EURODATA Newsletter No

ISSN 0947-9260

EURODATA Newsletter No. 1 Spring 1995 EURODATA Research Archive of the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research

Here it is: EURODATA Newsletter Feature This newsletter, the first issue of which is presented here, is intended Household and Family to contribute to facilitate data-based comparative research on Euro- Trends in Europe...... 3 pean societies and polities. It is published and circulated twice a year, free of charge. The EURODATA Newsletter is a product of the EURODATA Research Data Infrastructure Archive (more on page 2) of the Mannheim Centre for European Social Comparative Research Research (more on pages 13-15). It has three major objectives: on Europe ...... 10 · to disseminate information on the research activities of the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research, with particular emphasis on data- generating cross-national research the archive is involved in; Research Institutes · to provide information on European data infrastructures and important Mannheim Centre for developments; European Social Re- · to provide a forum for the exchange of information on ongoing comparative social research on European societies and on European inte- search (MZES) ...... 13 gration. Our newsletter has been very much inspired by the European Political Data Research Groups & Projects Newsletter, published from 1971 to 1988 jointly by the European Consor- tium for Political Research and the Norwegian Social Science Data Serv- Urban Research ...... 16 ices. The EURODATA Newsletter cannot fill this gap: resources and networks are too limited. We think, however, that we nevertheless can make a Social Indicators...... 17 useful contribution to the systematic and cumulative improvement of information on various aspects of the European data and research infra- Computer structure. The newsletter is intended to be an open forum: contributions from other research institutes and individual researchers are always wel- Gopher and World come. Wide Web...... 18 The EURODATA Newsletter will, as a rule, be divided into seven sections: Feature reports substantive findings from on-going cross-national research. Data Infrastructure reports on data institutions such as data ar- Special chives, governmental and non-governmental organisations, and covers Norway and the Euro- historical developments and current modes of access to data. Research Institutes presents profiles of research institutions with a cross-national pean Union ...... 21 orientation. Research Groups and Projects informs on co-operations and networks in comparative social research on Europe. Computer deals with specific aspects of electronic information processing and the use of elec- Country Profile tronic networks in comparative research. Country Profile provides background information on individual countries. Noticeboard provides general Ireland...... 24 news including information about new statistics, recent books and studies, conference reports and announcements. Noticeboard New studies and statistics...... 26 Conferences ...... 27 Editorial EURODATA Newsletter No.1

We hope that many people will take this newsletter as what it is meant to be: a helpful tool and a contribution to infrastructure in comparative European social research.

The editors: Franz Kraus, Michael Quick, Franz Rothenbacher Peter Flora Notes on the history of the EURODATA Research Archive In 1989, when the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research was created, the „European Data Archive“, as it then was called, became part of the new research institute. At that time it was able to look back to a „pre-history“ of one and a half decades in which its basic objectives were already defined. Therefore these few notes. The history began with the HIWED project (Historical Indicators of the West European Democracies) which had the main goal of producing a historical data handbook on Western Europe for the period 1815-1975. The project was started in 1973 by Wolfgang Zapf and myself in Mannheim and moved with me to Cologne in 1977. Officially, it ended in 1979, but it took some more years to complete and publish the two volumes of the historical data handbook (State, Economy, and Society in Western Europe 1815-1975. Frankfurt; vol. I, 1983; vol. II, 1987). The Stiftung Volkswagenwerk, which had already supported the HIWED project, was generous enough to also finance a follow-up project: WEDA (West European Data Archive) from 1979 to 1981. With this project we wanted to prepare the ground for a permanent data archive with a statistical library and machine-readable data sets on Europe. To some extent, this was realised in 1982, again at the University of Mannheim. However, our attempts to institutionalise the archive within the frame of GESIS (Gesellschaft Sozialwissenschaftlicher Infrastruktureinrich- tungen), the central infrastructure for the social sciences in Germany, were less successful. Probably for two reasons: We wanted to link the archive more closely to research than pure service institutions usually can do, and „research on Europe“ was at that time not yet well discovered in Germany. The creation of the Mannheim Centre thus offered ideal opportunities to pursue the original intentions on a much broader basis and with a long-term perspective. Under these conditions, we were also ready to follow the strong suggestion from established national data archives to change the name from „European Data Archive“ into „EURODATA Research Archive“. Whereas names and organisational forms changed over the years, the basic objectives remained the same. They were shaped by the ideas of Stein Rokkan who contributed to the development of comparative research and its infrastructure more than anybody else. These ideas are simple: in order to understand our world of today, we have to study its long-term development; for this, studying the history of Europe and her nations is crucial; its analysis must take up questions and concepts of classical sociology, but at the same time utilise the modern possible ties and methods of data collection and data analysis; and this in turn requires a division of labour, international co- operation, and an infrastructure for comparative research. EURODATA wants to make a modest contribution to this latter task. Although it normally cannot offer specific services to outside individuals or institutions, it will provide some general services to the scientific community interested in research on Europe: · its statistical library and documentation centre are open to the scientific public; · its machine-readable data files are being made available by the Zentralarchiv für Empirische Sozialforschung (ZA) in Cologne and the Norwegian Social Science Data Services (NSD) in Bergen; · it publishes, in co-operation with the IZ (Informationszentrum Sozialwissenschaften, Bonn), a series of guidebooks for the social sciences, „Europe in Comparison“, started in 1994 (see page 26); · it will soon begin to publish a series of historical data handbooks on Europe. Last not least, it wants to facilitate communication on data-based comparative research on Europe by the EURO- DATA NEWSLETTER.

Institutions and libraries which want to subscribe to EURODATA Newsletter please write to: University of Mannheim, MZES-Eurodata, D-68131 Mannheim. Fax: +49 - 621 - 292 8435 It’s free of charge. Due to limited resources we can not mail the newsletter to individuals. They are referred to the electronic version available in Internet (World Wide Web): http://www.sowi.uni-mannheim.de/eurodata/newsletter.html

2 EURODATA Newsletter No.1 Feature: Households and Families

Franz Rothenbacher velopment of households with three and more generations. But this way Household and Family Trends in Europe: from Conver- of presenting data according to gence to Divergence generations is only possible for few countries. In the western industri- The International Year of the Family 1994 together with the World alised countries such as Germany, Population Conference have drawn greater attention to the changing the United States and Canada the family. On the level of the European Union interest in the family was shares of households with three and intensified, as the first steps taken towards the creation of a European more generations are meanwhile household and family statistics and the strengthening of the European (1990) below 3 percentage points. Observatory on National Family Policies (EONFP) show. In addition, As late as 1957 the share in West other international organisations, such as the Council of Europe or the Germany was three times higher United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), have intensi- (9%). With 16%, Albania on the fied their activities in the field of population and family research. In other hand shows a still predomi- this context the question may be posed how household and family struc- nantly preindustrial pattern of the tures in Europe evolve. Not only for the European Union but also for generation structure. sociological research in general the question of divergence or convergence of national household and family structures and of national Thus the model of the nuclear fam- demographic developments is of great importance. ily has become the dominant family type in all industrialised European Growing convergence of the this process is highlighted by the countries. This is in contrast to, for “old” diminishing household decline of “bigger” households. example, the industrialised or in- dustrialising nations of Asia such as and family forms Thus over half of all households in all European countries had more Japan and Korea (but China, too) Until the 1960s a growing similar- than four members around 1850, where the share of households with ity of patterns in household and while this figure ranged between three and more generations varies family structures could be observed 20% to 50% in 1990. This ubiqui- from 15% to 20%, but shows a in the industrialised countries of tous trend towards small living strong tendency to decline. Western Europe. Since that time units becomes even more evident if some family patterns have been Another sign for a trend towards one looks at the development of showing a tendency to diverge in the nuclear family is the growing households with five and more the European countries. The aim of share of married people in percent persons. Around 1850 the shares in this contribution is to verify empiri- of the total population, a tendency Europe ranged from 30% to 70%, cally the thesis of the succession of that lasted for several decades. This in 1990 from 5% to 15% in the convergence and divergence of trend however only continued until majority of all west European family and household forms. the 1960s; since that time a reversal countries (Graph 1). of the trend could be observed: the Diminution of households not yet share of married persons in the total Continuing nuclearisation finished population is declining again. This Nuclearisation in the sense of dis- reversal of the trend is only partly a Today the concepts of household solution of family and household new development away from the and family are virtually identical. forms which transcend the nuclear nuclear family. Socio-structural and One basic feature of the develop- family is proceeding in Europe. In demographic reasons, such as the ment of households is the diminu- 1990, the shares of extended family postponement of the age at first tion of households. From a histori- households in relation to all family marriage due to a higher participa- cal perspective the diminution of households varied from about 2% in tion of women in education and households is a result of the nu- West Germany to about 15% in employment and an increase in the clearisation (the disappearance of Greece. But meanwhile a lot of number of divorces, are also re- persons not belonging to the nuclear countries have reached the lower sponsible for this development. The family, such as servants, farm la- limit. Thus the share of extended invention and diffusion of “new” bourers and relatives), the fertility family households in West Ger- forms of living could be further decline and the solitarisation, i.e. many has stagnated since 1976 at reasons for the decreasing married the growing tendency to live alone. roughly 2%; in Belgium and Hun- population. Another example for the process of gary as well a further decline in the the diminution of the household is decade from 1980 to 1990 could not Growing divergence of “new” the decreasing mean household be observed. Switzerland and Italy size. For most European countries a increasing household and family still show significant decreases. household included between 4 and 6 forms persons around 1850 and about 2 to This continuing nuclearisation can Since the 1960s some new devel- 3.4 persons in 1990. In addition, also be observed regarding the de- opments in the field of living forms

3 Feature: Households and Families EURODATA Newsletter No.1

Graph 1: 5+ Person Households in Europe, 1955-1995 ranged from 14% to 40%. Albania and Turkey have not yet partici- pated in this development. The gulf between these countries has thus become substantially bigger. If the number of one-person- households is put in relation to the total population, this share varied between 1.5 % and 10% in 1960; in 1990 this share ranged between approximately 4% and 18%. This means that the divergence is growing.

Quantitative decline of the sig- nificance of the married couple in favour of the one-parent family Measured by all households with a family nucleus, that is the family households so to speak, the quantitative importance of the married couple with and without children has been declining in many Euro- pean countries since the 1960s. This development is a reflection of the growth of one-parent families. In most European countries the overwhelming majority of all family nuclei still consists of a married couple. In 1980 their share ranged from about 85% to about 95% in the majority of countries. Until 1990 the differences between countries grew, accompanied by a general decrease of this share. Although the decrease, for example, of the share of married couples of all households with family nuclei was very moder- ate, the decreases witnessed in Hungary, the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) and Belgium were significant. The relative quantitative decrease in the number of married couples is the result of a growth in the number of one-parent families. This increase can be observed in all Euro- have accelerated, although these Growing solitarisation pean countries, in fact with a forms pre-existed in historical One of the decisive new develop- growing divergence. The growth terms, but never became dominant rates of the 80s are significantly phenomena. These new developments is the very strong increase in the number of people living alone, higher than those of the 60s and ments have not threatened the 70s. In 1990, the share of incom- model of the nuclear family in its defined by official household statistics as „one-person households“. In plete family households varied from substance, but one could speculate if about 5% to 15%. they could substitute the nuclear relation to the total number of pri- family in the distant future. vate households this share varied The overwhelming majority of all from 5% to 27% in Europe; in 1990 one-parent families in all European the share of the same countries countries is formed by mothers.

