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This talk is based on the attached paper. Click here to view.
The 2012 Annual Lecture will be presented by Stephen Raudenbush, who is the Lewis-Sebring Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Chicago and Chairman of the Committee on Education. Stephen's talk will focus on causal inference in the social world and the spillover effects of social interventions in criminology and education. Stephen is a leading scholar on quantitative methods for studying child and youth development within social setting such as classrooms, schools, and neighborhoods. He is best known for his work on developing hierarchical linear modes, with broad applications in the design and analysis of longitudinal and multilevel research. He has been the Scientific Director of the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, an ambitious study of how family, neighborhood and school settings shape the academic learning, social development, mental health and exposure to violence of children growing up in Chicago. He is currently studying the impact of residential and school mobility on student learning and developing new measures of school and classroom quality. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the recipient of the American Educational Research Association award for Distinguished contributions to educational research.
Heterogeneous Agents, Social Interactions and Causal Inference
This talk will focus on two pervasive features of social interventions designed to increase human health, skills, or productivity. First, the interventions are usually delivered by human agents – physicians, teachers, case workers, therapists, police officers, or workplace managers - who tend to be ‘heterogeneous’ in the sense that they differ broadly in their beliefs, training, and experience. These agents enact the intervention and shape its effects. Second, the participants in these interventions – such as patients, pupils, employees or offenders - are typically clustered in organizational settings, and social interactions among these participants influence the success of the intervention.
In this presentation, Stephen will argue that causal models conventionally used in medical research are not well suited to study these interventions. Instead, he proposes a model in which the heterogeneous agents and social interactions among participants shape participants’ response to an intervention. Stephen will illustrate this model with studies of community policing and high-school curricular reform.
Venue: The Merchant's Hall, 22 Hanover Street, Edinburgh, EH2 2EP
The lecture will commence at 4pm, followed by a drinks reception.
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