City Research Online

Abstract

The Europeans’ Understandings and Evaluations of Democracy module was first fielded in the European Social Survey in 2012/13 before being selected as a repeat module for the 2020/21 round. This chapter discusses the fundamental elements behind the data collected for the analysis used in this book: namely the European Social Survey (ESS) and its questionnaire.

After a short introduction to the ESS, this chapter summarises the main design decisions which underpin both the original and repeat module. It then moves on to discuss the decision making around which items to repeat and which to discard from the earlier module. Finally, the chapter investigates at how the face-to-face ESS fieldwork was disrupted by the COVID19 pandemic, leading to delays with data collection continuing into 2022 rather than ending in 2021, as initially planned. In addition to the delays, some countries had to switch data collection from face-to-face (in person and web interviews) to self-completion mode (web and paper self-completion) to remove or reduce face-to face-contact during the pandemic. The potential impact of this change on analysis of this module will be discussed drawing on two parallel run experiments conducted in Finland and Great Britain. The chapter concludes that whilst ESS still provides robust comparative data, users should be aware of potential mode differences and the possible impact of disrupted fieldwork periods.

Publication Type:	Book Section
Publisher Keywords:	European Social Survey, democracy, mode switch, mixed mode, cross-national survey, face-to-face survey, self-completion survey
Subjects:	J Political Science J Political Science > JN Political institutions (Europe)
Departments:	School of Policy & Global Affairs
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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