4 EURODATA Newsletter No.1 Feature: Households and Families

Their share varies from about 75% one wants to compare these surveys where it is developing as an impor- to 90%. The development of this printed analyses and relative figures tant living arrangement, and those share does not reveal a clear trend. are often the only accessible data. countries where cohabitation has But there are signs in some non- remained unknown until now (or Among European countries there European countries, e.g. the United was not yet detected). exists a significant variation in the States, for an increase in the share incidence of cohabitation. Those (1) Countries where cohabitation of men. countries for which data are avail- established itself as socially ac- The reasons for this shift in familial able can be subdivided into three cepted behaviour are Sweden, forms of living from the married groups: countries where cohabita- Denmark and Iceland. In the other couple to the one-parent family tion has established itself, countries Scandinavian or Nordic countries differ significantly from country to country; however, the majority is Graph 2: Live Births out of Wedlock in Europe, 1960-1995 probably a result of an increase in divorce and the rising social accep- tance of births out-of-wedlock and the social position of the lone parent. The traditional reason, widowed women with young children, probably plays an increasingly mi- nor role.

Cohabiting couples on the increase Since the end of the 1970s a growing tendency towards cohabitation, i.e. persons of different sex living together, has been observed. Ac- cording to Kathleen Kiernan and Valerie Estaugh (1993) two types of cohabitation can be distinguished. One form is "nubile cohabitation", whereby young people in their twenties or early thirties live together as a preliminary stage or as a substitute for marriage. Parallel to the growing number of divorces the type of "post-marital cohabitation" has become increasingly important, partly as a substitute for remarriage, partly as the first stage. Compara- tive studies have shown that in all countries for which data are available there has been a growing trend since the early 1980s. Of young people below the age of 25 living together, more and more do not marry but live as a cohabiting couple. In the higher age brackets where marriages start occurring the share of women living in cohabitation is getting smaller. However, a rising trend can be observed here as well. Problems of comparability arise with data on cohabitation because they overwhelmingly stem form surveys which are very different as regards the number of re- spondents, concepts, assessed variables and time of investigation. If

5 Feature: Households and Families EURODATA Newsletter No.1

Norway and Finland the number of Graph 3: Family Nuclei with Children by Type (in %) - 1991 cohabiting couples has reached a high level. Even before 1960 living 100% together without being married was not impossible in the Nordic coun- 80% tries (as compared to the Mediter- ranean countries, e.g.). Thus good preconditions for this behavioural 60% pattern already existed. The majority of children today are no longer 40% born within marriage in these countries, but in cohabitation. (2) The second group of countries 20% where cohabitation slowly emerges as a form of living arrangement 0% includes Austria, Finland, Norway, B DK D GR E F IRL I L NL P UK Great Britain, France, the Nether- Couples with children Fathers with children Mothers with children lands, Switzerland and Germany. Within this group two subgroups can be distinguished. The rate of Graph 4: Couples with Children by Number of Children (in %) - 1991 children born out-of-wedlock is high in (a) Austria, Finland, 100% France, Great Britain and Norway, but rather low in (b) the Nether- 80% lands, Germany and Switzerland. These observations suggest the following interpretation: in Swit- 60% zerland, the Netherlands and Ger- many cohabitation means that 40% childless partners live together and marry when children arrive. This is not true for Austria, Finland, Ger- 20% many, Great Britain and Norway; in any case, births of children occur 0% much more frequently within co- B DK D GR E F IRL I L NL P UK Couples with 1 child Couples with 2 children habitation, although the cohabiting Couples with 3 children Couples with 4 children couples often marry afterwards (see also Haskey 1992). (3) The third group with no or un- Graph 5: Mothers with Children by Number of Children (in %) - 1991 detected cohabitation is made up mainly by the Mediterranean coun- 100% tries, probably Ireland and some 90% east and south-east European coun- 80% tries. 70% Growing divergence of out-of- 60% wedlock births 50% In some Nordic countries the num- 40% ber of children born outside mar- 30% riage has risen tremendously. The 20% share of births out-of-wedlock (in % of all live births) is particularly 10% high in Iceland, Sweden, Denmark 0% and Norway, but it is also remark- B DK D GR E F IRL I L NL P UK Mothers with 1 child Mothers with 2 children able in France, Finland, Great Brit- Mothers with 3 children Mothers with 4 children ain and Austria (Graph 2). On the other hand, the share of children

6 EURODATA Newsletter No.1 Feature: Households and Families born out-of-wedlock in Mediterra- vided into three main types, namely five single mothers has two children nean countries and Germany, Swit- married couples with children, (Graph 5). In Ireland, the number zerland, the Netherlands and Lux- fathers with children and mothers of children, as is the number of lone embourg is rather small if south, with children (Graph 3). In the parents with many children, is far east and southeast European coun- twelve countries of the European above the average (EUROSTAT tries are excluded whose out-of- Union about 80% of all family nu- 1994; see also Duchêne/Eggerickx wedlock birth rate is traditionally clei, on the average, were married 1994). very low. The low shares of these couples with children in 1991. High Central European countries may shares of married couples with partly be attributed to institutional children are to be found in Greece factors. For example, family law in (89%), Portugal (87%) and Italy Germany grants fewer rights to the (86%). The lowest share of married father than to the mother if a child couples with children is to be found is born out-of-wedlock. Therefore it in the United Kingdom and Den- probably promotes marriage in the mark (78% each) and in Belgium case of pregnancy. In the same way, (79%). The number of fathers with the German personal tax system children amounts to less than 5% in promotes marriage by suggesting all twelve EU countries. The lowest the so-called tax splitting for mar- shares are to be found in the Medi- ried couples which ceteris paribus terranean countries Portugal reduces the tax load. In the Nordic (1.8%), Greece and Italy (each countries most of the children born 2.2%). Marked differences can outside marriage are born within therefore be observed in EU coun- cohabitation and not, for example, tries regarding mothers with chil- to a "single" mother. dren. Their share is lowest in the Mediterranean countries and high- Number of families without chil- est in Denmark, Belgium and the dren rising United Kingdom. Since the 1960s, an increase in the The number of children reveals number of childless married couples noticeable differences between the has been observed in many Euro- European countries (Graph 4). The pean countries. This increase obvi- presentation according to house- ously has different growth rates, holds can only roughly be inter- indicating a growing divergence preted as being differences in fertil- between countries. In 1990 the ity, because only children present in share of married couples without the household are counted and not children in percent of all one-family the total number of births. The households increased from about system of having one child only 20% in Ireland to about 45% in seems to be most widespread in Switzerland. In Belgium and Italy Germany, Portugal, Luxembourg apparently the shares did not and Belgium. Families with many change. children - here families with three The continuing fertility decline, the and more children - are very fre- postponement of the age at first quently found in Ireland, a country marriage and the age at the birth of that plays a special role within the the first child could be reasons for EU. France, the Netherlands and this increase; furthermore, the share Belgium also lie above the average. of married couples remaining with- Single fathers show a relatively out children for a lifetime probably high variability - probably because increased. of their low occurrence, but here fathers with one child are dominant. Families with children by number The reasons for being a single fa- of children ther are probably very different Different family types by number of from country to country (being children shall be depicted in a divorced, widowed). cross-sectional analysis. Family About two thirds of all single moth- nuclei with children may be subdi- ers have one child and about one in

7 Feature: Households and Families EURODATA Newsletter No.1

The North-South gradient in Graph 7: Single-Parent Families and Total Divorce Rate, 1991 Europe The question of territorial patterns in household and family structures cannot be resolved easily because the grouping of countries partly differs a great deal from indicator to indicator. However, a rough sche- matisation reveals the picture of a North-South gradient. If one uses the mean size of the households as the simplest indicator, Germany, the Scandinavian countries and the United Kingdom could be grouped together as countries with very small households. The Mediterra- nean countries Spain, Portugal and Greece, but also Ireland - apparently the European peripheries - belong to the cluster of countries with the largest households. Ireland is therefore the big exception in the North-South gradient. The majority of the continental countries belong to those lying between the extremes. The Mediterranean country Italy rather belongs to the continental group than to the peripheral group. Graph 6: Extended Families and Employment in Agriculture, 1990/91 If the countries of eastern Europe and south-eastern Europe are added, the picture becomes much more complex. The former COME- CON countries - Yugoslavia included - show completely different household and family structures, and have never formed a unity in this respect. Thus the former Ger- man Democratic Republic belongs to the Nordic group, Poland, Yugo- slavia and Romania to the southern European group, and Hungary and Bulgaria to the continental group. In principle these territorial patterns also appear with respect to other indicators of the household and family structures, such as extended families, one-person households, one-parent families, cohabitation and births out-of-wedlock. Cluster- ing, i.e. using a plurality of indicators, could be a valuable future research task.

Some covariations In the following section some interrelations between the household and family structures and the demo-

8 EURODATA Newsletter No.1 Feature: Households and Families

Graph 8: Mean Household Size and Total Fertility Rate, 1990/91 tional nature (widowhood) in these countries. In a further example the relation between the mean household size and the overall fertility rate is analysed (Graph 8). In this case mainly two country clusters exist. On the one hand the highly industrialised countries of the continent and northern Europe, on the other hand the four Mediterranean countries Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain. Ireland and Sweden are outliers in this respect. The high fertility rate found in Sweden is exceptional compared to the other Nordic countries, too. The fertility rate in the former GDR stood at 1.52 before the reunification in 1990 and fell to a low level because of the „demographic revolution“ caused by economic uncertainty. The very low level of fertility observed in the Mediterranean countries in combi- nation with the relatively large households suggests that in these countries household size is not only determined by the number of children - this means by the nuclear family; instead - as we have seen above - other household members, graphic and socio-structural covari- on the other hand the Mediterra- such as grandparents, often co- ates will be presented. One example nean countries including Ireland reside in the household in these for the analysis of a covariation of with a still large agricultural sector. countries. traditional household and family In a second example the covariation structures is the analysis of the Note of a „new“ family type - namely the connection between the share of share of one-parent families - with Main sources for this contribution extended family households with one further variable is analysed. In are household and family statistics another variable. If one postulates this case it would be plausible to say taken from the population censuses the hypothesis that the share of that the number of one-parent of the European countries. The extended family households in a families is decisively influenced by large number of titles cannot be country depends heavily on the the number of divorces. According cited here. The demographic data share of the agricultural sector, as to Graph 7 a positive relation be- mainly stem from Council of this form of household is to be tween both variables exists although Europe 1994. Data on employment found mainly in family farms, the this relation is not totally clear. The in agriculture are taken from EU- result would be what is depicted in group of the Mediterranean coun- ROSTAT 1993. Graph 6. Thus a rather clear posi- tries (for Spain and Portugal no tive relation between both variables data are available; Ireland does not Literature emerges for those EU countries for have a divorce law as yet; regarding Council of Europe (1994): Recent which data are available: the higher Italy it is only divorces, but not Demographic Developments in the share of employment in the legal separations - which are much Europe, 1994. Strasbourg: Council agricultural sector, the higher the more frequent - that are included) of Europe Press (annual publica- share of extended family house- again forms a separate cluster with tion). holds. Furthermore it becomes evi- very low divorce rates. The reasons dent that there are two main coun- Duchêne, Josiane; Eggerickx, for the formation of one-parent try clusters: on the one hand the Thierry (1994): Haushalte und families are much more of a tradi- highly industrialised countries of Familien in den Ländern der Eu- the continent and northern Europe, ropäischen Gemeinschaft 1990/91.

9 Feature: Households and Families EURODATA Newsletter No.1

Soziales Europa. Die Europäische EUROSTAT (1994): Households Kiernan, Kathleen E.; Valerie Union und die Familie. No. 1, 1994, and Families in the European Un- Estaugh (1993): Cohabitation. Ex- 28-37. ion. Rapid reports. Population and tra-marital Childbearing and Social social conditions. Luxembourg Policy. London: Family Policy EUROSTAT (1993): Employment (François Begeot). Studies Centre (FPSC) (= Occa- and Unemployment. Aggregates, sional Paper 17). 1980-1991. Luxembourg: Office des Haskey, John (1992): Patterns of publications officielles des Com- marriage, divorce, and cohabitation munautés européennes (Theme 3, in the different countries of Europe. Series C). Population Trends no. 69, 27-36.

