrants, particularly those who are not documented or who
travel a lot. None of these demographic groups can be adequately sampled
with probability surveys, either because of the absence of sampling
frames, the small size of these groups compared to the total population,
their unstable residency, or their reluctance to participate.
In order to learn more about these hard-to-reach populations,
researchers have employed a few different sampling methods, including
network sampling, link-tracing designs (aka snowball sampling), and
respondent-driven sampling. Although the use of such nonprobability
sampling methods to survey hard-to-reach groups has rapidly expanded and
has been employed in many different contexts (though particularly in
developing countries), numerous questions regarding both the
implementation of these surveys and the analyses of the collected data
have not yet been (fully) resolved.
o How can the target population be adequately delineated and identified
in the sampling process?
o How should researchers choose incentives and interview locations when
surveying hard-to-reach populations? What are best practices in seed
selection?
o What do we know about mode differences when surveying hard-to-reach
populations and asking individuals about illicit behaviors?
o What challenges occur when employing nonprobability sampling in
comparative studies, for example with regard to the number of initial
seeds and assumptions regarding the referral
o What are the best estimators when analyzing data collected from
non-probability samples?
o How can we best calculate the variability of the estimates from
non-probability samples?
o What are the ethical issues when surveying hard-to-reach populations
and how can they be resolved in an acceptable way for researchers,
respondents, and funding agencies?
o How can nonprobability surveys be combined with other methodological
approaches to assess the accuracy of their findings?