Social Attitudes and Behaviour in a Continuous Global Perspective: The International Social Survey Programme 1 |
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| Coordinator 1 | Ms Regina Jutz (GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences ) |
| Coordinator 2 | Dr Evi Scholz (GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences ) |
| Coordinator 3 | Professor Tom W. Smith (NORC at the University of Chicago) |
| Coordinator 4 | Professor Christof Wolf (GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences ) |
In an increasingly linked and interdependent world, it is essential to learn about and to understand the attitudes and behaviour of the population around the globe. While many comparative surveys are exclusively one-shot and one-topic initiatives, continuous global social surveys are the exception. The International Social Survey Programme (ISSP), which currently has 44 member countries, is one of the few large programmes and has been conducting annual monothematic surveys on topics such as the environment, health, national identity, religion or social networks since 1985. Cooperation within the ISSP is based on the idea of democratic structures and equal partners whose specific cultural and scientific experiences contribute to the benefit of the programme. Based on the aims of transparency and user-friendliness, ISSP data and documentations, e.g. on the data collection process and questionnaire development, are free of charge for all interested researchers. The ISSP is therefore a valuable resource for various research areas that use the ISSP data in comparative perspective. The successful implementation of a complex survey programme requires high methodological standards as a pre-requisite for reliable and valid data.
This session aims to promote the discourse and exchange of ideas between researchers who are involved in the provision of ISSP data and those who use ISSP data in survey methodology or substantive research. Researchers who do not yet know the ISSP will also benefit from this session. The session focuses on comparative aspects, both using an across time and international perspective.
We encourage submissions that examine methodological aspects of the ISSP, such as sample design, mode of data collection and mode effects, or data quality. With relation to the ISSP and other large scale international survey programmes, we are also interested in contributions on questionnaire development, testing and piloting and translation issues. We further welcome contributions that apply ISSP data in comparative analyses, with an emphasis on the most recently published ISSP modules.