René Bautista Sheds Light on How the GSS Measures Societal Change
This is the latest in our EquityCorps video series, featuring NORC experts who are advancing equity through social science research.
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July 2024
René Bautista discusses the importance of measuring societal change, ensuring inclusivity in research, and democratizing data access—and reflects on how his immigrant experience informs his work.
René Bautista, associate director at NORC's Methodology & Quantitative Social Sciences department and co-principal investigator of the General Social Survey (GSS), recently joined NORC senior research scientist Michelle Johns for the latest video in our EquityCorps series.
In this interview, Bautista discusses equity in research, his personal experiences as an immigrant, and the challenges of measuring societal change. He also shares insights on inclusivity in the GSS, recent changes in race and ethnicity measurements, and the importance of data democratization in social science research.
Key Topics
- Bautista’s experience as an immigrant, and how this shaped his understanding of societal inequities and his approach to professional work.
- The GSS’s aim to measure societal change while maintaining consistent measures and the new challenges faced during the pandemic.
- How the GSS focuses on understanding variance in society, seeking to identify and address gaps in the study while balancing measurement consistency and adaptation.
- Challenges in race and ethnicity measurements due to recent changes in government guidance.
- Bautista’s support for minimizing measurement error and providing better opportunities for self-expression in demographic categorization.
- The GSS’s approach to inclusivity through public content solicitation and diverse representation.
- How data democratization efforts in the GSS aim to close gaps between those with more resources and those with fewer, making findings accessible to the general public.
- The GSS approach to inclusivity, which involves soliciting content from the public and striving to represent diverse voices and perspectives in social science research.
