Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Event data were originally developed in the 1960s to code interstate actors, although even the early system such as WEIS and COPDAB included a small number of non-state actors such as the UN, IRA, and PLO. With the decline of interstate conflict and the increase in the importance of a variety of non-state and sub-state actors in global behavior, there is increasing interest in applying event data coding methods to the analysis of the activities of these actors. Because almost all contemporary conflicts transcend the traditional focus on state actors, featuring instead significant involvement of both sub-state and non-state actors, the state-centered coding schemes used in older data sets such as WEIS and COPDAB have proven inadequate for coding current events. In their place, we have established a systematic method of hierarchically creating codes that allow for the identification of states, sub-state actors, ethnic groups, geographical regions, IGOs and NGOs. This system has proven sufficient to code a wide range of relevant actors involved in inter- and intra-state protracted conflicts in Africa, the Balkans, Central Asia and the Middle East.

Supporting Publications:
Supporting Document

Publication Type: Proceeding
Abstract: Political science scholars from a range of subfields, including media effects, foreign policy analysis, campaigns (especially campaign rhetoric), political ideologies, political culture, and gender, find the analysis of text to be a useful method. Their interest has caused the number of published political science articles making reference to “content analysis” or “discourse analysis” to climb recently, with cites for this method increasingly particularly in the last ten years.1 Although several well-regarded books exist to instruct new analysts in the methods of content analysis (Krippendorff 2002, Neuendorf 2002, Weber 1990) and discourse analysis (Fairclough 2003, Schriffrin et al 2003), the range of practices visible in these publications demonstrates a great deal of vagueness in scholarly understanding of what practices constitute which method. A set of assumptions have come to operate in lieu of more formal boundaries: “discourse analysis” and “content analysis,” in the methodological literature, have come to represent opposite sides of the qualitative/quantitative divide. In making this distinction, “discourse analysis” becomes ‘the’ qualitative method, while “content analysis” denotes a purely quantitative approach to words, to the extent that content analysis is dismissed by some text analysts as a near-aphasic exercise in word-counting.
The problem with packing content analysis off to the “quantity” camp is that a critical element of content analysis is likely to go ignored. The perspective which views content analysis as a purely quantitative method fails to recognize the degree to which interpretation of texts underlies the development of a coding scheme – a fundamental process in the performance of the method. In order to know what to observe, the analyst must know her texts, identify and consider the universe of potentially relevant concepts, and develop or adopt an appropriate coding scheme. The development of a coding scheme, though sometimes theoretically informed, is always to some degree an emergent, or inductive, process which depends on the scholar’s familiarity with the text. Coding scheme development can thus be considered an analogue to the qualitative process of concept formation. However, though concept formation is critical to the outcome of all quantitative analyses, the process of coding scheme development is often even more in need of discussion, because it to date remains undertheorized.
After examining the way in which the qualitative aspects of content analysis have been inappropriately obscured in current discussions of the method, I will discuss issues in the development of coding schemes for content analysis. My discussion produces a number of propositions about the significance of researcher choices in coding schemes for study outcomes. Through reviewing a set of recent and influential articles which use content analysis as a primary methodology, I will examine the extent to which current content-analytic practices offer these propositions preliminary support. The significance of this researcher-driven, “qualitative” aspect of content analysis then becomes apparent in the number of ways it affects aspects of study outcomes.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: When two high-profile Web content designers proposed a code of conduct for bloggers in April 2007, the idea triggered a heated debate in cyberspace. Many bloggers immediately criticized the proposed code, charging that it contradicted the principles of free speech that make blogs ideal forums for open and intense discussions. Supporters of enforcing standards of behavior, however, argued rules are necessary in order for blogs to serve an equally important function—that of providing a virtual public sphere, or a ‘civil society’. This paper takes a theoretically grounded approach to examining precedents that both support and undermine calls for regulating blog content. Historically, the U.S. government has taken a hands-off approach to policing media content. In addition, Web users have taken advantage of the Internet’s open architecture to establish their own system of regulating one another. This paper proposes that site moderators establish clear guidelines for the rules of engagement on their individual blogs. This may mean barring profanity and physical threats—and deleting such comments when they appear. Bloggers who choose to author such comments, regardless of the policy, will have scant room to complain about the consequences. Another tenet of all blog policies should be inclusivity. Moderators should treat divergent viewpoints with equal respect. History demonstrates that civility triumphs when members of a blogging community feel included.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Cambodia has recently promulgated the Civil Code and the Code of Civil Procedure for the first time in 30 years. Drafting works of two Codes was made by Cambodian Ministry of Justice with the assistance from Japan amid circumstances under which various ministries were drafting laws related to specific issues without paying much attention on provisions of the draft Codes. As a result, Drafting team of the Codes had to spend a considerable amount of time in identifying potential inconsistency between the Codes and other laws, such as Land Law, Secured Transactions Law, Law on Financial Leasing, Law on Commercial Court etc. In this report, a number of examples will be provided to show how problems of inconsistency were settled (or not settled) and to find out a basic stance of Japanese legal assistance. At the same time, this report also try to characterize legal and judicial reform in Cambodia.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper is an ethnomethodologically-informed ethnographic analysis of product innovation management practices in a large, complex corporation. We explore the organizational dynamics resulting in the outcome that management repeatedly rediscovers the same innovation problems and lessons with unsatisfactory evidence of improvements. In spite of an awareness of the problems they want to address and repeated efforts over several decades to address these problems, the corporation has not been able to change the company’s culture around the management of new product innovation. Our preliminary results suggest that there is an unwritten “code of behavior” which unnecessarily limits the potential for success of cultural change efforts designed to promote new product innovation orientations. In this paper we will describe elements of this code of behavior, and show that they are deeply embedded in managerial work practices at various levels of the hierarchy. We will show that even when managers are aware of these counter-productive attitudes and beliefs, they still guide work practices in the corporation. The data site for this study is a large corporation with several divisions. Data include observations of meetings, interviews, and internal documents. In addition, the workplace practices involved in management’s role in new product innovation will be directly examined, using one division of the corporation as a case study. This paper is a preliminary draft of ongoing research prepared for consideration for presentation at the ASA’s 2004 Annual meeting.