Measuring attitudes and values in Europe: the contribution of the European Social Survey, Brussels,...

Measuring attitudes and values in Europe: the contribution of the European Social Survey, Brussels, 25-26 November 2003

Context, events and attitudes

Ineke Stoopand

Jurjen Iedema


European Social Survey

• Cross-national• Longitudinal• Changing values and opinions in a changing

Europe

• Collect information on national socio-demographic and socio-economic characteristics of countries

• Collect information on national systems– Electoral, education, health care, social security

• Collect information on events– Influence fieldwork (extreme weather, privacy scandals,

war)– Influence opinions


Contextual data

• Subset of socio-demographics at NSD

• List of websites with contextual data


Contextual information

country profiles and reports• EUROSTAT

– New Cronos not freely available

• ILO– Labour

• OECD– Education, employment, health

• IMF– World Economic Outlook Database

• UNESCO– Education, culture

• UNECE– Statistical Yearbook of the Economic Commission for

Europe 2003

• WHO– Health


Contextual information

systems and observatories

• EURYBASE: education systems• MISSOC and MISSCEEC: social protection• Comparative Study of Electoral Systems• Cultural policies in Europe• European Observatory on the social

situation, demography and family• European Observatory on health care

systems• European industrial relations observatory


Contextual data

Existing websites– Coverage (countries)– Coverage (religion, immigration policies?)– Accessibility (costs, ease of use)– Updates, permanence– Reliability


Event data

• To be used by (future) substantive researchers as background for survey outcomes

• No fishing expedition– recorded before survey data available– what was considered important at the time

• Complete European picture and correct for country-specific reporting styles– get back and collect information in every

country that at least some countries considered important in reporting events (Iraq?)


Collect events

• International press agencies?– National impact

• National press agencies?– Language/impact

• National ESS coordinators – Major events– Headlines several days– Related to ESS questionnaire– Guidelines for reporting, to minimize individual

differences


Event reporting

During fieldwork monthly reports on

Major national events that attract wide and long-lasting attention nationally and even in other countries

Major national events that make front page news for several subsequent days and give rise to widespread public discussion and/or to a substantive increase in media use

Elections, major issues under discussion, possible changes in the political landscape.


Guidelines: format

• Name, keywords• Short description• Assessment of scope, impact (how much attention did it get

in the press, how many persons are involved)• Names of relevant newspapers, dates of front page news,

headlines• If possible, when did it start and when did it end? • Additional information (how could this affect the fieldwork?) • Assign the event to one or more categories

International conflicts/Elections, plebiscite/Resignation, appointment, dismissal of politically significant person/Fall of cabinet, organization, reshuffle of new govern-ment/Organization of opposition party/ Significant change of laws/Strikes, demon-strations, riots/Events involving ethnic minorities, asylum seekers/Events concerning the national economy, labour market/Political, financial, economic scandal/National events (royal weddings, sports championships)/ Disasters (crashing financial markets, explosions, outbreaks foot and mouth/mad cow disease, extreme weather conditions)


National reports

• On the internet as soon as monthly reports came in– Growing data base– Inventory information– Reward quick reporters

• Individual differences in reporting style• Most reported events are unpleasant

– When it bleeds, it leads– Exception: Denmark wins European championship

in women’s handball


Norway second: “The bitter taste of

silver”



Issues in collecting• Monthly reporting: ‘long’ events, recurrent events• What is an event: Iraq crisis?

– Sub-events– National ‘Iraq’-events

• German elections• Stepping down Labour cabinet members in UK• Aznar, Bush, Blair meeting• Dutch government formation• Polish batallion• Protests and rallies

• Multiple categories• What if events happen in between fieldwork

periods?• Quality newspapers or gutter press (cross-national

differences)


Analysing events

• Keywords provided by reporters• Categories

– According to guidelines• Disaster

– Assign afterwards• Flooding in central Europe• Prestige oil spill in Gallicia

• Word count


Word count October 2002D H IS Fl Nl Pl AU DK ES P SL UK IT NO CH FI CZ SW

government 11 8 5 14 7 8 4 2 6 5 5 4 3 1 2 85election 6 11 1 2 3 9 8 1 4 5 3 9 62iraq 13 9 8 2 3 2 1 38strike 3 12 1 2 6 2 26labour 4 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 3 1 3 1 24economy 3 2 1 5 2 3 2 2 1 2 23scandal 2 5 6 2 5 20chechnya 1 2 3 5 5 16immigration-minorities 6 3 2 1 1 13enlargement&eu-accession 3 2 5 2 12resignation 2 1 1 2 4 1 11disaster 2 1 1 1 2 2 9bali 1 1 1 2 2 7health 3 1 3 7change of laws 3 1 1 5demonstration 1 1 3 5batasuna 4 4haider 3 3pension 1 2 3crime 1 1total 44 33 33 31 28 28 22 21 19 18 17 17 15 14 12 11 9 2 374


Events October 2002

• Unpleasant economic events in Scandinavia, Netherlands, Flanders, Germany

• Strikes and demonstrations in Israel, Italy and Switzerland

• Enlargement and accession issue in accession countries, Austria and Denmark– Flash Eurobarometer: EU presidency leads to increased

interest in EU issues


Attitudes and events• Did attitudes change over time?

