WAPOR Regional Conference. Call for Participation

WAPOR Regional Conference
7-9 March, 2015
Doha, Qatar
Call for Participation
Submission Deadline:
September 25, 2014, 23:59 GMT
The World Association for Public Opinion Research (WAPOR) will hold a regional conference on 7-9 March, 2015 in Doha, Qatar. The conference will be hosted by the Social and Economic Survey Research Institute (SESRI; http://sesri.qu.edu.qa/) at Qatar University.
Conference Theme: Innovation in Public Opinion Research
The field of public opinion research is experiencing a period of rapid growth through a series of innovations. Theoretical advances incorporate concepts like emotion and sentiment in the terminology of public opinion research and investigate the linkages between them and policy preferences and attitudes. The resources of big data are increasingly used to infer public opinion without any direct contact with respondents in the traditional sense of sampling individuals and contacting them for an interview. Moreover, technologies like smartphones have been added to the repertoire of data-collection methods, raising important questions about sample representativeness and coverage bias given the higher proportion of volunteer respondents and those who have access to the latest technologies.
These innovations in theory, methods, and technologies for data collection and analysis highlight major research questions about the interpretation of mode differences observed when data, ostensibly on the same topic, are collected through different technologies and modes. One of the most significant innovations is the widespread dissemination of public opinion data in areas where citizens are not accustomed to receiving such information
regularly. Consequently, the interpretive framework that encompasses citizens’ reading and understanding of what their fellow citizens are thinking is nascent and limited, hence adding a new meaning to the concept of an “informed” citizenry.
Against this backdrop, WAPOR welcomes abstracts and panel proposals related to the conference theme, including but not restricted to the following topics:
- Innovations in methods, including the impact of technology on data collection
- Mixed-mode research in theory and practice
- Nontraditional and experimental sampling methodologies
- Cross-cultural research and concept equivalence in translation
- The impact and future of “big data,” social media and the Internet
- Interviewer effects
- Regional topical issues (such as labor markets and migration, and female participation in the labor force)
- Theoretical issues in the measurement of emotion and sentiment
- Social capital, democratization and public opinion
- Theories of public opinion as applied to regional issues and concerns
- Transformation of inchoate concepts into measurement variables
New interpretive frameworks
Submission Instructions
Important Due Dates:
Submission deadline: September 25, 2014, 23:59 GMT
Submission decisions: October 23, 2014
Complete papers following APA formatting guidelines: February 20, 2015
Submissions to this conference can be of two types: individual submissions and panel
submissions.
All submissions should be made by email to: sesri.events@qu.edu.qa
- All submissions should include contact information for a primary contact person, including name, institutional affiliation, country, email address, and telephone number.
- Paper submissions should include a title, a list of authors with their institutional affiliations and an abstract of 500 words or less. Sets of accepted papers that share a theme will be scheduled to be presented as part of a panel. Papers with more individualized topics will be scheduled for presentation during a poster session.
- Panel submissions should include a title and abstract of 500 words or less for the panel topic, describing the issues to be addressed and their importance. The aforementioned submission information (title, authors and affiliations, and abstract) should also be provided for each of 4 to 5 papers proposed for inclusion in the panel. Panels related to the conference theme are especially encouraged.
- The same author’s name may appear on a maximum of two submissions.
Note to early-career researchers (research professionals employed for five years or less at the time of the conference) and student authors (who are enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate program at the time of the conference):
If all authors on a paper submission are early-career researchers and student authors, the paper can be submitted for consideration for the 2015 WAPOR Doha Conference Student/Early- Career Researcher Paper Competition. When submitting the paper, please identify it as eligible for the competition and provide the name and email address of a faculty mentor, if appropriate. The faculty mentor will be asked to send an email of 25 words or less endorsing the paper when the full paper is submitted.
CONTACT: If you have questions, please email SESRI (sesri.events@qu.edu.qa) and/or the WAPOR Executive Coordinator Renae Reis (renae@wapor.org).
Please feel free to distribute this information to colleagues who may be interested.
About the Conference Venue
Doha, Qatar is a vibrant multicultural city that offers visitors myriad opportunities to enjoy the arts, local heritage, nature, sports, shopping, and culinary experiences. Doha is a hub that also allows visitors to travel easily to other locations in the region.
Within Qatar University, the national university of Qatar, empirical social science research is centered in its Social and Economic Survey Research Institute (SESRI). Established in 2008 in collaboration with the University of Michigan, SESRI has rapidly become one of the leading survey research institutions in the Arab world, deploying state-of-the-art methods for studies within Qatar and in other countries in the Arab Gulf region. It has organized a number of international conferences that have brought together researchers from Europe, North and South America, and South and Southeast Asia..
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