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Research

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The Warwick Q-Step Centre brings together scholars predominantly in the areas of politics, international relations and sociology to form one the leading quantitative social science teams in the UK.

We are committed to a long-term strategy to deliver the highest standard of quantitative research and teaching.

We are a forward-facing Centre with an international orientation and strong cross-disciplinary links within the outstanding Social Science faculty at Warwick, as well as the globally renowned mathematics, statistics, computing and related science departments.

Our goal, which is reflected in our collective research and teaching practice, is to position Warwick globally as one of the leading universities of the digital age by delivering not only traditional advanced quantitative methods training in survey methods, but also the most cutting-edge quantitative computational methods and techniques.

    Research Areas

    We have strengths in a broad range of cutting edge research interests, including:

    Democracy, Development and Change

    • Parties and Party Systems in Africa
    • Economic Development and Democratisation in sub-Saharan Africa
    • Co-optation and repression in authoritarian regimes
    • Peacekeeping operations, e.g. leadership, diversity and mission effectiveness
    • Democratic practices and protests
    • Democratic socialization through transnational linkages
    • Democratic governance in and through transgovernmental networks
    • Cities and urban change
    • Role of information/technologies in mass mobilization

      Social Stratification - Family, Gender and Disability

      • Life course research
      • Gendered careers in trade unions
      • Gender gap in educational attainment over time
      • Family size and educational outcomes
      • Time allocation
      • Working time circumstances and well-being
      • Partnership history and well-being
      • Autism Spectrum Disorder
      • Trajectories and transitions of disabled children
      • Intergenerational social mobility

          Method and Methodology

          Our mission is to train exceptional leaders and data analysts, who can critically engage with and take an active role in addressing the most pressing global problems. Collectively, we have a wide range of methodological expertise, which includes, among others, the following areas:

          • Philosophy of social science
          • Theatre-as-method
          • Qualitative methods
          • Mixed methods
          • Case Based Methods
          • Comparative Methods
          • Missing Data
          • Survival Analysis
          • Agent based simulation
          • Survey design, including cohort studies
          • Content analysis
          • Correspondence analysis