ESRA 2027 sessions by theme

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Session Details

High-quality surveys have long supported evidence-informed policymaking, academic research and public debate. They also play a vital democratic role by representing whole populations, including people less visible in administrative, digital or commercial data. Yet surveys now sit within a crowded evidence landscape, where administrative data, digital traces, commercial data products, prediction markets, social media analytics and AI-generated insights are often presented as faster or cheaper alternatives.
If robust social surveys lose visibility, investment or influence, Europe risks weakening one of the few evidence sources designed to represent whole populations and provide transparent, comparable measures over time. At stake is the quality of democratic evidence: societies’ ability to understand themselves, hear from diverse publics, scrutinise competing claims, hold institutions to account, and make decisions grounded in trusted data.
This session will bring together leaders from research infrastructures, national statistical institutes, survey organisations and academia to explore survey data’s future role in Europe’s democratic data ecosystem. Rather than focusing on methods, it will address strategic and democratic questions:
• What democratic and public value do high-quality probability surveys provide?
• How can survey evidence complement and challenge emerging data sources in democratic decision-making?
• How should policymakers, journalists and the public assess competing evidence claims?
• Who will champion representative, high-quality social data as part of Europe’s democratic infrastructure?
Through short provocations, panel discussion and audience input, the session will identify shared challenges and collective actions to keep high-quality survey evidence legitimate, visible and valued within Europe’s democratic data ecosystem.