– Different fieldwork period participants– Differences early and late respondents (hard to reach,

reluctant to participate)

• Is there a direct relationship between events and answers to the questionnaire?– ESS-questions fairly general

• Should be studied by substantive social researchers


Attention politics/share media use

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

50%

55%

60%

65%

sep 2 oct 2 nov 2 nov/dec 1 dec/jan 1 jan 5 feb 4 mar 4Switzerland Czech Republic Spain Finland United Kingdom Greece Hungary

Ireland Israel Netherlands Poland Sweden Slovenia


Attention politics/share media use

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

50%

55%

60%

65%

sep 2 oct 2 nov 2 nov/dec 1 dec/jan 1 jan 5 feb 4 mar 4Switzerland Czech Republic Spain Finland United Kingdom Greece Hungary



Slovenia

Sweden

Poland

Norway

Netherlands

IsraelIreland

HungaryGreece

United Kingdom

Finland

Spain

Czech Republic

Switzerland

3

4

5

6

7

3,5 4 4,5 5 5,5 6

Trust in the European Parliament

Tru

st

in c

ou

ntr

y's

pa

rlia

me

nt

Trust parliament and EP


Slovenia

Sweden

Poland

Norway

Netherlands

IsraelIreland

HungaryGreece

United Kingdom

Finland

Spain

Czech Republic

Switzerland

3

4

5

6

7

3,5 4 4,5 5 5,5 6


Tru

st

in c

ou

ntr

y's

pa

rlia

me

nt

Trust parliament and EP


SwitzerlandCzech Republic

Spain

Finland

United Kingdom

Greece

Hungary

Ireland

Israel

Netherlands

Norway

Poland

Sweden

Slovenia

3

4

5

6

7

3,5 4 4,5 5 5,5 6


Trus

t in

the

Uni

ted

Nat

ions

Trust UN and EP


SwitzerlandCzech Republic

Spain

Finland

United Kingdom

Greece

Hungary

Ireland

Israel

Netherlands

Norway

Poland

Sweden

Slovenia

3

4

5

6

7

3,5 4 4,5 5 5,5 6


Trus

t in

the

Uni

ted

Nat

ions

Trust UN and EP


Trust national governmentSeptember 2002 – March 2003

3

4

5

6

7

sep 2 sep 4 oct 2 oct 4 nov 2 nov 4 nov/dec 1 dec 3 dec/jan 1 jan 3 jan 5 feb 2 feb 4 mar 2 mar 4Switzerland Czech Republic Spain Finland United Kingdom Greece Hungary



Trust politicians September 2002 – March 2003

2

3

4

5

6




Trust EU governmentSeptember 2002 – March 2003

3

4

5

6



Hungary

Ireland

UK

Greece

Israel


Trust UN September 2002 – March 2003

3

4

5

6

7



Israel

Greece


Trust in parliament (Spain)

19 feb

12 feb

5 feb

29 jan

15 jan

1 jan

25 dec

18 dec

11 dec

4 dec

27 nov

20 nov

10,0

8,0

6,0

4,0

2,0

0,0

left

neutral

right

November-December

Oil spill in Gallicia: flaming political row

December-January

Opposition against Aznar’s position in Iraq conflict


Attitude immigrationSeptember 2002 – March 2003

-1

-0,75

-0,5

-0,25

0

0,25

0,5

0,75

1

sep 2

Switzerland Czech Republic Spain Finland United Kingdom Greece Hungary


Greece

Sweden


Events and attitudes

• Guardian: 11/11/2003– Anti-discrimination bill in Greece prompted by rash of

confrontations with growing immigrant population– Law presented on same day that ESS results were

published on xenophobia

Events

Law changes

Immigrant incidents

Attitudes

measured

in the ESS

Events (Immigrant incidents) and ESS-attitudes

Law

changes


Events and attitudes

• No clearcut relationship– Different trends in different countries

over time

• Because– ESS measures general attitudes rather

than volatile opinions?– Complicated relationship between

sample composition over time and attitudes?

– Time too short?


Event database• Even without a direct relationship

with attitudes and despite the individual differences, the event database gives a fascinating overview of what occupied Europe and the participating countries during the ESS fieldwork

• Update during next round (fine-tuning)


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