Publication Details |
| Category | Text Publication |
| Reference Category | Book chapters |
| DOI | 10.1002/9781405165518.wbeos1744 |
| Title (Primary) | Natural experiments |
| Title (Secondary) | The Blackwell encyclopedia of sociology |
| Author | Groß, M. |
| Publisher | Ritzer, G.; Rojek, C. |
| Year | 2021 |
| Department | SUSOZ |
| Language | englisch |
| Topic | T5 Future Landscapes |
| Keywords | experimental design; experimental methods; naturalistic inquiry; quantitative methods; real-world experiments; replicability analyses; social change and causal analysis |
| Abstract | In the mid-nineteenth century, the term “natural experimentation,” or “social experimentation,” was used to describe sociological observations of events that occur in the course of life as opposed to the manipulation of variables by researchers. In the twentieth century, the notion of natural experiments as well as field or quasi-experiments was used to denote a comparison of a treatment applied to a control group without defining beforehand how the treatment is assigned. The test subjects are divided into an experimental group and a control group based on natural events. Since the 1990s, natural experiments have been improved in various ways, as have studies using a random assignment of groups. What is common to these approaches is that they increasingly take the opportunity to do research in real-world settings that have previously been considered inappropriate for sociological investigation. In this way, experimentation in “natural” settings opens up new possibilities for research in and with society. |
| Persistent UFZ Identifier | https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=25025 |
| Groß, M. (2021): Natural experiments In: Ritzer, G., Rojek, C. (eds.) The Blackwell encyclopedia of sociology Wiley, Hoboken, NJ, 10.1002/9781405165518.wbeos1744 |
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