10 EURODATA Newsletter No.1 Data Infrastructure

Franz Kraus between the statistical institutes in Scandinavia, the Institute, for a Towards an Infrastructure of Comparative Research on number of decades, was the only Europe institution that promoted the development of national and interna- During the last years, research on European societies and on European tional statistics (Macura/Cleland integration has increased. Concomitantly, discussions on proper infra- 1985). Data quality and compara- structures have intensified. Our newsletter, over a number of issues, bility, over time and country, re- will address to that topic - partly through historical background infor- placement of administrative records mation, partly through the treatment of specific aspects of actual inter- through stratified sample surveys, est. The sequence of contributions starts with a sketchy overview of the and publication of cross-national evolution of the current infrastructure. statistics and studies were major concerns of the ISI. Individual A quantitative analysis of human tury Europe, science has taken care scholars, often supported by learned behaviour and societal structures of the cumulative development of a societies, produced international requires information on the behav- proper infrastructure of comparative guides to official statistics, interna- iour and attitudes of individuals and research. On occasion of the estab- tional bibliographies of government groups, on macro-societal contexts lishment of national statistical publications and data handbooks. and institutional settings. Major institutes in almost all European sources of information today are countries during the 19th century The rise of international official official statistics, academic and (Flora 1975), many social scientists statistics private survey research and institu- took over responsibilities. Fre- tional documentations. Scholars quently they were even in charge of During the interwar period, ISI and who want to conduct cross-national the institutes. Statistical associa- the academic community continued research face a wide spectrum of tions and learned societies sup- their efforts to generate an interna- potential problems: they need to ported the development of statistical tional infrastructure for comparative know the current state of research, tools and the standardisation of research. An additional incentive find the proper data sources, evalu- enumeration programmes. In the came with the foundation of the ate their comparability, build up a mid-19th century, concern for in- League of Nations (1919) and the suitable database and apply ade- ternational comparability of statis- International Labour Organisa- quate tools of analysis. Problems tics and the international diffusion tion (1919). Now, for the first time seem almost insurmountable if a of statistical expertise had even led inter-governmental organisations scholar considers time and space as to the foundation of an international took over responsibilities for the important analytical dimensions. forum for discussion, the Interna- expansion and standardisation of tional Statistical Congresses. national statistics and cross-na- In many cases the limitation of tional reporting. ISI co-operated research to readily available infor- International Statistical Insti- with these institutions in various mation is sensible in such a situa- fields and published voluminous tion and happens often even if re- tute (ISI) international data handbooks, par- search is carried out by interna- By the end of the 19th century, the ticularly in the fields of vital and of tional teams. But it is also obvious so-called pro-statistical era had urban statistics. that progress in cross-national re- come to its end (Landes 1972). In search requires not only intelligent virtually all European countries, Early developments after use of available data but also the statistical institutes and advisory World War II expansion of the data infrastructure councils were in service and in itself. In addition, the maintenance many countries municipal statistical Revolutionary changes in informa- of proper documentation services offices were established. The syn- tion processing and rapidly increas- and of international forums for the chronous and regular carrying out ing information needs for public co-operation of individual scholars, of population censuses as well as policy and private decision making have paved the way for an unprece- research institutes, national re- the gradual introduction of eco- dented expansion of information. search councils and foundations is nomic censuses - both pillars of necessary. economic and social statistics until In the field of official statistics, today - was internationally agreed national services were re-organised, National statistical institutes upon. In 1885, the International comprehensive enumeration pro- and associations Statistical Congresses had become grammes developed, and data in- The problem is by no means new. an organisation with its own re- creasingly collected through surveys Since the early days of quantitative, sources and governing bodies - the both of persons and establishments. comparative analysis of social phe- International Statistical Institute. Concomitantly, efforts towards nomena in the 17th and 18th cen- Apart from the close co-operation standardising of enumerations,

11 Data Infrastructure EURODATA Newsletter No.1 concepts and methods gained new offered a rich potential for social at the level of infrastructural serv- momentum (Flora/Kraus/Noll/ research but also required proper ices (such as IFDO, CESSDA, Rothenbacher 1994). Decisive in- institutional innovations within the ICSSD, ECSSID) and of research centives came from the newly academic community. steering and promotion (for exam- founded U.N. (1946), the OEEC ple ISSC, ESSC, ICPSR, ECPR and (1948), the Nordic Council (1953), ECSR). Last not least, various re- and the European Communities search institutes have meanwhile The evolution of Social Science (1952-57). Under the auspices of been established in Europe which U.N.’s Statistical Commission a service institutions are explicitly dedicated to cross-na- complex machinery of statistical co- The response of the international tional research. In addition to these operation was established, aiming at academic community in fact was institutional developments, a num- the improvement of the quality and very intelligent and thorough. On ber of comparative databases was international comparability of na- the initiative of leading social sci- created, including data guides and tional statistics and an expansion to entists concerned with comparative handbooks. Through international include new subject matters, par- research, in the early 60s UNESCO co-operation, several cross-national ticularly in the field of social statis- - within its commitment to interna- survey programmes could be estab- tics. International reporting soon tionalise social sciences - decided to lished in fields usually not covered became a permanent task within all concentrate its efforts on the gen- by official statistics. The Interna- these organisations. eration of an academic infrastruc- tional Social Survey programme ture for comparative research (Rok- and the World Value studies are In the field of private statistics the kan 1968). The ISSC was in charge prominent examples for the estab- growth and expansion of informa- of the programme execution and, lishment of a cumulating database tion gathering was even more rapid. after a series of prominent interna- with genuine information on atti- Polls and market research soon tional conferences, organised a tudes, values and beliefs. The became an important source for "Round Table Conference on World Data Handbook of Political social research as well. Moreover, Comparative Research". The and Social Indicators represents with some delay, academics increas- conference adopted 8 recommen- such a case in the field of aggregate ingly could afford their own sample dations for the strengthening of the data. Regarding techniques of data surveys (Rokkan 1966). institutional foundations of com- analysis, many of the service insti- This rapid growth of information parative research addressing 4 are- tutions actively promote the inter- nas of action: national diffusion of the advance- Abbreviations: · Increased international co- ments in methodology. Meanwhile, CESSDA Council of European Social operation between science or- increasing space is given to com- Science Data Archives ganisations; parative methods in various work- CIESIN Consortium for International · Advancement of comparative shops and summer-schools. Earth Science Information methodology and promotion of Network its use; Official statistics and new social ECPR European Consortium of · Promotion of comparative re- science service institutions search projects; Political Research In the field of official statistics, the ECSR European Consortium of · Development of data infrastruc- progress made since the days of the Sociological Research tures and information services. Round-Table Conference at Yale ECSSID European Co-operation in The initiative was extremely suc- was tremendous as well, both with Social Science Information cessful, not only in intellectual, but respect to data gathering and dis- and Documentation also in institutional terms. Gradu- semination (Bjerve 1985). ESSC European Social Science ally three types of service institu- Council In Europe, extraordinary improve- tions evolved during the last three ments in quality and comparability ICPSR Inter-university Consortium decades (Tanenbaum/Mochmann could be achieved, particularly of Political and Social Re- 1994): data archives, documenta- search within the context of today’s Euro- tion services and survey research pean Union. Definitions, classifica- ICSSD International Council of centres. With the exception of the tions and statistical units have Social Science Documenta- ICPSR archive in the U.S., institution gradually become mandatory for EU tions were, however, built up pri- Member States. Meanwhile, a uni- IFDO International Federation of marily in response to national Data Organisations fied European statistical system has needs. In addition to these nation- been evolving. EFTA has recently ISSC International Social Science ally oriented institutions, the social agreed to implement EU standards Council sciences managed, however, to for its Member Countries. After the ISI International Statistical build up various institutions for fall of the Iron Curtain close statis- Institute international co-operation - both

12 EURODATA Newsletter No.1 Data Infrastructure tical co-operation was established of micro-level data from official cies, including direct access to pub- with the formerly communist coun- income and family expenditure lic databases. tries in Eastern Europe. Statistical surveys combines both research and subject matters were greatly ex- archival functions with comparative Outlook panded all over Europe, in particu- orientation. And the same model is Compared to the 50s, the progress lar within the field of social statis- being applied by the evolving Lux- made towards building an infra- tics. Administrative records were embourg Employment Study, again structure of comparative research is increasingly replaced by surveys, with great success. An old question impressive in all four areas the and, consequently, micro-level data is raised again: should services be Round-Table-Conference was con- have became a central source. What organised by subjects (cross- cerned with. However, despite this is more, large-scale surveys, such national, specialised institutions) or tremendous success, much remains as micro-censuses and Labour along national needs? to be done. In most European Force Surveys, have diffused over countries is was not possible to almost the whole of Europe The rise of networking facilities establish basic services. Data ar- (Rothenbacher 1994), offering an During the last decade, fundamental chives, so far, can only be found in unprecedented potential for com- changes in computing environments the richer parts of Western Europe parative social analysis. again occurred. Particularly the and in Hungary. Moreover, services In addition to these political incen- diffusion of desk-top computers and vary not only in organisational form tives, progress in information tech- the rise of international networking and research orientation, but also in nology has also changed access to facilities (INTERNET) have terms of basic functions and tasks. official statistics. The archives of opened new possibilities for ac- Support for the use of official sta- statistical offices have meanwhile cessing and integrating decentral- tistics is in many countries clearly been transformed from repositories ised sources of information. These underdeveloped. LIS and LES are into electronic archives. New elec- developments will also have im- an important step in the right di- tronic storage media allow the dis- portant impacts on existing service rection, but they do not suffice. semination of large quantities of institutions. Data sets of individual Similar institutions for micro-level data. And the public access to on- scholars will increasingly be avail- data from censuses of populations line databases which increasingly able directly via net, freeing some and establishments - invaluable include also detailed meta-inform- resources at institutions with a sources for comparative research - ation , offer a new dimension of general obligation to archiving. are missing. National differences in access to official statistics. This opens new possibilities, and data protection and copyrighting improving the support of national still are major obstacles to the for- However, the efficient use of this services for cross-national analyses mation of proper service organisa- unprecedented wealth of official would be a good decision. Work on tions. What we urgently need is a statistics for comparative research the virtual integration of informa- combined effort to open up access requires new types of skills and tion holdings of national institu- to such sources at the European services. Infrastructural knowledge tions (i.e. linkage of national serv- level. Official statistics are indis- must be accumulated and duplica- ices through networking) is already pensable for the comparative analy- tion of efforts be avoided. This is under way. CESSDA members, for sis of societies and polities and need obvious in the case of large micro- example, are already about to link more support. data sets, but it actually also applies their machine-readable catalogues to the comparative analysis of ag- (Alvheim 1995; ESCR Data Ar- References: gregate statistics. chive Bulletin, 58, Spring 1995). Alvheim, A. (1994): CESSDA satser pa Social science service institutions in Other examples of virtual services WWW; in NSD-brukermelding, no. 5. Europe differ greatly with respect to are the British Social Science In- Bergen: NSD. how they have adapted to these new formation Gateway or the efforts Bjerve, P.J. (1985): International developments in official statistics. of CIESIN to establish a virtual Trends in Official Statistics. In A. Only a few of them managed to international data archive through Atkinson/S.Fienberg (eds.): A Celebra- include official statistics as a service searching INTERNET for appro- tion of Statistics. New York: Springer. task: the explosion of academic priate sources. Meanwhile, official Flora, P. (1975): Quantitative historical surveys exhaust available resources bodies are going to use INTERNET sociology, Current Sociology, XXIII (2). in many cases. The resulting gap as well to serve their clients’ infor- Flora/Kraus/Noll/Rothenbacher (Eds.) has meanwhile been partially closed mation needs. In the U.S., many (1994): Social Statistics and Social by institutions established outside statistical agencies disseminate data Reporting in and for Europe. Bonn: IZ. the national service movement. The through ftp-servers. The European Kraus, F. (1994): Official statistics and Luxembourg Income Study (LIS- Commission has set up a WWW- international comparative research: the working paper, no. 7, 1988), with server offering information on the evolution of statistics on Europe, access its continuously expanding holdings EU’s goals, institutions and poli- to information, and tasks for a future

13 Data Infrastructure EURODATA Newsletter No.1

European science information system. IASSIST 1994 conference paper. Macura/Cleland (1985): Reflections on the World Fertility Survey. In A. Atkin- son/S. Fienberg (eds.): A Celebration of Statistics. New York: Springer. Rokkan, S. (Ed.) (1966): Data Archives for the Social Sciences. Paris: Mouton. __(1968): Comparative Research across Cultures and Nations. Paris:Mouton. Rothenbacher, F. (1994): Statistical sources for comparative European social research. In: International Social Science Journal, 142. Tanenbaum, E. & E. Mochmann (1994): Integrating the European Data- base: Infrastructure services and the need for integration. In: International Social Science Journal, 142.

