Zoekresultaten

Understanding the Metaverse with the Q-method.

Greek views of the 2015 Bailout Agreement

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in INTERNATIONAL SPECTATOR on 31-01-2022, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03932729.2021.2007610 In July 2015, after intense negotiations with its creditors, Greece received a bailout in exchange for fiscal restraint. The coalition government at that time, led by the left-wing SYRIZA party, elected on the basis of an anti-austerity platform, eventually accepted the prevalent austerity frames of the creditors. Through the aid of Q-method, an analysis of Greek opinion leaders’ views of the negotiation highlights that this outcome can be explained in two different ways. The first posits that the ideological overtones that ruling SYRIZA injected in its negotiation strategy exhibited a lack of socialisation and undermined Greece’s already weak bargaining position. The second focuses on the institutional status quo bias in the Eurogroup in Germany’s favour, which discourages any change in the Eurozone. These two views may have partly been influenced by questions of political accountability.

Introducing and discussing the virtual special issue on using Q methodology in higher education

This is the editorial paper for the virtual special issue “Using Q methodology in higher education: Opportunities and challenges”, consisting of nine original research studies from different international contexts. In addition to presenting novel findings, contributors were invited to discuss the following two questions at the center of the special issue call: In what sense has Q methodology served as a fitting approach to investigate subjectivity in higher education? What methodological opportunities and challenges arise with Q methodology in higher education settings? This editorial provides an overview and discussion of the various justifications mentioned for Q methodology. Furthermore, it collates the opportunities and challenges contributors discuss in relation to their studies using this almost 90-year-old methodological approach. The editorial paper concludes with recommendations for future Q methodological studies in higher education and beyond.

Teaching students with autism spectrum disorders

The academic achievements of students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are usually lower than those of their peers. It is therefore important to know what educational professionals need to provide these students with optimal support. To identify these needs, we applied Q methodology, a qualitative method using quantitative techniques. We found four groups of professionals with different needs. The first group emphasized a need for collaboration within school; the second valued practical suggestions to guide their teaching, the third emphasized gaining more confidence to teach students with ASD, and the fourth group focused on enhancing students’ social and communication skills.

Geen angst, maar onbehagen. Resultaten van een Q-studie naar subjectieve sociale onveiligheid

Het is common knowledge dat feitelijke onveiligheid en onveiligheidsbeleving niet zonder meer hetzelfde zijn. In de beleving van onveiligheid spelen allerlei factoren een rol die verder gaan dan de concrete problemen van criminaliteit, overlast en antisociaal gedrag. Dat maakt het een lastig te duiden fenomeen, voor de wetenschap, maar ook voor de politiek. En dat terwijl onveiligheidsbeleving een grote rol speelt in het maatschappelijk debat. Politici zijn doodsbenauwd onvoldoende gehoor te geven aan de roep om veiligheid. Ook in overheidsbeleid is men meer gaan koersen op de maatschappelijke onveiligheidsbeleving (Van den Herrewegen 2011). Het valt echter te betwijfelen of men deze gemakkelijk kan beïnvloeden (Terpstra en van der Vijver 2005). De culturele dimensies van onveiligheid, zoals”angsten, wantrouwen, emoties, behoefte aan vertrouwen en bescherming” (Terpstra 2009, p. 123) verander je niet zo snel. Onveiligheidsbeleving lijkt met andere woorden een referentiepunt zonder vaste coördinaten, en dat maakt het koersen erop tot een hachelijke zaak. In het wetenschappelijk onderzoek zijn tal van factoren in kaart gebracht die een rol spelen in de beleving van onveiligheid, zoals eerdere slachtofferervaringen, omgevingsfactoren en persoonlijkheidstrekken (bijvoorbeeld Hale 1996). Er is echter kritiek op deze voornamelijk kwantitatieve onderzoekstraditie omdat zich deze “hult in conceptuele onduidelijkheid en uitblinkt in ad-hoc operationaliseringen” (Pleysier 2010, p. 33). Het multi-dimensionale karakter van onveiligheidsbeleving maakt operationalisatie tot een complexe aangelegenheid. Ondanks de grote wetenschappelijke aandacht,“surprisingly little can be said conclusively about the fear of crime”(Ditton en Farrall 2000, p. xxi). Men zou vooral repeterend in plaats van cumulatief te werk zijn gegaan, waardoor veel lacunes in de wetenschap zijn achtergebleven (Pleysier 2010).

Identifying dominant stakeholder perspectives on urban freight policies: A q-analysis on urban consolidation centres in The Netherlands

Cities’ sustainability strategies seem to aim at the reduction of the negative impacts of urban freight transport. In the past decades, many public and private initiatives have struggled to gain broad stakeholder support and thus remain viable. Researchers and practitioners have only recently recognised stakeholder acceptance of urban freight solutions as a challenge. A first step in achieving convergence is to understand stakeholder needs, preferences and viewpoints. This paper proposes and applies an approach to identify the main stakeholder perspectives in the domain of urban freight transport. We use Q-methodology, which originates from social sciences and psychology, to record subjective positions and identify the dominant ones. We explain the approach, operationalise the method for the domain of urban freight transport and apply it to stakeholder groups in the Netherlands. We find four dominant perspectives, reflecting how stakeholders normally take positions in the urban freight dialogue. Important findings concern disparities between industry associations and some of their membership, divergent views about the expected role of public administration, and the observation that the behaviour of shippers and Logistics Service Providers (LSP) appears to be inconsistent with their beliefs. All these factors together can act as a barrier to the implementation of urban freight consolidation concepts. The Q-methodology is valuable for eliciting perspectives in urban freight and is a promising tool to facilitate stakeholder dialogue and, eventually, convergence.