Projects
Bridging Practice and Science: Skola and KNOW
In the course of 2010 and 2011 several initiatives emerged that aim to link educational practice and educational science. Skola, a broadly supported initiative in the Netherlands, has set the standard of having teachers seek advanced information and having them evaluate the relevance of the retrieved scientific research results. Pyrrhula, with its partner Query Informatisering from Voorhout, the Netherlands, studied this process (in the case of Skola the focus was on primary school teachers) and developed a standard set of questions. This standard set is also used in the follow-up project KNOW or 'KennisNetwerk Onderwijspraktijk en Wetenschap'('Knowledge Network Educational Practice and Science') which now involves primary school and secondary school teachers. Several online knowledge files ('dossiers') are specifically developed by experts (first of all on Dutch language and on calculus) and evaluated by both teachers and academic experts. It is hoped that the results contribute to online knowledge creation, sharing, and dissemination in education. Results are expected early 2012.
Social Activation Policy in the Netherlands
Exploring social activation strategies and activities in the Netherlands 2011 on behalf of IAB, Institute for Employment Research of the Federal Employment Agency, Nuremberg, Germany. Social activation focuses on building competencies of people disengaged from basic social, civic, and work involvement. The IAB is interested in learning from the Dutch examples. Several interviews with expert policy and decision makers across the Netherlands are planned. Simultaneously IAB does interviews on the same subject in Germany. Some joint interviews will be held in border regions in Netherlands and Germany. Late 2011, the Dutch [report] was published (see also at Publications).
Leraar24
Research consulting in 2010-2011 on behalf of the Open University's Ruud de Moor Center, Heerlen, Netherlands, the lead research partner in Leraar24, an online platform for and by teachers intended to support them in their professional development. The consulting and coaching is aimed at collecting evidence from the four partners in the project on the use, relevance, and effects of Leraar24. This follows a 2009-assignment of managing the work process on behalf of SBL, Utrecht, Netherlands, one of the other partner organizations in Leraar24, aimed at providing 75 hours of video and text content. The two other partners in Leraar24 are Kennisnet, Zoetermeer, Netherlands, and NTR (former Teleac), Hilversum, Netherlands. Look at the [website] of the Open University's Ruud de Moor Centre for the full series of research reports on Leraar24.
Youth Data
Managing a 2009 project focused at social science research data on youth for DANS, Data Archiving and Networked Services. DANS is an institute of KNAW, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and NWO, Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, The Hague, Netherlands. Youth is 'en vogue' among social scientists, policy makers and Dutch society at large. Yet, to date there is little systematic insight in the nature and quality of youth research and its underlying research data, nor is there a central repository of these data. This project explores the desirability to attain such insights and work towards central archiving and networked services in the field of youth research.
My Generation II
A 2006-Rerun of the reputed 1996-study My Generation on generational consciousness, life chances, and mutual stereotypes, now also including future perspectives and future choices. Generational consciousness in the Netherlands is strong, in 1996 and also ten years later in 2006. Majorities among each generation feel they belong to a generation. Between 1996 and 2006 it gains strength especially among older generations (born before 1955). The authors of this study also organized the first study 'Mijn Generatie' (My Generation) for which the data were gathered late 1996. The resulting book 'Mijn Generatie' is the first and only full sociological and empirical assessment of generational consciousness and the much talked about generational cleavages in the Netherlands. It was published in Spring 1998 (second edition 1999). Parts of the My Generation I and II project are sponsored by GPD, Geassocieerde Persdiensten (GPD, Associated Press), CentERdata, Intermediair magazine, SIG, Stichting Instituut GAK (in collaboration with USE, Utrecht School of Economics, Utrecht University, Netherlands).
CEGIPE
Investigating emerging forms of engagement in Japan and Asia and comparing the involvement of middle-aged generations with younger generations in the project CEGIPE, Civic Engagement and Globalism In the Post-modern Era: Japan and Asia. Early in 2006-2008 the project attracted academic and non-academic participants (including activists) who in seminar series across Japan focus on creating a better understanding of emerging forms of civic engagement in Japan in particular and Asia in general. Several of these participants contribute to the 2010 international book publication 'Civic Engagement in Contemporary Japan'.
VSM08
Developing in close collaboraton with Geert Hofstede, Gert Jan Hostede and Misho Minkov: The VSM08, The Values Survey Module 2008. Based on thorough re-analyses of several recent replication studies and the WVS, World Values Survey we developed an update of the famed VSM94, an concise instrument consisting of 20 survey questions, with which to replicate Hofstede's classic Five Culture Dimensions in multi-nation survey studies. Again, these dimensions and additional ones proposed by Minkov can be reproduced. For more info and downloads check the website of Geert Hofstede.
East Asian Values Surveys
Drawing comparative survey research lessons from East Asian values surveys especially on what values concepts, indicators, and research methodologies (not) to use in comparative values surveys that (also) cover East Asian nations.The project and the paper aim to contribute to social scientific work towards enhancing the cultural fit of comparative values surveys projects on a conceptual level. most contemporary cross-culturally comparative values surveys, also those surveying East Asian publics, still build on Western, universalist, individualist values conceptions only. This project was funded during most of the 2006-2007 period by ZUMA, Zentrum für Umfragen, Methoden und Analyse and ECCS, European Centre for Comparative Surveys, both in Mannheim. Several ZUMA Working Papers and lecture papers emerged from the project. See the publications page on this website
Cultural Diversity in Europe
Addressing dimensions of cultural diversity in Europe from several social science traditions and surveying its impact on opinions on the European Union, and. The analyses are part of an Annex to the State of the Union, a yearly statement of the Dutch national cabinet on their views and policies regarding the European Union. The Annex is titled Diverse Europe. European Outlook, volume 4 (see Publication page). The European Outlook was coordinated in 2006 by the Dutch Ministry of Foriegn Affairs, and commissioned to the SCP, Netherlands Institute for Social Research, and the CPB, Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis, all in The Hague, Netherlands. Part B on values is authored by Paul Dekker (SCP) and Henk Vinken (on behalf of Pyrrhula, Social Research Network)
WORKS, Changes in Work
Making a case for proliferating Dutch and German work organisation surveys to other nations of Europe in order to understand changes in work. On behalf of OSA, Institute for Labour Studies, Utrecht University, Netherlands, and the IAB, Institute for Employment Research of the Federal Employment Agency (BA) in Nuremberg, Germany, a report was written in 2006 on the key literature based on two longstanding organisation panel surveys, one in the Netherlands (the so-called OSA Labour Demand Panel) and the other in Germany (the IAB Betriebspanel. The project was sponsored by WORKS, a project organisation build with a grant from the European Commission Sixth Framework Programme. The core of the WORKS project, financed by the European Commission, is to improve our understanding of changes in work in the knowledge-based society, their driving forces and their implications for the use of knowledge and skills, for flexibility and for the quality of life. In particular, new forms of work organisations will be analysed taking account of global value chain restructurings and regional institutional contexts. A major instrument to monitor such changes in the domain of work is the systematic use of company panel surveys.