14 EURODATA Newsletter No.1 Research Institutes

Franz Urban Pappi & Andreas Weber other institutions. This institutional analysis is complemented by an The Mannheim Centre for European Social Research investigation of the elections to the (MZES) European Parliament and to national parliaments, using a com- An Institute for Basic Research in the Social Sciences parative perspective. A third focus, The establishment of the Mannheim I. Social Structures and the Wel- aside from institutional and elec- Centre for European Social Re- fare State in Europe: Compara- toral (or attitudinal) research, in- search (Mannheimer Zentrum für tive sociological research of volves policy research, especially Europäische Sozialforschung - European societies decision-making in specific policy areas from a comparative perspec- MZES) as an institute of the Uni- II. Problems of Governing in versity of Mannheim in the year tive (politics of policy), as well as Democratic Constitutional policies of the European Union, e.g. 1989 represents a major extension States: Comparative politics of of basic-research capacities in the labour and social policy or agricul- the European states and their tural policy. Herbert Döring em- German social sciences. The Centre policies is provided with an 18-member ploys a large-scale project as the III. Political and Social Aspects of academic staff for conducting basic basis for comparing West-European European Integration social science research. In addition, parliaments in terms of the extent to another roughly 24 scientists are IV. History of the GDR and Eastern which majority principles and mi- working in grant-funded projects. Europe. nority rights influence decision- This research staff is supported by a making style. This creates links The Departments well-developed infrastructure, con- between the projects in progress on sisting of a library, the computer In Research Department I the policy research under the direction department, and the Research Ar- comparative analyses of social of Franz Urban Pappi, which aim to chive EURODATA. structure and of the welfare state are take advantage of recent models of interlinked in the investigation of policy decisions to explain, for Central Questions of Research the allocation of life chances, the example, the bargaining and nego- Focusing the research on "The creation of groups, and the forma- tiatory processes that take place in Developed Industrial Societies and tion of conflict in European popu- the Council of Ministers of the Western Europe in Transition" the lations. The social-structural analy- European Union. Hermann Schmitt Centre was closely tied to research sis focuses on work-force structures, is studying issue voting within a priorities of the Departments of but these are conceptualised in an larger, international research proj- Sociology and Political Science at expanded sense by differentiating ect on the 4th European election. the University of Mannheim. Com- according to ethnic and regional At the core of Research Depart- mitted to the Mannheim tradition of origin and according to age and sex. ment III is the analysis of the inter- comparative social research, the The welfare-state analysis centres relations between national- MZES focuses on the study of the on the systems of social security, structural diversity and the process integration of European societies expanded to include central social of European integration. This object and political systems, especially in services. Peter Flora is actually of study is given concrete form e.g. the framework of the European working on a project on the trans- in investigations of the role of re- Union. formation of the family and family gions or of changes in the condi- policies in international comparison In the form of triannual research tions of interest aggregation under (cf. the article of F. Rothenbacher in programs the overall research the influence of EU institutions. this Newsletter). In his project on theme is given further elaboration Beate Kohler-Koch is involved in a the "Determinants of divorce" and is put into practice in individ- project on "Regions as Units of Hartmut Esser combines sociologi- ual projects. With its 1993-1995 Action in European Politics": the cal and economic explanatory ap- research program, the Centre aim is - by taking selected regions proaches in a theoretical modelling moved into a decisive phase. The in individual member states of the of the development of "conjugal" groundwork for the applied-for EU - to improve our state of knowl- partnerships. These are two exam- grant-based projects has already edge about the actual current im- ples of the research of Department been laid at the MZES. It was pos- portance and possible future role of I. sible, therefore, to achieve greater regions as political actors in a co-ordination among the individual In Research Department II demo- European constitutional system. projects. cratic nation-states represent the Research Department III is also the primary units of investigation. The context in which the first co- According to four main branches of ways in which their systems of operative efforts with the Faculty of research orientation and disciplines government function are examined Economics and Statistics occurred, the institute has a total of four Re- by studying their parliaments and/or taking concrete form in a project search Departments:

15 Research Institutes EURODATA Newsletter No.1 brought into the Department by medium term, to turn into a Re- tre. Roland Vaubel. It involves expla- search Department for Eastern One of the central parts of the infra- nations for the increasingly more Europe. structure of the MZES - besides the comprehensive character of regula- library and the computer depart- tions on the European-Union level. Organisation and Infrastructure ment - is the Research Archive Several projects in the Department Even if the focus of the Institute is EURODATA. It serves the internal address the interconnection between clearly on the fields of sociology research of the Centre's staff; and, growing centralisation of functions and political science, it displays a given prior consultation, it also on the supranational level and ris- broad understanding of basic re- makes its holdings available to ing demands for regional and local search in the social sciences, a con- outside scholars. The basic function autonomy. ception that also encompasses con- of EURODATA is fully described in A special situation exists in Re- temporary history and the economic the Editorial of this Newsletter. search Department IV, where sciences. Organisationally, this is An important institution associated Hermann Weber made the "Politics reflected in the fact that its supervi- with the MZES is the Zentrum für and History of the GDR" into a sory board, the Collegium (Kolle- Europäische Umfrageanalysen und topic of a research facility that was gium), consists of professors from Studien (ZEUS; Centre for Euro- established prior to the founding of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the pean Surveys and Studies). The the Centre. The primary goal is the University of Mannheim, and addi- European Commission has assigned completion of a history of the GDR tionally, up to four professors from ZEUS the task of processing the with four volumes of historical the Faculty of Economics and Sta- "Eurobarometer" surveys and incor- analysis and documentation envi- tistics. Other scholars are also in- porating them into an integrated sioned. This project, initiated prior corporated, for instance, from the data-base system; in this way, the to the dissolution of the GDR, now respective Faculties of Business entire data holdings accumulated also has access to important mate- Administration and Jurisprudence. since the first Eurobarometer survey rial unavailable prior to 1989. Since This expansion is based on the in 1970 are made utilizable for unification, there has been a strong recognition of shared research in- secondary analyses of the develop- increase in scholarly and public terests in the study of European ment of the attitudes and opinions interest in the history of the GDR, societies from a comparative per- of the population of the EU coun- and it has very quickly become spective. tries. apparent how very much in demand The directorship of the Mannheim Hermann Weber and his staff are, Centre is appointed on a rotating Evaluation given their record of research on basis. The Managing Director and The Centre aims to interlink its this topic. By taking up research in the heads of the individual Research various projects not only with indi- international Communism, the first Departments are elected by the vidual research departments, but step has been made in the direction Collegium, and elections thus can also across departments, in terms of of a strongly comparative orienta- lead to new research impulses for its general object of study. In order tion. In the future, this will be fol- the MZES. There is no requirement to perform this task successfully, lowed by further steps in the direc- that projects from the founding the Centre has to rely on the critical tion of research on Eastern Europe, period be continued. Within the monitoring of its projects by inde- conducted by Egbert Jahn. The general framework of European pendent scholars from various MZES has to respond to new politi- research - in the sense of the com- European countries. This is the cal developments. The breakdown parative study of European societies purpose of the Advisory Board of the Communist regime in East- and the problems of their integra- (Beirat). Its members are: Gerhard ern Europe confronts these societies tion, there is great leeway for initi- Lehmbruch (Konstanz) Guido Mar- with immense problems of trans- ating and implementing projects tinotti (Milano), Yves Mény formation. For this reason, the with new foci. The reliance upon (Firenze), Frans Stokman (Gronin- original focus on Western Europe grant funding, especially for com- gen), and Helen Wallace (Brigh- contained in the founding program prehensive and costly field research ton). has been expanded. Therefore, the (surveys, censuses, etc.) increases Research Department IV, is, in the the outward orientation of the Cen- Franz Urban Pappi, Professor for Political Science at the University Mannheimer Zentrum für Europäische Sozialforschung of Mannheim, is Executive Director Mannheim Centre for European Social Research and Head of the Research Depart- MZES ment II at the MZES. University of Mannheim, D - 68131 Mannheim Tel.: xx49 / x621 / 292 - 8585, Fax: xx49 / x621 / 292 - 8435 Andreas Weber is the Managing E-Mail: [email protected] Assistant of the Executive Director gopher.sowi.uni-mannheim.de - HTTP://www.sowi.uni-mannheim.de of the MZES.

