Understanding Sociological Decisions & Issues through OR Lense: Boolean Logical Analysis of ‘Participatory Surveys for Public Deliberation on Sin-Gori Nuclear Reactors No. 5 & 6’

This study aims to demonstrate the practicality of OR/MS methodologies in sociological research. For illustration, we analyze a set of consensus data from the ‘Participatory Surveys for Public Deliberation on Sin-Gori Nuclear Reactors No. 5 & 6’ in South Korea by a combinatorial optimization based data classification methodology. In this study, we discover a small set of simple-to-interpet Boolean classification patterns that provide a clear understanding of the combined effects of various elements influencing a majority of the participants’ individual decision/recommendation between ‘resume’ and ‘halt’ of the construction of the aforementioned nuclear reactors. We also demonstrate how clearly deflined interpretable patterns can help in identifying critical issues on sociological and political matters and help in their resolution. In summary, we identify one critical issue that can be associated with all participants’ final decisions.<br/> We hope this study illustrates many roles OR/MS (particularly, optimization) based data analysis can potentially play in advancing social science research and resolving sociological problems and issues.