Doing Online Surveys: Zum Einsatz in der sozialwissenschaftlichen Raumforschung

Abstract

Empirical social research made use of online surveys since the mid-1990s. However, there is no significant methodological debate about this empirical tool in socio-scientific regional studies. In this paper, we delineate the online survey methodology, their advantages and disadvantages as well as potential contexts of application. Online surveys are useful especially for explorative and experimental quantitative research projects that deal with complex and new socio-spatial phenomena. Based on these observations, we will present practical experience with online survey research from three projects in the field of socio-scientific regional studies. We will focus on questionnaire design, sampling and technical solutions. The results show that particularly for studies on highly mobile social groups online surveys are an appropriate and powerful tool for data collection. Given that mobility and multilocality are more and more characterizing our societies and thus impact spatial structures, we argue that online surveys are underused as a method for the exploration of new trends and phenomena in socio-scientific regional studies. Based on these insights, we present a catalogue of questions that should allow interested regional scientists to evaluate the applicability of online surveys when conceptualizing new research projects.