16 EURODATA Newsletter No.1 Research Institutes

MZES Working Papers

Arbeitsbereich I (ISSN 0948-0072) (1) W. Müller, E. Bruckner, K. Knaup: Soziale Beziehungen und Hilfeleistungen in modernen Gesellschaften. 1993. DM 25,- (2) S. Soltys: Besonderheiten und zukünftiger Wandel der Erwerbsstruktur in Polen. 1993. DM 8,- (3) E. Rieger: Der Wandel der Landwirtschaft in der Europäischen Gemeinschaft. 1993. DM 15,- (4) E. Bruckner: Zur Bedeutung von Partnerschaft und Verwandtschaft. 1993. DM 12,- (5) E. Rieger: Die Vergemeinschaftung der Landwirtschaft. 1993. DM 10,- (6) W. Müller, W. Karle: Social Selection in Educational Systems in Europe. 1993. DM 8,- (7) W. Müller, D. Haun: Bildungsungleichheit im sozialen Wandel. 1994. DM 15,- (8) R.D. Alba, J. Handl, W. Müller: Ethnic Inequalities in the German School System. 1994. DM 10,- Arbeitsbereich II (ISSN 0948-0110) (1) W. Schnorpfeil: Europäische Sozialpolitik und industrielle Beziehungen seit der einheitlichen europäischen Akte. Policies, Netzwerke und Entscheidungsverfahren. 1993. DM 15,- (2) F.U. Pappi, W. Schnorpfeil with D. Knoke, J. Broadbent, Y. Tsujinaka: Blockmodels as Power Structure Images. The Ger- man, American and Japanese Labor Policy Domains Compared. 1993. DM 10,- (3) T. König: Intergouvernementale versus Supranationale Politikfeldstrukturen. Eine Konzeption prototypischer Interak- tionsmuster privater und politischer Akteure für den Vergleich europäischer Politikbereiche. 1994. DM 10,- (4) W. Schnorpfeil: Die Europäisierung sozialpolitischer Teilbereiche in der Europäischen Gemeinschaft. 1994. DM 5,- (5) C. Henning: Politische Tauschmodelle auf der Grundlage des LES- und AIDS-Systems. 1994. DM 5,- (6) C. Henning: Ableitung spieltheoretischer Ansätze zur Modellierung des politischen Einflusses von Interessengruppen im Politikfeld der Europäischen Agrarpolitik. 1994. DM 5,- (7) F.U. Pappi: Reasoning Voters in Multiparty Systems. 1994. DM 5,- (8) H. Schmitt: Party Choice in Different Political-Structural Environments. Evidence from the 1989 European Elections Study. (in print) Arbeitsbereich III (ISSN 0948-0099) (1) B. Kohler-Koch: Interessen und Integration. Die Rolle organisierter Interessen im westeuropäischen Integrationsprozeß. 1992. (out-of-print) (2) M. Jachtenfuchs: Ideen und Interessen: Weltbilder als Kategorien der politischen Analyse. 1993. DM 10,- (3) J. Hofrichter: Public Opinion on EC Membership of Turkey and the Turkish People in the Countries of the European Com- munity. 1993. DM 8,- (4) W. Karl: Die Vernetzungsstrategie der Kommission der Europäischen Gemeinschaften in der Forschungs- und Technologie- politik. 1994. DM 5,- (5) W. Karl: Theoretische Erklärungsansätze zur Forschungs- und Technologiepolitik der Europäischen Gemeinschaften. 1994. DM 5,- (6) W. Karl: Bibliographie zur Europäisierung der Forschungs- und Technologiepolitik. 1994. DM 5,- (7) M. Jachtenfuchs: Theoretical Perspectives on European Governance. 1995 5,- (8) R. Eising / B. Kohler-Koch: Inflation und Zerfaserung: Trends der Interessenvermittlung in der Europäischen Gemeinschaft. 1995. DM 5,- EURODATA Research Archive / Forschungsarchiv EURODATA (ISSN 0948-0102) (1) P. Flora, F. Kraus, M. Quick, F. Rothenbacher: EURODATA: Functions, Concepts, Prospects. (in print) (2) F. Rothenbacher: National and International Approaches in Social Reporting. 1993. DM 12,- (3) F. Kraus: Social Statistics of the European Communities. 1994. DM 15,- (4) J. Hofrichter: The EUROBAROMETER Programme of the EC Commission; ZEUS, and the EUROBAROMETER Data Base. 1993. DM 5,- (5) M. Quick: Regional territorial units in Western Europe since 1945. 1994. DM 20,- Bibliographies / Bibliographien (0948-0110) (1) T. Bahle, F. Kraus, F. Rothenbacher, K. Scheiwe: Family Change and Family Policy. 1992 (out-of-print) (2) E. Rieger, S. Leibfried: Globalization and the Western Welfare State. An Annotated Bibliography. 1995. DM 5,- Serie T - Conference Papers / Tagungen, Konferenzen (1) B. Kohler-Koch (Hrsg.): Weichenstellungen für ein neues Europa. 1992. DM 20,-

17 Research Institutes EURODATA Newsletter No.1

Serie V - Lectures / Vorträge (1) C. Altenstetter: European Community - Wide Efforts to Address AIDS. 1992. DM 18,-

18 EURODATA Newsletter No.1 Research Groups and Projects

Jürgen Schweikart the International Statistical Year- book of Large Towns. Network on Urban Research in the European Union The Atlas of Agglomerations in the (N.U.R.E.C.) European Union was published in An European Atlas of Agglomerations is only one of several projects that late 1994. The Atlas contains maps the research group NUREC is working on. Researchers from thirteen of 330 agglomerations and their countries conduct projects, exchange data and their knowledge in order complementary areas accompanied to enable comparative information on cities and urban areas in Europe. by data on these and 8220 basic administrative units. For the defini- Comparative research concerned non-profit-making organisations tion of the agglomerations a mor- with European cities is difficult to such as regional or municipal ad- phological approach was chosen do in two respects. On the one hand ministrative bodies, departments of based on the UN criterion of con- the comparability of statistical indi- universities, research institutes etc. tiguous built-up areas which states cators poses a problem, and on the are entitled to full membership. that a building is part of the built- other national definitions of cities up area if the distance between Organisations from countries out- differ from one another in many former and latter does not exceed side the European Union have the ways. The historical, economic and 200 metres. possibility to become associate political differences within Europe members and thus participate in all N.U.R.E.C. also publishes the Eu- thus become particularly evident N.U.R.E.C. activities. Individual ropolis Working Papers at irregular when we look at cities. membership is possible in excep- intervals and Internal Circulars The Network on Urban Research in tional cases. addressed to members and inter- the European Union, N.U.R.E.C. ested parties. To date N.U.R.E.C. has 31 ordinary constitutes a framework for inter- members, 8 associate members and Recent publications: national and interdisciplinary re- 1 individual member from a total of search. The Network is soon to N.U.R.E.C. (Ed)(1994): Atlas of 13 countries. become an international association Agglomerations in the European in Belgian Law with its legal seat in Within the N.U.R.E.C. integrated Union. Duisburg. (ISBN 3-89279- Antwerp. Its Administrative Di- project framework the first step of 052-3, 973 pages, 300 ECU, please rectorate is in Duisburg and its the Europolis database resulted in enquire for special rates). Scientific Directorates are in Paris the Atlas of Agglomerations in the EUROPOLIS - Working papers. and Milan. N.U.R.E.C. is non- European Union. This is being (ISBN 3-89279-024-8) profit-making. followed by the European City Sur- vey, a project comprising several The purpose of N.U.R.E.C. is to sub-projects starting with the carry out international and inter- Network on Urban Research in the Structural Change of the European disciplinary research programmes European Union (formerly Euro- City System which is under way. relating to the territory of the Euro- pean Community) pean Union, though not exclusively. Furthermore, N.U.R.E.C. is co- Administrative Directorate: operating with the UN Centre for In order to achieve this goal the Human Settlements, Habitat, the c/o Amt für Statistik, Stadtfor- Network defines projects and makes UN Statistical Division, UNSTAT, schung und use of appropriate means, such as the International Statistical Insti- Europaangelegenheiten databases, publications, conferences tute, ISI and the International Un- Bismarckstr. 150-158 etc., for their implementation. ion of Local Authorities, IULA to D 47049 Duisburg The projects are financed by re- conduct the Large Cities Statistics sources provided by its members, Project, LCSP. The aim of the proj- Phone: +49 (0)203 283 32 76 research contracts, sponsoring and ect is to construct a world-wide Fax: +49 (0)203 283 44 04 income from the sale of system of data collection and dis- N.U.R.E.C.’s products. semination concerning the World's Scientific Directorate: large cities. In order to compile the There are different forms of mem- c/o Institut National des Etudes data questionnaires were sent to the bership: ordinary members with Démographiques World's cities with more than unrestricted eligibility and the right 27, rue du Commandeur 100000 inhabitants. Well in ad- to vote; associate members with F 75014 Paris vance of the deadline a high rate restricted eligibility, a restricted France with an even global spread is re- right to vote and a consultative ported. LCSP will result in several vote; and finally individual mem- publications including collections of bers with a consultative vote. Only Jürgen Schweikart, research fellow city profiles and a revised edition of of the DFG, is currently working

19 Research Groups and Projects EURODATA Newsletter No.1 on a project about „Living conditions in European cities“ at MZES / EURODATA in Mannheim.

20 EURODATA Newsletter No.1 Research Groups and Projects

Giampaolo Nuvolati sis of data: quality selection and interpretation of social indicators). Towards a Qualitative Catalogue of Social Indicators This means, on the one hand: to for Italy take the census of the different national or local data source exist- This article deals with a research project that is concerned with the ing but not always known; on the establishment of an information system focusing on the description of other: to support co-ordinated stud- different types of social indicators for different concerns available in ies on critical descriptions, with Italy today. common criteria, of different social indicators for different social con- During the last two decades the time he/she wants to find or build cerns. number of agencies, public or pri- up specific social indicators. Every vate, that produce and distribute time he/she has to verify the char- Steps for the realisation of a SIOI social data has become greater and acteristics of social indicators in catalogue would be: greater. Nevertheless the map of terms of validity, reliability, compa- · Complete list of the data source sources and data available today is rability, timeliness, and so on. · Complete list of the available not clear enough to facilitate easy data in each source SIOI (Social Indicators-Oriented access to and utilisation of them. In Information) means a set of infor- · Qualitative description of some other words, although there is a mation useful for describing the criteria of data or social indica- huge amount of basic statistics and principal qualitative characteristics tors for different selected social social indicators, it is still difficult of indicators (or basic statistics) for concerns for many students, researchers, a number of social concerns. It also · Information on the quality of public administrators and private outlines the way to access these data and the way to access it users to handle the data. The imbal- data. I think that a periodically given to the users ance between the quantity of data published catalogue including dif- · Distribution of the catalogue and their adequate use is evident. It ferent pieces of information on type (book or floppy disk) is one of the main causes for the and quality of social indicators and crisis the Movement of Social Indi- Examples of general criteria used to data available from different cators is faced with today. The describe data or social indicators in sources might form an interesting increase in computer networks and various sources are: starting point for developing em- corresponding skills acquired by pirical researches in social sciences. Social Indicators: quality of data; researchers was also not completely In building up such a catalogue (in relation to other variables; breadth successful in determining a more the following called SIOI) we basi- of comparability; usefulness. profitable use of social indicators. cally have to solve two main prob- Source: Rossi and Gilmartin (1980). As a matter of fact, many different lems. The first one regards the type problems with collecting, cleaning, Socio-economic Statistics: data of characteristics of social indica- updating, accessing and interpret- disaggregability; data periodicity tors that we want to include in our ing data are very often reported by and accessibility; general areas file, the second one the number of more careful scientists. treated. Source: IReR (Istituto indicators that we want to consider. Regionale di Ricerca della Lom- This article intends to stress the We have a very large amount of bardia) (1986). importance of developing a concept. characteristics and an almost infi- This concept is that most of the nite number of social indicators. Socio-economic Statistics: subject; information available today is not sub-categories; units of measure- Here I am comparing different really statistical- or social indica- ment; whether or not publications studies and relative methods for tors-oriented but rather database- contain time series and, if so, fre- describing different indicators or or statistical book-oriented. In quency; sources (give INSTAT data in a qualitative way. I am also other words, it is quite easy for a publication code and table identi- defining a general list of social researcher to know what kind of fier). Source: International Statisti- indicators which will form an inter- data or social indicators he/she can cal Sources (1995). esting starting point. The realisa- find in a statistical book or in an tion of such SIOI catalogues of the Other criteria for the differentiation database, but it is much more diffi- characteristics of data or social of social indicators: level of analy- cult to know where to find the spe- indicators will depend on a more sis; function; specific concerns; cific data or social indicators and profitable harmonisation of the statistical procedures. Source: Gen- their characteristics he/she is inter- activities of institutional and private eral literature on social indicators. ested in for studying particular statistical agencies (production and phenomena. This means that a distribution of data: quantity of researcher needs to explore different social indicators), of the academic Giampaolo Nuvolati, research statistical books or databases every researchers and other users (analy- fellow of the European Commis-

21 Research Groups and Projects EURODATA Newsletter No.1 sion, is currently working on a project about „Quality of life in the old Europe“ at MZES / EURO- DATA in Mannheim.

