Slides from CESSDA Webinar on Data Discovery Data discovery is a crucial stage in the research process, especially in the social sciences and humanities as many valuable studies have originated from secondary data. Speakers from the Czech Social Science Data Archive (CSDA), Johana Chylíková and Martin Vávra, took participants on a tour through five core elements of the discovery process. These elements are 1) identification of the purpose of the specific data use intended, 2) finding an appropriate data resource, 3) setting up a search query, 4) selecting the data and finally 5) evaluation of the data quality. The guest speaker, sociologist Kristýna Bašná from the Institute of Sociology, Czech Academy of Sciences, presented her personal experience with discovering data in the context of her research on civic culture and democracy.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to answer following question: what is the relationship between member activism performed through civil society organizations (CSOs) and individualized freelance activism (in form of online activism, everyday making, political consumerism or checkbook activism) independent of organizational framework? Is it a relationship of mutual competition or support?
Design/methodology/approach Analysis is carried out on data from 2009 questionnaire-based survey on volunteering, representative for adult Czech population. The data set allowed the authors to relate member activism with freelance activism and in case of member activism distinguish the type of organization and the level of its professionalization.
Findings Dominant pattern the authors identified in data is mutual support of both types of volunteering documented by significant overlap of these forms of public engagement. The most striking is the overlap for active members of new advocacy NGOs and the weakest for traditional clubs. Regression analysis shows that on an individual level "mixed activism" (compared with "pure freelance activism") is linked with higher education and higher confidence in civic organizations.
Originality/value The civil practice of individualized freelance activism was described and analysed by various authors as an activity of specific types of activist, but there has not yet been any research giving reflection on such a large scale of freelance activism types as in the analysis. The authors set them together in contrast to the member (collective, organized) form of civic activism and also took into account the influence of professionalization and type of CSOs.
