Here you can find all the links to replicate/reproduce my main author articles.
Abstract of the PostDoc project
Climate change is one of the most pressing topics of the 21st century. As the time to mitigate its possible impacts has passed, now it is important that individuals and societies start to adapt. This makes the study of individuals’ and societies’ drivers and constraints to climate change adaptation of paramount importance, but so far there is a lack of standardized information to analyze such topics worldwide. To fill this gap, we designed a pipeline to derive databases using peer-reviewed articles’ text. We use Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing to extract the articles’ findings. Then, we derived a database that, later, we used to perform descriptive and statistical analyses of climate change adaptation to floods and sea-level rise, as well as, to study farmers’ incremental and transformational adaption worldwide. We argue that the use of transparent methodologies to derive data from text is increasingly necessary as, in general, the amount of literature grows exponentially.
The main three outcomes
All info here: https://github.com/SofiaG1l/SC3_VIDI
- An algorithm to visually explore the factors associated with climate change adaptation: https://github.com/SofiaG1l/NLP4LitRev.
- A database of articles about individuals’ and societies’ factors associated with climate change adaptation: https://github.com/SofiaG1l/Database_CCA.
- Usage of the algorithm and the database to study two different climate change topics:
- (a) Adaptation to floods and sea-level rise: https://github.com/SofiaG1l/FloodSLR_CCA.
- (b) Farmers’ incremental and transformational adaptation to climate change: https://github.com/SofiaG1l/Farmers_CCA.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research NWO VIDI grant number 191015. This is the main project to which I was part of. For it, I worked together with the SC3 members: Prof. Tatiana Filatova (Principal Investigator) and the PhD candidates Thorid Wagenblast and Joos Akkerman.
Does Twitter Data Mirror the European North–South Family Ties Divide? A Comparative Analysis of Tweets About Family.
Abstract
Previous research on the relationship between geographical distance and the frequency of contact between family members has shown that the strength of family ties differs between Northern and Southern Europe. However, little is known about how family ties are reflected in peoples’ conversations on social media, despite research showing the relevance of social media data for understanding users’ daily expressions of emotions and thoughts based on their immediate experiences. This work investigates the question of whether Twitter use patterns in Europe mirror the North–South divide in the strength of family ties by analyzing potential differences in family-related tweets between users in Northern and Southern European countries. This study relies on a longitudinal database derived from Twitter collected between January 2012 and December 2016. We perform a comparative analysis of Southern and Northern European users’ tweets using Bayesian generalized multilevel models together with the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count software. We analyze the association between regional differences in the strength of family ties and patterns of tweeting about family. Results show that the North–South divide is reflected in the frequency of tweets that are about family, that refer to family in the past versus in the present tense, and that are about close versus extended family.
Reference
Gil-Clavel, Sofia, and Clara H. Mulder. “Does Twitter Data Mirror the European North–South Family Ties Divide? A Comparative Analysis of Tweets About Family.” Population Research and Policy Review 43, no. 4 (2024): 48. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11113-024-09891-6.
To reproduce
https://github.com/SofiaG1l/Twitter_Family_Ties
Abstract
In response to the increasingly complex and heterogeneous immigrant communities settling in Europe, European countries have adopted various civic integration measures. Measures aiming to facilitate language acquisition are considered crucial for integration and cooperation between immigrants and natives. Simultaneously, the rapid expansion of social media usage is believed to change the factors affecting immigrants’ language acquisition. However, only a few previous studies have analyzed whether this is the case. This article uses a novel longitudinal data source derived from Twitter to (1) analyze differences in the pace of immigrants’ language acquisition depending on the migration policies of destination countries and (2) study how the relative sizes of the migrant groups in destination countries, and the linguistic and geographical distances between origin and destination countries, are associated with language acquisition. Results show that immigrants who live in countries with strict language acquisition requirements for immigrants and conservative citizenship policies have the highest median times until language acquisition. Based on Twitter data, we also find that language acquisition is associated with classic explanatory variables, such as the size of the immigrant group in the destination country and the linguistic and geographical distance between origin and destination country similar to the previous studies.
Reference
Gil‐Clavel, Sofia, André Grow, and Maarten J. Bijlsma. “Migration Policies and Immigrants’ Language Acquisition in EU‐15: Evidence from Twitter.” Population and Development Review, June 27, 2023, padr.12574. https://doi.org/10.1111/padr.12574.
To reproduce
https://github.com/SofiaG1l/MigrationPolicies_ImmigrantsLanguageAcquisition_EU15
Abstract
Qualitative studies have found that the use of Information and Communication Technologies is related to an enhanced quality of life for older adults, as these technologies might act as a medium to access social capital regardless of geographical distance. In order to quantitatively study the association between older people’s characteristics and the likelihood of having a network of close friends offline and online, we use data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe and data from Facebook. Using a novel approach to analyze aggregated and anonymous Facebook data within a regression framework, we show that the associations between having close friends and age, sex, and being a parent are the same offline and online. Migrants who use internet are less likely to have close friends offline, but migrants who are Facebook users are more likely to have close friends online, suggesting that digital relationships may compensate for the potential lack of offline close friendships among older migrants.
Reference
Gil-Clavel, Sofia, Emilio Zagheni, and Valeria Bordone. “Close Social Networks Among Older Adults: The Online and Offline Perspectives.” Population Research and Policy Review, ahead of print, October 26, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11113-021-09682-3.
To reproduce
https://github.com/SofiaG1l/OlderAdultsCloseSocialNetworks
Abstract
We use data from the Facebook Advertisement Platform to study patterns of demographic disparities in usage of Facebook across countries. We address three main questions: (1) How does Facebook usage differ by age and by gender around the world? (2) How does the size of friendship networks vary by age and by gender? (3) What are the demographic characteristics of specific subgroups of Facebook users? We find that in countries in North America and northern Europe, patterns of Facebook usage differ little between older people and younger adults. In Asian countries, which have high levels of gender inequality, differences in Facebook adoption by gender disappear at older ages, possibly as a result of selectivity. We also observe that across countries, women tend to have larger networks of close friends than men, and that female users who are living away from their hometown are more likely to engage in Facebook use than their male counterparts, regardless of their region and age group. Our findings contextualize recent research on gender gaps in online usage, and offer new insights into some of the nuances of demographic differentials in the adoption and the use of digital technologies.
Reference
Gil-Clavel, Sofia, and Emilio Zagheni. “Demographic Differentials in Facebook Usage around the World.” Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media 13 (2019): 647–50. https://ojs.aaai.org/index.php/ICWSM/article/view/3263
To reproduce