22 EURODATA Newsletter No.1 Computer

Klaus Mayer needed to retrieve specific information is done by the „Client“ pro- Internet goes Multimedia gramme, invisible for the user. The Internet services Gopher and World Wide Web offer a wide range of information to the scientific public. The segment with information for Gopher social scientists is growing daily. This article introduces these services One of the first tools of the new to those who do not know them yet. generation was the „Gopher“ software which was developed in 1991 at the University of Minnesota. The Gopher Client programme presents a hierarchically structured text- menu to the user which is retrieved from a Gopher server. The items within this menu can be chosen simply by clicking the mouse. Gopher gives world-wide access to information resources such as on- line library catalogues, textual information on various topics, software and data archives. The best way to get an impression of its content is to start the programme and then navigate around the „Go- pher space“ by clicking at items in menus. The user „digs“ him- self/herself deeper and deeper into the Internet (see left figure) until the target with the needed informa- Until about 1990 there was only one „Client“ programme on their com- tion is reached. Before he/she has possibility to get access to informa- puters and start a dialogue with it. found this information, the user tion from the world’s largest com- All they have to know is how this may have dug through 10 or 20 puter network, the Internet: to learn software works. These programmes menu levels. a set of UNIX commands which are in general very easy to handle. seemed like secret codes to the lay The connection to the different In order to facilitate searching one person. These „hieroglyphs“ were „servers“ and everything that is can use the very efficient „Veron- transmitted from one Internet generation to the next. But now the exclusiveness of the Internet Club is being seriously called into question. Meanwhile millions of Windows users are able to participate in Internet, because new menu- oriented programmes with graphical surfaces were developed. These programmes give access to the whole Internet just by clicking the mouse. No further knowledge is needed. The background to this new software generation is the „Client Server Principle“. This principle is widely used now for many purposes. Those who want to offer information install a „server programme“ on their computers and connect it with their databases. Those who want to retrieve information run the

23 Computer EURODATA Newsletter No.1 ica“ programme. Veronica searches The possibilities within WWW are through all gopher servers in the enormous. To give an example: it is world for user-defined terms. The possible to start at a WWW server Klaus Mayer is staff member of the figure below shows the result of a in Geneva to wander through a European Documentation Centre in Veronica search for the term virtual map on the screen and un- Mannheim. „Maastricht“. The list contains 37 dertake a multimedia walk through items, e.g. the full text of the cities and landscapes of any country Maastricht treaty, which can then (see figure below). These places can be stored on the local harddisk. It is be „visited“ by navigating the irrelevant to the user which com- mouse. puter type in which country offers To enter the WWW the user has to the text. In most cases he/she does install a Client software. The most not even know it. popular software of this type is a Windows programme called „Mo- World Wide Web saic“. A logical further development of the text-oriented Gopher is a new WWW is the Internet tool of the Internet service - the World Wide future. The well-tried servers that Web, or WWW for short. The can only be accessed by using the WWW system pools all previously proper command language will known services including Gopher gradually disappear. New develop- under a new comfortable graphical ments make the Internet attractive „Hypertext“ surface. Each part of a and very helpful not only for com- document can be linked to any part puter experts. of any other document. In addition WWW supports the transmission of Reading: graphics, sounds and videos so that December, J. & N. Randall (1994): every WWW session can turn into a The World Wide Web Unleashed. multimedia event. By clicking the Indianapolis: Sams. mouse one moves from one WWW Eager, B. (1994): Using the World server to the other. Even inexperi- Wide Web. Indianapolis: Que Corp. enced users face no problems.

24 EURODATA Newsletter No.1 Computer

Michael Quick Furthermore it gives access to the electronic library of the SSD ar- The Webserver of the EURODATA Research Archive chive (ELSA) and links to ICPSR The WWW Technology offers many services to the social science com- and to other Gopher-/WWW- munity. Some examples were already mentioned on the previous page. Servers. http://www.ssd.gu.se/enghome.html This article presents detailed information on a server for social scientists concerned with comparative research on Europe. The World Wide Web pages of EURODATA are integrated into the http://www.sowi.uni-mannheim.de/eurodata/eurodata.html server of the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES). servers. Internet servers for Social Sci- All pages are written in English, gopher://zonnetje.swidoc.nl ence (some examples) and the main pages are bilingual, Social Science Information Gate- German and English. BIRON on-line catalogue. BIRON way (SOSIG). This gateway de- contains the bibliographic details of scribes social science resources Basic concept the ESRC Data Archive catalogue world-wide and allows to connect to When the decision was taken to of over 3000 datasets incl. e.g. the them. Keyword search is possible. develop a Webserver, the idea was British census and the household The information is grouped to cate- to do two things of equal impor- survey. Each record contains a large gories as Demography, Economics, tance. The first one was to dissemi- amount of information including Education, Geography, Govern- nate information about the EURO- the names of the data collectors, ment, Politics, Social Science gen- DATA Research Archive and its sponsors and depositors and an eral, Sociology and Statistics. Re- activities in the scientific commu- abstract containing the purpose of sources that are contained are e.g. nity. The second idea was to pro- the research and information about Data Archives, Address Directories, vide information that would help the methodologies used in the study. Research Databases etc.. The serv- researchers inside and outside our The database is updated monthly. ice is a project funded by the ESRC institute in their comparative stud- telnet://biron,[email protected]. and is based at the University of uk ies on Europe. This was to be Bristol. achieved by building a gateway to SWIDOC at Amsterdam. General http://sosig.esrc.bris.ac.uk other Internet services of European information about SWIDOC, cur- social science institutions and by rent research, documentary infor- Swedish Social Science Data providing information about insti- mation, social science data archive Service (SSD). The server contains tutions that have no Internet serv- (Steinmetz archive), electronic general information about SSD and ices yet. publications, thematic databases, its data holdings and about other members of IFDO (International other social science information The EURODATA homepage starts Federation of Data Organisations). with some introductory information and with addresses (see graph). Links offer access to WWW servers of the archive’s host institutions, the University of Mannheim and the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research. Then follows a menu leading to the further contents of the server.

Information about the EURO- DATA Research Archive The server contains an abridged version of a MZES working paper describing tasks, structure, activities and access regulations of the archive. One main task of EURO- DATA is the maintenance of a large statistics library. Everybody can retrieve information about its holdings in the electronic catalogue. Further information about the archive’s activities comprises the

25 Computer EURODATA Newsletter No.1 complete coverage of the EURO- · The EURODATA Newsletter „EUROPA“ and the Social Science DATA Newsletter as well as a list is held on-line. Information Gateway (SOSIG). If of the archive’s staff’s publications · A large document with infor- one follows these links, a great deal including some abstracts. mation on national and interna- more library and data catalogues tional Statistical Institutes is and information on institutions and Services for researchers included. It contains not only ongoing research can be found. The following services are offered addresses, phone numbers, etc., to social scientists working in the but also information on the or- Development field of comparative European re- ganisational structure and the EURODATA’s WWW server has search: activities of the Institutes. been released on March 1st 1995. Information that can be obtained It’s therefore very new and subject · An electronic catalogue of the to revision and extension. We want MZES library and the EURO- from competent sources elsewhere in the Internet doesn’t need to be to encourage everybody to send DATA statistics library that comments and suggestions for im- gives information about litera- repeated within our server. There- fore a list of links to other servers provements to the archive’s e-mail ture and data on European so- address. cieties. is included. Important examples are the Social Science Data Archives, the European Commission’s server

26 EURODATA Newsletter No.1 Special: Norway and the EU

Jostein Ryssevik life, the Conservatives (Høyre). The most active anti-EU stand were Norway and the European Union taken by the Agrarian-party (Sen- For the second time in 22 years the people of Norway have rejected to terpartiet) and the Left Socialists become a member of the European Union. This is the conclusion of the (Sosialistisk Venstreparti). referendum on the 28th of November last year, where a majority of In 1972 the referendum caused a 52.2% voted against the governments proposal to join the EU. The ref- major restructuring of the Norwe- erendum was held in an atmosphere of heated debate and intensive gian party system. The pro- mobilisation. A total turn-out of close to 90% is the highest ever in the European parties lost a lot of their history of the Norwegian democracy. As a comparison, the turn-out of supporters and several parties split. the 1993 Parliamentary Election was approximately 75%. A similar realignment does not seem to become the effect of last History years referendum. The Agrarian- A cross-cutting cleavage The question of the relationship party, that managed to establish The membership-issue cut across with Europe has a long history in itself as the symbolic leader of the the dominating left-right dimension Norwegian politics. The issue ap- anti-EU campaign more than dou- of Norwegian politics. The pro- peared on the agenda for the first bled the ratings in the opinion polls European alternative was propa- time in 1961, but was after a couple in the months before the referen- gated by the governing Labour- of years punctuated by de Gaulle’s dum. However, shortly after the party (Arbeiderpartiet) and their no to an inclusion of new members. victory was won, the support began main opponent in everyday political A comparable episode took place in to shrink. The constituency of the 1967. In the beginning of the sev- Fig. 1: EU-Referendum in Norway 1994. Results by municipalities. enties the negotiation of a membership agreement was completed and it was decided to ask for the peoples opinion through a referendum. Although most of the political parties, as well as the major part of the press, were positive to European integration, they were not able to convince the people. Against all odds a no majority of 53.5% of the voters turned the European question into a non-issue of Norwegian politics for almost two decades. When the issue reappeared on the political arena in the beginning of the nineties, this was largely due to the reshaping of Europe caused by the opening of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Empire. When Sweden and Finland, as a result of these major geopolitical changes, decided to apply for membership, Norway was left with few options but to follow. Although the popular resistance against membership proved stronger than expected in all three countries, it was only in Norway that the no-movement was able to master a majority. In Fin- land 56.9% of the electorate voted yes as compared to 52.3% in Swe- den.

27 Special: Norway and the EU EURODATA Newsletter No.1

Fig. 2: EU-Referendum in the Nordic Countries 1994. Results by regions. membership was incompatible with the Norwegian “way of life”. This includes important values (i.e. egalitarianism), the economy (i.e. small scale farming and fisheries) and institutions (i.e. the welfare state).

Centre-periphery By looking at the geographical distribution of the vote, it is quite obvious that the EU-question aligns very closely to the traditional centre-periphery dimensions of Norwe- gian politics (Figure 1). Only 62 of the 435 municipalities returned a majority of yes-votes. Most of these are concentrated in the most densely populated areas in the Oslofjord-region. The resistance against the EU-membership was strongest in the northern part of Norway and in the most isolated and less modernised regions in the South. As much of one fourth of the communes returned a no-majority of more than 75%. A similar centre-periphery dimension is also evident in the voting patterns from Sweden and Finland (Figure 2). The pro-European attitudes are strongest in the most central, urbanised and modernised Labour Party was severely divided produce the necessary surplus to parts of the countries and weakest on the membership issue. An anti- uphold the welfare state. It was also in the north. EU fraction was organised inside argued that extensive international the party and a substantial portion co-operation was the only way to Social patterns of the supporters were torn between solve the major problems that faces A closer look at the data will also their feelings towards a EU- Norway as well as most other reveal that voting patterns are membership and their loyalty to the countries of Europe i.e. unemploy- closely related to the social compo- party leaders. In spite of most ment, pollution. In the last weeks of sition of the municipalities. As an prophesies the party was able to the campaign, issues related to illustration, the bivariate correlation keep its strength as well as its unity security policy was also brought to between the no-percentage and the throughout the campaign. In the the front. proportion of the labour force in few months after the referendum The main emphasis of the anti-EU agriculture and fisheries, is 0.72. the party has in fact experienced a campaign was put on loss of sover- The corresponding correlation with tremendous growth in popularity as eignty. By delegating power to the the average income per taxpayer, is well as in membership. political bodies of the EU, the peo- - 0.70 (Figure 3). ple of Norway would loose control Similar social pattern are also evi- The arguments of the politicians as well as the dent from individual level data. The On the pro-European side the ar- decision making process, it was pro-EU sentiments were strongest guments were mainly put in eco- argued. In addition, the state of among people with high education, nomic and political terms. Free Norway would loose control of the high income and high social status. access to the European markets was economic resources, especially the Two other social determinants of seen as mandatory if the open and fish and the oil. The no-movement utmost importance, are sector and export-oriented Norwegian econ- was also quite successful in selling sex. The scepticism towards EU was omy should be able to continue to the argument that a EU- particularly strong among the rather

28 EURODATA Newsletter No.1 Special: Norway and the EU

Fig. 3: Correlation of no-votes and the average-income in the municipalities A comparison with the referendum in 1972 reveals a striking similarity. Not only is the gross result almost identical. The regional patterns are also to a large degree reproduced. The intercorrelation at the munici- pality-level is as high as 0.88 (Fig- ure 4). Given the substantial shifts in the electorate between the two referendums, this seems rather surprising. According to some observers, the fact can be explained by the extraordinary stability of the social and geographical structure of the Norwegian society. The surplus created by the oil-industry has pre- vented the transformation of the social fabric that most other industrialised countries have experienced during the last few decades.

