Methods Workshops
On the third day of the Winter School (11 Oct 2024) participants can choose between one of the following workshops offered by Dr. Ryah Thomas and Dr. Bruno Witzel de Souza.
Good data: Methodologies for linking a diverse population across historical microdata
Dr. Ryah Thomas, WU Wien
This day-long workshop will explore new methods by which conventionally excluded demographics (e.g. women, diverse ethnic, racial and linguistic minorities, etc.) can be included when tracing individuals through different historical records using semi- and fully-automated methods. Three modules build (1) a shared vocabulary, (2) hands-on experience, and (3) insight into current challenges and opportunities in future, emphasising the gains of collaboration between specialists in history, social science, and economics. It will be of interest to researchers who want to design longitudinal experiments which embrace heterogeneity on topics of labour dynamics, human capital formation, and socioeconomic inequality.
After building a shared vocabulary, in the first part of the workshop we will discuss how to test initial databases for bias and design a linking approach which suits the historical context and minimises the impact of irregularities, inconsistencies, and divergences over time and between sources. Together we will evaluate a few typical sets of inclusion/exclusion criteria drawn from the literature which deploy linked cohorts as evidence, and consider the cohorts’ attrition and relevant inclusion rates. In the second part of the workshop, participants will work in interdisciplinary teams to test several (simplified) standard and innovative linking techniques on sample microdata provided by the facilitator. Each team will evaluate their results using metrics of their choice, drawn from the previous module or their own experiences. In the final module, we will explore pushing past the boundaries of conventional microdata, and tackle a selection of current questions, challenges, and concerns raised by participants. We will draw on our shared vocabulary and experience to suggest fruitful paths forward.
The workshop draws on the facilitator’s expertise in linking women and people with ordinary names through 19th century English census microdata to study the impact of gender, class, and immigration on social mobility. Its aim is to demystify automatic linking procedures by providing junior researchers with common vocabulary and experience, and equip them to assess and improve the historical validity of evidentiary cohorts.
Saving and digitizing endangered archives
Dr. Bruno Witzel de Souza, Univ. Göttingen
This workshop will introduce participants to the field of Digital Humanities (DH) and discuss some of its applications to Economic History. After briefly defining the history, scope and methods of Digital Humanities, the workshop will present some recent usages of digital methods for collecting, harmonizing, and analyzing data that are relevant for economic historians. In particular, the workshop will present an array of methods that are specific to the field of DH and that economic historians might find fruitful for research and teaching purposes. These include a non-technical presentation of metadata creation, use of controlled vocabularies, digital curation, augmented editions and annotations, and thick mapping. These methods will be illustrated with actual research currently being conducted in the field, with the presentation of some collections curated with DH methods, and information on useful tools and softwares to get engaged with them – however, given the scope and length of the workshop, please notice that we will not cover technical components related to these methods, such as programming. The workshop will conclude with a discussion of the relationship between academic research, the preservation of endangered archives, and how DH and Economic History might cooperate to bring together scientific inquiry and the ethical preservation of the memory of marginalized historical actors, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (although the issue of endangerment is also very much prevalent in high-income countries). These themes will be illustrated with the instructor’s ongoing research and DH projects to collect new (and currently unknown) microdata on labor in Brazilian historical plantations, which have shed new light onto issues related to gender, immigration, and ethnolinguistic relations.