"Lost in Translation? Social science measurement across English and Spanish Contexts"

A half-day Symposium, 22 March 2013, School of Law

Santander Research Collaboration Symposium, Centre for Criminological Research

 This event is free and open to all, but please register your interest by e-mailing l.k.burns@sheffield.ac.uk by the 12th March 2013

Details:

Comparative research has become increasingly important to generate impact in international policy-making environments. Yet developing reliable, consistent measures of social activities across linguistic contexts is a difficult challenge. It requires more than translation of survey questions, interview questions, etc from one language to another, because these questions are interpreted in differing cultural contexts. This symposium brings together specialists working across English and Spanish contexts to examine what works, what doesn’t and what’s promising.

Programme:

10am Welcome, introductions
Paul Knepper, University of Sheffield

10.15 ‘Surveying gangs and violence in Spain: Issues for cross-national research’
Juanjo Medina-Ariza, University of Manchester

10.45 ‘Interviewing Latinos about family issues in Tucson and London’
Veronica Cano, University of Sheffield

11.15 Break

11.30 ‘Gauging delinquency in Spain using the International Self Report
Delinquency (ISRD) survey’
Antonia Linde, Open University of Catalonia and Autonomous University of Barcelona

12.00 ‘Interpreting results of statistical analyses of surveys with Spanish
speaking respondents’
Alvaro Martinez-Perez, University of Sheffield

12 .30 Lunch