Seminar series

Join our leading social scientists as they consider cutting-edge quantitative and qualitative methodologies, analyse the logic underpinning an array of approaches to empirical enquiry, and discuss the practicalities of carrying out research in a variety of different contexts

a poster advertising the seminar series with Dr Zsofia Boda

Next: Dr Zsófia Boda, 14 November 2025, 2.30pm to 3.30pm

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Upward network influence and social integration: Do student friendships stimulate interethnic parental ties?
The size and composition of a person’s social network is a critical component of their social capital. For immigrants, social ties with natives can be especially beneficial. Whereas social networks of immigrants and their children are typically segregated along ethnic lines, the degree of segregation varies across individual and community characteristics. Schools provide a unique opportunity for students to meet and befriend ethnically different peers. We propose that interethnic friendships between students may in turn lead to interethnic social ties between their parents. This way, social integration of immigrant students can contribute to the social integration and social capital of their parents, some of whom might otherwise not have access to non-immigrant networks.

This project applies multilevel stochastic actor-oriented models, developed for the analysis of social network panel data, to classroom networks of students and their parents in Germany. We analyse two types of networks: friendships between students (best friends in class) and keeping-in-touch networks between parents (parents who call each other or get together from time to time). We analyse the co-evolution of these two networks between two time points (age 14 and age 15 of the students). We find that parents are more likely to form and maintain social ties with other parents if their children are friends, and there is no significant difference between same-ethnic and interethnic ties in this regard. This way, students’ interethnic friendships can indeed create interethnic ties for their parents. However, we also find that students’ friendship networks are ethnically segregated in the first place, limiting how much they can contribute to diversifying the networks of their parents.

Next week: Professor Adel Daoud on Friday 21 November, 2.00pm to 3.00pm.

Be sure to register your interest here.

Planetary Causal Inference: combining computer vision and earth observation to analyse disparities in health and living conditions among neighbourhoods in Africa, 1990 to date.

Planetary Causal Inference explores how social science can benefit from Earth observation (EO) data to advance understanding of humans as a species and their impact on their environment, society, and economy. Traditional methods relying on tabular data, like surveys and national statistics, are costly and sometimes limited in scope, hindering planetary-scale analysis. EO data gathered via satellites offer a complementary approach that captures global, real-time information, enabling researchers to study phenomena like urbanization, inequality, poverty, conflict, and deforestation at fine spatial and temporal resolutions.

We introduce the emerging field of causally-oriented EO-based machine learning (ML), where spatial data derived from images are analysed using advanced ML models to create proxies for social science metrics and for use in causal inference pipelines. We discuss how these planetary causal inference methods can produce high-resolution insights about global social issues, providing new ways to assess a range of other phenomena.

By combining insights from geography, history, and multi-scale analysis, Planetary Causal Inference lays a foundation for researchers to address broad, integrated questions across multiple resolutions, such as household, neighbourhood, regional, and global scales.

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Our seminars take place in person during Autumn and Winter term and are free and open to all, LSE students and staffs and external participants. Light refreshements provided.

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Find recordings of some of our past seminars on YouTube.

Events archive

Autumn Term

Quantifying the effect of research policies governing scientific editors. Fengyuan 'Michael' Liu,Global PhD Fellow, Data Science and AI Lab, New York University, Abu Dhabi

The limits of explainability for reducing algorithmic discrimination. Dr Kate Vredenburgh, Assistant Professor, Department of Philsophy, Logic and Scientific Method, London School of Economics

The Tools of Racial Disenfranchisement: Lessons from 135,457 Individual Voter Records. Dr Daniel de Kadt - Assistant Professor, Department of Methodology, London School of Economics

Public Service Decline and Support for the Populist Right: Evidence from England's National Health Service. Dr Zachary Dickson - LSE Fellow, Department of Methodology, London School of Economics

Winter Term

Causal Representation Learning with Generative Artificial Intelligence: Application to Texts as Treatments. Professor Kosuke Imai - Professor of Government and of Statistics, Harvard University.

Security from Below: A Hermeneutic-Contextualist Methodology for Studying Marginalised Security Actors. Dr Bohdana Kurylo, LSE Fellow.

Mediating Transnational Mining Disputes in Liberal Democracies. The Ghanaian Case. Dr Isaac Haruna Ziaba, LSE Fellow.

Comparing the Performance of Machine Learning Ensembles for Multilevel Regression and Poststratification Models.Dr Lucas Leemann- Associate Professor of Comparative Politics, University of Zurich.

Just a Number?: Age Misstatement and the Old-Age Pension in Colonial Ireland. Dr J. Andy Harris, Associate Professor, Division of Social Science, New York University, Abu Dhabi.

Visions of Financial Order: National Institutions and the Development of Banking Regulation. Dr Kim Pernell, Assistant Professor of Sociology, College of Liberal Arts, University of Texas.

Autumn Term

Digi-queer Criminology and Addressing the Rise of Anti-LGBTQ+ Hate. Dr Justin Ellis - co-hosted with The Mannheim Centre, Department of Social Policy.

Are Campaign Promises Effective? Dr Michael Ganslmeier (Department of Methodology, London School of Economics).

Analysing Age, Period, and Cohort effects using Scenario Trajectory Analysis with applications to political interest and social trust.Professor Patrick Sturgis and Professor Jouni Kuha (Department of Methodology, London School of Economics).

What chance of change? Reflections from participatory research on poverty across recurrent crises by Ruth Patrick and Maddy Power. Professor Ruth Patrick (Social Policy, University of York).

Following the information footprint of firms. Dr Eddie Lee (Complexity Science Hub Vienna).Co-hosted with Data Science Institute, London School of Economics.

Why are things this way? Reflections on a coproduced artwork as research. Dr Eileen Alexander (Department of Methodology, London School of Economics).

Winter Term

Collecting public opinion in fragile and conflict states – the challenges and the rewards. Johnny Heald (CEO, ORB International).

Qualitative methods for studying social security benefits: methodological reflections on an ongoing project. Dr. Kate Summers (British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Methodology).

Race, Class, and What Else? Policies and Politics in Four American Cities. Professor Jennifer Hochschild (Professor of Government & Professor of African and African American Studies, Harvard University).

Polarization over the Priority of Political Problems. Professor Benjamin Lauderdale, Professor of Political Science, University College London.

Temporalities and timelines in the aftermath of Grenfell.Professor Flora Cornish, Professor in Research Methodology, Department of Methodology.

Spring Term

Climate Change Migration: Lessons from a Longitudinal Mixed Methods Study of Hurricane Katrina. Professor Mary Waters, Professor of Sociology, Harvard University.