Fig. 4: Correlation of the referendum results 1972 and 1994 in the municipalities Access to data A file with data on the municipal level is available from the Norwe- gian Social Science Data Services (NSD). The file is “wrapped” in a run-time version of the statistical package NSDstat+ which will allow you to analyse and display the data.

For further information please contact: The Norwegian Social Science Data Services (NSD) Hans Holmboesgt. 22 N-5007 Bergen, Norway Tlf.: +47 55 21 21 17, Fax.: +47 55 96 06 60 E-mail: [email protected]

Jostein Ryssevik is Adviser at the Norwegian Social Science Data Services (NSD) in Bergen (Norway). large group of woman in the public sector. Freezing of social structures?

29 Country Profile: Ireland EURODATA Newsletter No.1

change has taken place.

Northern Ireland Six Irish counties were excluded from independence and remained part of the United Kingdom. These were the areas in the north that had a different population structure due to British settlement policy. This situation has remained unchanged until today. But Northern Ireland The geographical term Ireland 14.6). But in 1991 as much as 44% was never homogeneous in this describes an island lying in the of the population were under 25. sense. The Protestant population, Atlantic Ocean, west of Britain. which prefers to belong to Britain, Two issues that are in the focus of Politically Ireland usually refers to is in the majority in Northern Ire- public debate are divorce and abor- the Republic of Ireland. land as a whole, but not in all parts tion. Both are still illegal due to the of it, as the map on the next page strong influence of the Catholic Political system clearly indicates. Church in Ireland. Referendums Ireland is a parliamentary republic proved that the majority of the From the beginning of the Irish and a unitary state. Head of state is population does not want change at division there has been a conflict the president, who is elected di- the moment, but other figures, e.g. between those who want to join the rectly. The parliament consists of the growing rate of extramarital republic and those who want to two chambers, the Senate and the births (this rate doubled between remain British. Recently there more important House of Repre- 1986 and 1992), indicate that a seemed to be the possibility that the sentatives (Dáil) which is elected every 5 years. The political parties Table: Statistical comparisons in the Dáil are at present Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the Labour Party, Year Irish North. Great EU-12 the Progressive Democrats and the Republic Ireland Britain Workers' Party. Population (000s) 1991 3524 1594 55967 344704 The first official language is Celtic Inhab. per km2 1991 51 113 236 146 Irish which is actually spoken only Rates per 1000 inhab. by a minority of the population. The Births 1992 14.6 15.9 13.7 11.8 second official (and, in practice, Deaths 1992 8.7 9.3 10.8 10.1 first) language is English. Rates per 1000 births outside Marriage 1991 166 202 301 194 Social issues Stillbirths 1989 6.3 5.1 4.7 5.1 With the Great Famine in the mid- Age structure 19th century a period of emigra- under 15 (%) 1990 27.5 24.9 18.8 18.2 tion, mainly to America and Eng- 15-64 (%) 1990 61.2 62.8 65.5 67.3 land, began. This led to a popula- 65 and older (%) 1990 11.3 12.3 15.7 14.5 tion decline from 6.5 Mio. in 1840 GDP (in PPS) to 2.8 Mio. in 1961. Since the Per capita 1991 10815 11162 14834 14989 1970s this mass emigration has Growth (%) 1990-1 +9.5 +3.7 +1.0 +3.5 decreased, but persistent problems with unemployment still result in Sectoral employment Agriculture (%) 1991 14.0 6.8 1.3 6.3 net emigration. Industry (%) 1991 29.0 25.5 28.0 32.9 One main characteristic of the Services (%) 1991 57.0 67.7 70.7 60.8 population structure is the very high Economic activity rate percentage of young people, a con- Total (%) 1991 51.9 60.2 63.3 54.6 sequence of high fertility rates and Female (%) 1991 35.1 47.4 52.6 42.6 the emigration of adults. In 1980 Unemployment the birth rate was still the same as Total (%) 1992 17.6 16.7 10.4 9.4 100 years before with about 22 Females (%) 1992 18.8 14.5 8.9 11.5 births per 1000 inhabitants. Re- Youth (under 25) (%) 1992 26.2 21.9 16.7 18.1 cently it began to decline (1992: Sources: EUROSTAT and national statistical publications.

30 EURODATA Newsletter No.1 Country Profile: Ireland conflicts that had escalated since 1969 might find an end. At least an armistice was agreed on, and agreements were made that no regulations should be laid down against the will of the population. But no matter what a possible referendum might bring, it is not very likely that the social cleavage between Protestants and Catholics will disappear soon. The comparative table on this page shows that the Republic of Ireland is very different from Great Britain, at least with regard to the selected indicators. Northern Ireland is situ- ated somewhere in between both, not only geographically, but also well as various specific series, census of agriculture in 1991. La- statistically. It is populated more mainly on demography and econ- bour force surveys are conducted densely than Ireland, but less than omy. Social statistics are also pub- annually. Great Britain. The population is lished by ministries, e.g. Health better off than the Irish, but worse Statistics by the Department of off than the British. In most indi- Health and the Statistical Report by cators Northern Ireland is closer to the Department of Education. Ireland than to Britain. The CSO’s computerised data bank, Territorial Structure EireStat, contains principal eco- The division of the Irish island in nomic and social statistics. It can be four provinces (Leinster, Ulster, retrieved on-line, but CSO also Munster, Connaught) has historical offers a diskette service. roots, but no political or adminis- The latest population census was trative meaning today. There exists conducted in 1991, a census of no real political regional level in industrial production in 1990 and a Ireland. The principal local administrative units in the Irish Republic today are the 27 Counties and 5 National Statistical Institute: Central Statistics Office, St. Stephens Green County boroughs (Cities). These House, Earlsford Terrace, Dublin 2 ( (+1) 767531, Fax. 682221 constitute the upper tier in a two- tier system. The lower tier exists Government Publications Sale Office: Sun Alliance House, Molesworth only for urban areas and is made up St., Dublin 2, ( (+1) 6710309 of boroughs, urban district councils Ministries: Department of Education, Marlborough Street, Dublin 1, ( and towns. The rural districts have (+1) 734700, Fax. 729553 been officially abolished, but are Department of Labour, 65A Adelaide Road, Dublin 2, still used as spatial units in statisti- ( (+1) 765861, Fax. 769047 cal tables. For the special purpose of Department of Social Welfare, Áras Mhic Dhiarmada, Dublin regional economic planning the 1, ( (+1) 786444, Fax. 741709 counties are grouped into nine Universities with Social Science departments: Planning Regions. University College Dublin, University College Cork, Trinity In Northern Ireland counties have College Dublin been abolished and replaced by 26 Social Science Research Institutions: Economic and Social Research districts. Institute (ESRI, Dublin), Social Research Centre (University of Limerick), Centre for the Study of Irish Elections (Univers. Statistical Sources (Republic) College Galway), European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Dublin), The Families The Central Statistical Office pub- Studies Centre (Univ. College Dublin) lishes monthly Economic Series, a quarterly Statistical Bulletin and Social Science Journals: Irish Political Studies (annual, ISSN 0790-7184), an annual Statistical Abstract as The Economic and Social Review (quarterly, ISSN 0012-9984)

31 Country Profile: Ireland EURODATA Newsletter No.1

Further reading: Breen, R. et al. (1990): Understanding contemporary Ireland. State, Class and Development in the Republic of Ireland. London: Macmillan. Carter, R.W.G. & A.J. Parker (1989): Ireland. Contemporary perspectives on a land and its people. London: Rout- ledge. Clancy, P. et al. (Eds.) (1986): Ireland: A sociological profile. Dublin: Institute of Public Administration. Grimes, S. (1992): Ireland: the Chal- lenge of Development in the European Periphery. in: Geography 1/1992, 22- 32.

32 EURODATA Newsletter No.1 Noticeboard

Europe in Comparison. duction at the international (OECD, Newsletter. The newsletter Soli- A Series of Guidebooks for the EU) as well as on the national level. darity gives information on EU Social Sciences The eleven papers deal with various activities concerning social protection, social exclusion, the family This new series is an attempt to aspects of EU data such as EU so- and older people. Everyone in- support comparative social science cial statistics, interrelations of volved in social policy will be enti- research on Europe by providing a German and EU statistics, the tled to express their view: academ- broad range of meta-information EUROBAROMETER programme ics, policy makers, employers, trade required in comparing societies and of the European Commission, re- unions and representatives of vari- polities across Europe. The variety search and data holdings of the ous associations and institutions. of national differences, cultural as OECD, organisation and results of The journal wants to be regarded as well as institutional, represent a the International Social Survey a step towards more extensive and considerable barrier to be overcome Programme or national and inter- more comprehensive information in trans-national comparative re- national approaches in social re- exchanges on social protection in search. Social scientists here face porting. the future, building up a forum for far greater difficulties than in their The spectrum and quality of the discussion and stimulated debate on national contexts while at the same contributions make this comprehen- the key social policy issues both at time their institutional support is sive book useful to all social scien- European and national level. weaker. tists working in this field. The free-of-charge newsletter Soli- The series, edited by Heinrich Best Best, H. and U. Becker (Eds.): darity appears three times a year in and Peter Flora on behalf of IZ Sozialwissenschaften im neuen English and French and can be Sozialwissenschaften, Bonn, and Osteuropa (Social Sciences in ordered through: Deloitte & Touche MZES, Mannheim, is intended to New Eastern Europe). (Europe in Europe Services, rue Royale 326, B- contribute to comparative research Comparison - A series of guide- 1210 Brussels, Fax. (32-2) 223 by offering systematic meta- books for the social sciences; 2). 1995 information in four fields: (1) Bonn/Berlin: IZ Sozialwissenschaf- Quantitative data and source infor- ten, 1994. White paper on European Social mation provided by institutions in Policy. The EU Commission’s Through this book a new informa- the European countries. (2) The „Green paper on Social Policy“, tion service has been initiated. Data national institutions engaged in published in 1993, stimulated a acquisition and collection are based empirical research in the social debate among EU institutions, on an annual survey conducted sciences, with an explicit or implicit member states, employers, trade among and reported by research comparative perspective. (3) Biblio- unions and individuals who volun- institutions and social scientists in graphical documentation and re- teered their views on social policy Eastern and Central Europe. The search information referring to in Europe. The white paper Euro- results of these surveys offer an up- methodology, infrastructure and pean social policy - A way forward to-date and authentic account of results of social science research in for the Union is the result of the significant changes, both in science Europe. (4) Bibliometric and sci- green paper’s consultative proce- structure and subject areas. entometric analysis of social science dure. research cultures in European The book gives a view on the results Topics are employment, labour countries. of the annual survey 1992. It contains data on organisation, research standards, equality of women and To date two volumes have been focuses etc. reported by 60 social men, public health, the European published: science institutions. Further it offers Social Fund, social protection, international co-operation, labour Flora, P.; Kraus, F.; Noll, H. and project descriptions, addresses in- relations and the European law on F. Rothenbacher (Eds.): Social formation on research methods and these issues. The white paper’s Statistics and Social Reporting in so on. In addition, some articles on proposals are intended to form the and for Europe. (Europe in Com- the development of the Russian, basis for discussion on a new social parison - A series of guidebooks for Polish, Czech, Hungarian and Ru- action programme to be agreed by the social sciences; 1). Bonn: IZ manian sociology give an introduc- the Commission in 1995. Sozialwissenschaften, 1994. tion to the documentation. This paper can be ordered for the The contributions to this volume price of 7 ECU at all EU sales represent the revised papers of a EU Social Policy Publications agents (Cat. CE-84-94-880-EN-C, workshop. Scholars from very dif- Two new publications about social also in other EU-languages). ferent institutional contexts were policy are presented by the Euro- brought together to gain an over- pean Union, a newsletter and a view of current structures, activities „white paper“: and approaches in social data pro-

