DATA COLLECTION & SOURCING
What To Do When You Can’t Pick The Data
BACKGROUND: We All Count asked you, our project members, for your experiences - both positive and negative - with situations where you can't pick the data that you're asked to work with. We heard about difficulties with poorly designed collection questions;...
No One Is an Asterisk
“We are a small population of people because of genocide. No other reason. If you eliminate us in the data, we don’t exist. We don’t exist for the allocation of resources”. - Abigail Echo-Hawk, Pawnee, Director of the Urban Indian Health Institute and Chief Research...
Yes! You CAN Average Averages
So, you’ve heard that you should never average averages. The person who told you this “rule” was probably well-intentioned; someone who didn’t want you to make a mistake by taking an average of averages without understanding the implications of doing so....
Choose Maps for Equity
A map isn’t just a map. The work of alternate cartographer Denis Wood often reminds me that maps are equal parts poetry and science. They can also be some of the most insidious and powerful tools of cultural oppression. Maps are a very special kind of data...
Proxy Variables Part 2: Race
This is part 2 of our examination of Proxy Variables, take a look at our introduction to the subject here. So, is race a proxy variable? Should we use race as a proxy variable? In depends. Sometimes. In working we equity in quantitative...
Introduction to Proxy Variables
Proxy variables are stand-ins for data hidden underneath. If we don’t know what they represent we can make dangerous equity mistakes.
In Conversation with Catherine Harnois
I have a chance to talk with Catherine E. Harnois about her ground-breaking book: “Feminist Measures in Survey Research”. She shared what she’s been thinking since writing the book and some tips and tools to help embed equity in survey-based data products.
Keeping Data Inclusivity Without Diluting your Results
Let’s say you are surveying 100 people out of 10,000. You want to analyse the data from your sample of 100 to get answers about the likely behaviours and preferences of the overall 10,000 person population. Part of your project focuses on equity among sexual...
Why Big Data Needs Small Data
We now have unparalleled access to enormous amounts of data, automatically generated and gathered, which represent sample sizes that are nearly impossible to replicate with traditional survey methods. People excitedly tell us that many major equity issues,...
Representation and Visibility in Quantitative Surveys
What is the role of quantitative surveys in shedding light on different lived realities? Which choices made during the design of an impact evaluation affect who is represented and listened to? Data collections can make structural inequalities invisible and...