Irmtraud starts her own research
Our study of the arguments of Margareta of Austria and Karl V was published in a French political science journal. After this publication we expected that we would get a positive reaction on our application for a research grant for further research. Unfortunately, this did not happen. The Dutch Science Foundation rejected the proposal because we had not yet sufficient studies published. We had to accept this argument. On the other hand, we got a positive reaction on our request for a travel grant for Zvi Namenwirth whom we had met in Pisa. Although we did not get the research grant, I decided to continue with my research of decision making by politicians. Therefore I had to study different approaches of text analysis in order to get an overview about the methods used and to determine which procedure could be useful for my research of arguments of politicians concerning decisions they had to make.
The research group at the Free University
Willem suggested that I should work on the project in his office. The boss of the department accepted this. When Zvi Namenwirth came to the Netherlands he also joined us at the institute. A student, Jan Kleinneijenhuis, who later became professor in media research at the Free University of Amsterdam, also joined the research group. Then the real work began. Zvi Namenwirth introduced us to several approaches not only to computer assisted ones, but also to methods done by hand. He explained us a lot about context units were one could find the concepts under investigation. The research group wrote together several papers to introduce the different text analysis procedures in the Netherlands.
Willem suggested that I should work on the project in his office. The boss of the department accepted this. When Zvi Namenwirth came to the Netherlands he also joined us at the institute. A student, Jan Kleinneijenhuis, who later became professor in media research at the Free University of Amsterdam, also joined the research group. Then the real work began. Zvi Namenwirth introduced us to several approaches not only to computer assisted ones, but also to methods done by hand. He explained us a lot about context units were one could find the concepts under investigation. The research group wrote together several papers to introduce the different text analysis procedures in the Netherlands.
Zvi Namenwirth
Zvi, as we called him, was much older than us, but behaved often like he was our age or even younger. When I was sitting and studying these approaches for several hours he interrupted me and laughed: “ Its enough now! You are immersed in this stuff as if your life depends on it! Let´s go out for a coffee, the sun is shining!”
In general he enjoyed to surprise people with provocative talks. Sometimes we had some social gatherings at the institute such as a birthday. Especially when the head of the department, a strict protestant, joined us Zvi loved it to be provocative. For example he started once a discussion with the remark:” By the way let´s talk about masturbation!” Immediately somebody started another topic while the boss felt so uncomfortable that he left the gathering.
Sometimes Zvi almost collapsed at the institute because he had forgotten to take his diabetis injection. Then Willem quickly went with him to his apartment to fetch it. Thereafter we could continue with the work as if nothing had happened.
Zvi, as we called him, was much older than us, but behaved often like he was our age or even younger. When I was sitting and studying these approaches for several hours he interrupted me and laughed: “ Its enough now! You are immersed in this stuff as if your life depends on it! Let´s go out for a coffee, the sun is shining!”
In general he enjoyed to surprise people with provocative talks. Sometimes we had some social gatherings at the institute such as a birthday. Especially when the head of the department, a strict protestant, joined us Zvi loved it to be provocative. For example he started once a discussion with the remark:” By the way let´s talk about masturbation!” Immediately somebody started another topic while the boss felt so uncomfortable that he left the gathering.
Sometimes Zvi almost collapsed at the institute because he had forgotten to take his diabetis injection. Then Willem quickly went with him to his apartment to fetch it. Thereafter we could continue with the work as if nothing had happened.
His experience during WO II
Once Zvi told us about his war experiences as a Jew in the Netherlands. After the German invasion his father, a businessman, managed to get refuge with his family in a village of strict Protestants who resisted the occupation. As Zvi´s family looked like Dutch people they moved there around freely. Close to the end of the war they were biking in the fields when a German patrol stopped them and required their bikes. “My mother and my brother were scared to death to be discovered as Jews.”, he told us. “But my father, after handing them over the bikes said in cold blood in German: You forgot something! Did not you?” The soldiers looked quite embarrassed at him. “At least I would expect the salute of the Führer!” Immediately the soldiers lifted their right arm and shouted: “Heil Hitler!” After that the soldiers were very timid and did not ask for their ID cards. In this way they survived the war in the Netherlands.
This story suggests that Zvi was not so different from his father.
Once Zvi told us about his war experiences as a Jew in the Netherlands. After the German invasion his father, a businessman, managed to get refuge with his family in a village of strict Protestants who resisted the occupation. As Zvi´s family looked like Dutch people they moved there around freely. Close to the end of the war they were biking in the fields when a German patrol stopped them and required their bikes. “My mother and my brother were scared to death to be discovered as Jews.”, he told us. “But my father, after handing them over the bikes said in cold blood in German: You forgot something! Did not you?” The soldiers looked quite embarrassed at him. “At least I would expect the salute of the Führer!” Immediately the soldiers lifted their right arm and shouted: “Heil Hitler!” After that the soldiers were very timid and did not ask for their ID cards. In this way they survived the war in the Netherlands.
This story suggests that Zvi was not so different from his father.
My own research
The study of the different available text analysis methods was very interesting and we published several papers but there existed no methods that could be applied in the study of political decisions, the topic I wanted to investigate. So I had to develop my own approach.
When decision makers try to convince their colleagues about an action they have to mention at least two alternatives, for example: “to start a war” or “to do nothing”. Furthermore they have to present the consequences for each alternative and indicate eventually the likelihood of these consequences and their evaluations. For “doing nothing” the consequence could be that a certain negative situation would remain while with the other action there were chances to obtain a positive result. Such arguments can be presented in figures that are called "decision trees" as the one presented below. Finally, the decision maker has to indicate his choice and why he prefers this option. These were the concepts which had to be found in the texts.
The study of the different available text analysis methods was very interesting and we published several papers but there existed no methods that could be applied in the study of political decisions, the topic I wanted to investigate. So I had to develop my own approach.
When decision makers try to convince their colleagues about an action they have to mention at least two alternatives, for example: “to start a war” or “to do nothing”. Furthermore they have to present the consequences for each alternative and indicate eventually the likelihood of these consequences and their evaluations. For “doing nothing” the consequence could be that a certain negative situation would remain while with the other action there were chances to obtain a positive result. Such arguments can be presented in figures that are called "decision trees" as the one presented below. Finally, the decision maker has to indicate his choice and why he prefers this option. These were the concepts which had to be found in the texts.
This sounds rather simple and obvious but the argumentation of politicians includes often very elaborate arguments why they think that some consequence is very likely and why a result is not as bad as it is seen by others. In order to do this research, I had to develop a procedure which could detect the parts of the texts that belonged to the arguments for the decision and indicates which did not belong to the argument, but had another purpose. I wanted to develop such a procedure that different people studying the same text about a decision, would come to the same description of the arguments of the decision maker. This was my task for the next years, before I would start studying the decision arguments themselves.