Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Differential Influence of Three Types of Elites

Suny At Albany, Albany NY

Investigators

Abstract

This project examines and compares the effects of influence exerted by three different categories of elites on an important security-related area of deliberation. The project will investigate the proposition that the usual assumption of the preeminence of the economic elite is not valid in this area. Data will come from a variety of compiled journals, magazines, and official texts from 1990 to 2019. These will be analyzed using computer-assisted content analysis and narrative analysis. Findings are likely to be relevant for other areas of deliberation as well and will be informative for those concerned with security decision-making. The data come from a representative corpus of texts compiled from official reports, journals and magazines, and different kinds of official records. The corpus covers the three categories of elites and their discourse in this area, with approximately one million words for each one. The dates covered are from 1990 to 2019. Data analysis will integrate multiple computer-assisted content analysis and qualitative narrative analysis techniques. Structural Topic Model and Concept Mover’s Distance will be used to compare and contrast the focus of each category of elite. Qualitative narrative analysis, Concept Mover’s Distance, and Text Network Analysis will be used on two different issues to investigates how different elites have shaped narratives. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.