Crossing the qualitative- quantitative divide II : Inventive approaches to big data, mobile methods, and rhythmanalysis

It has been proposed that changes in global climate have been responsible for episodes of widespread violence and even the collapse of civilizations. Yet previous studies have not shown that violence can be attributed to the global climate, only that random weather events might be correlated with conflict in some cases. Here we directly associate planetary-scale climate changes with global patterns of civil conflict by examining the dominant interannual mode of the modern climate, the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Historians have argued that ENSO may have driven global patterns of civil conflict in the distant past, a hypothesis that we extend to the modern era and test quantitatively. Using data from 1950 to 2004, we show that the probability of new civil conflicts arising throughout the tropics doubles during El Niño years relative to La Niña years. This result, which indicates that ENSO may have had a role in 21% of all civil conflicts since 1950, is the first demonstration that the stability of modern societies relates strongly to the global climate.

This paper aims to serve as a four-part introductory primer on the "go-along" qualitative interview methodology for studying the health issues of neighborhood or local-area contexts. First, I describe the purpose and different types of implementation of go-alongs. Second, I discuss its advantages for studying how place may matter for health (particularly in terms of the participants) and how it may facilitate researchers' understandings of local knowledge as well as the social and physical context. Third, I consider the method's strengths and limitations for population health research on neighborhoods and local areas. Fourth and finally, I discuss how go-alongs may be used in tandem with other qualitative and quantitative approaches for multi-method research. Informing this discussion are my own experiences with a particular type of go-along interview-"walk-along" interviews-during a study of social capital in Milwaukee, Wisconsin neighborhoods.