33 Noticeboard EURODATA Newsletter No.1

New Annual Report on Interna- series on every aspect of economic Statistical Yearbook of the Slovak tional Statistics and social life in over 200 countries Republic (Štatistická rocenka and areas around the world. Slovenskej republiky) 1993, 607 The International Statistical Insti- pages, ISBN 80-8877-10-2. Orders: tute in co-operation with the French The present CD-ROM version of Information Service of the Statisti- Institut National de la Statistique et the Statistical Yearbook is the first cal Office of the Slovak Republic, des Etudes Economiques just pub- application to CD-ROM of new Mileticova 3, 82467 Bratislava, lished the first issue of a new an- database techniques which UN- Fax. 07-63653. nual report: STAT has developed. In this first effort, the contents of the CD is Statistical Yearbook of Latvia ISI / INSEE: Annual Report on identical to the print version of the (Latvijas Statistikas Gadagramata) International Statistics (ARIS). 38th issue (with data through 1993, 307 pages, ISBN 9984-9038- Volume 1 -1994. 1990/91). However, the CD-ROM 3-4. Orders: Latvijas Republikas The primary purpose of ARIS is "to version provides a wealth of user- Valsts statistikas komiteja, Lacpleša encourage international co- friendly capabilities unique to its iela 1, Riga, LV 1301, Latvia, Fax. operation and association between electronic format. These include 371-7830137. statisticians and the exchange of easy means of search, grouping and Lithuania’s Statistics Yearbook their professional knowledge and selection of countries, periods and (Lietuvos statistikos metraštis) findings". It addresses to official series; display of selected series in a 1993, 465 pages, ISSN 1392-026X, statisticians, specialised scientific wide variety of tabulation formats; Orders: Lithuanian Department of organisations, and statisticians in easy access to extensive technical Statistics, Methodical Publishing the private sector. This first report notes and footnotes which are es- Centre, Gedimino pr.29, 2746 Vil- is a mixture of news and organisa- sential to sound analysis and inter- nius. tional profile descriptions, covering pretation of the data; and complete Statistical Yearbook of Hungary ISI itself, the statistical activities of graphing, export and printing capa- (Magyar statisztikai évkönyv) 1993, the UN, other international organi- bilities. Finally, to take advantage 447 pages, ISSN 0073-4039.. In- sations active in the world of offi- of most users’ continuing familiar- formation: Hungarian Central Sta- cial statistics, and national as well ity with statistics in book format tistical Office, P.O. Box 51, H-1525 as international statistical associa- and to preserve the contextual un- Budapest II., Hungary. Fax. +36-1- tions. By highlighting major activi- derstanding that tables in books 115 9085. ties of the past and present year, it provide, the entire printed version assembles very scattered informa- of the Yearbook is also available in Bulgaria: Statistical Yearbook tion from many sources. The 1994 the CD-ROM version in image 1993, 512 pages. Orders: National issue is a must for all those inter- format. Statistical Institute, Information Service and Publications, 10 ,6th ested in the institutional landscape For further information on technical September Str., 1000 Sofia. of international statistics. Irrespec- help, statistical enquiries and or- tive of this particular issue, ARIS dering statistical publications and Slovenija: Statistical Yearbook should be of great interest not only products, please contact: Director, (Statisticni Letopis) 1994, 652 to professional statisticians but also Statistical Division, United Nations, pages. Orders: Statistical Office of to all academic institutions engaged Room DC2 - 1420, New York, NY the Republic of Slovenia, Vozarski in comparative research In any 10017, USA. pot 12, 61000 Ljubljana, Slovenia. case, it is a very useful supplement Fax. +386-61-216932. Source: ISI/INSEE, Annual Report on to the International Statistical Re- International Statistics 1994. Croatia: Statistical Yearbook view (also published by ISI). (Statisticki ljetopis) 1993, 639 ISI-publications can be ordered Statistical Yearbooks from pages, ISSN 1330-0369. Orders: through: ISI Permanent Office, Central Bureau of Statistics, Eastern Europe Publications Department, Prinses Zagreb, Ilica 3, Croatia. In the past the access to statistical Beatrixlaan 428, NL-2270 AZ Statistical Yearbook of Yugosla- information about eastern Europe Voorburg, The Netherlands. fk via 1993, 473 pages, ISSN 0585- was often difficult because of lan- 1920. Orders: Jugoslovenska Kniga, guage problems. Only a few coun- UN Statistical Yearbook on Export Department, P.O.Box 36, tries, such as Hungary, have a tra- 11001 Beograd, Yugoslavia. Fax. CD-ROM dition in publishing at least their 011 625 970. For nearly 50 years the United Na- Statistical Yearbook in an English tions Statistical Yearbook has been edition. But recently the situation the most comprehensive standard has improved. The following Sta- Conference on Statistics and international compilation of statis- tistical Yearbooks are at least bilin- European Integration tics available world-wide. The gual including English: The annual statistician’s conference Yearbook provides hundreds of Statistische Woche took place at

34 EURODATA Newsletter No.1 Noticeboard

Vienna in September 1994. General Working group on Compara- Euroconferences topic of the meeting was „Statistics tive European Research The „Interdisciplinary Centre for and European Integration“. Partici- At the ESA conference European Comparative Research in the Social pants came in their majority from Societies: Fusion or Fission (see list Sciences“ (ICCR) and „The Euro- Germany and Austria, but also from below) in Budapest there will be a pean Association for the Advance- other countries including eastern working group on Comparative ment of Social Sciences“ (EA) are Europe and from EUROSTAT. European Research . The organis- holding a series of Euroconferences The meeting discussed the differ- ers ask for contributions from Euro- under the general title of Current ences in the organisation of statis- pean sociologists. Papers should Trends in European Social Sci- tics in Europe, the role of statistics address methodological or substan- ences. The conferences take place in European integration and the tive issues relating to comparative under the auspices of the Human possibilities for a harmonisation of research involving at least two Capital and Mobility programme of statistical concepts. The necessity European Countries. Information on the European Commission. The and helpfulness of harmonisation the working group: Nigel Gilbert, first conference on Costs and Bene- was agreed by everyone, but also Fax +44 1483 306290, Email fits of Europeanization: Is Har- disadvantages were pointed out. [email protected] monisation possible? And is it De- The national statistical institutes sirable? will be held soon and is have to spend a growing share of Workshop: Cultural Minorities contained in the list below. their resources to fulfil the growing The 5th Conference of the Interna- number of EU-directions and espe- tional Society for the Study of cially small institutes are not able to Forthcoming Events: European Ideas (ISSEI) will take carry on their own statistical pro- place in Utrecht, 19-24 August ZUMA-Workshops at Mannheim grammes in addition. National 1996. Anyone interested in a work- · International vergleichende For- offices might practically loose their shop about Dominant Culture as a schung in Europa. 4-5 May 1995. independence and become branch Foreign Culture. Dominant Groups · Computerkartographie. offices of Eurostat. in the Eyes of Minorities please 10-11 Oct 1995 Some papers from the conference Info: Fax +49-621-1246100 / muell- contact Janusz Mucha, Fax +48-56- [email protected] will be published in a special issue 247 65, Email [email protected] Costs and Benefits of Europeaniza- of the „Österreichische Zeitschrift torun.pl für Statistik“ 1995. mq tion, (Euroconferences), 5-8 April 1995 Vienna, Austria. Info: Dr. Angela Sell- ner at ICCR, Phone +43-1-5873973, Email [email protected] EURODATA Research Archive Workshop: Visualization of Categorial EURODATA Research Archive Data, 17-19 May 95, Köln, Germany. Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES) Info: Jörg Blasius, Fax +49 - 221 - D-68131 Mannheim 4769444 / [email protected] Phone: +49-621-292 8441 SEUGI’95 (SAS European Users Fax: +49-621-292 8435 Group International), 30 May-2 June E-Mail: [email protected] 1995, Stockholm, Sweden. Info: M. Administration and Staff: Peter Flora (Scientific Director), Franz Kraus (Manag- Richard, SAS-Institute, D-69120 Hei- ing Director), Michael Quick, Franz Rothenbacher, Marianne delberg, Fax +49-6221-474850 Schneider (Secretariat) ECIS’95: 3rd European Conference EURODATA Newsletter on Information Systems, 1-3 June 1995, Athens, Greece . Published by: Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES) Info: Email [email protected] EURODATA Research Archive Social Relations and Power - A D - 68131 Mannheim Challenge to Sociology (18th Nordic Editors: Franz Kraus, Michael Quick, Franz Rothenbacher Sociological Conference), 9-11 June Managing editor: Michael Quick 1995, Helsinki, Finland. Info: Catharina Phone: +49 - 621 - 292 8436 Visap, Fax +358-0-40500310 Fax: +49 - 621 - 292 8435 35th European Congress of the Re- E-mail: [email protected] gional Science Association (RSA), 22- Translations and linguistic editing: Marianne Schneider 25 Aug 1995, Odense, Denmark. Info: Printed by: Profil-Print, 63110 Rodgau Prof. G. Kristensen, Fax +45-66- Internet access: http://www.sowi.uni-mannheim.de/eurodata/newsletter.html 158790, Email [email protected] EURODATA Newsletter appears twice a year, normally in spring and autumn. It is European Meeting of Statisticians, distributed free of charge to social science institutions and libraries. Contributions, organized by the European Regional comments and general notes are welcome. Parts of the newsletter may freely be Committee of the Bernoulli Society, 21- reproduced, but please acknowledge the source and send a copy to the editor. 25 Aug 1995, Aarhus, Denmark. Info: ISSN 0947-9260 35 Noticeboard EURODATA Newsletter No.1

Michael Soerensen, Fax +45-86131769, Email [email protected] European Societies: Fusion or Fission (2nd conf. of the European Sociological Assoc.), 30 Aug - 2 Sep 1995, Buda- pest, Hungary. Info: Dr. Imre Kovacs, Fax +36-1-1221843 Education and Training for the Fu- ture Labour Markets of Europe, 21- 24 Sep 1995, Durham, UK. Info: Mrs. A.Barfield, Fax +44 (0)191-374 2456, Email [email protected] A Changing Europe in a Changing World: Urban and Regional Issues (Call for Papers), 11-14 April 1996, Exeter, UK. Info: Kathy Wood, Univ. of Durham, Fax +44 (0)191-374 2456 4th International Conference on Social Science Methodology (Call for Papers and Themes), 1-4 July 1996, Essex, UK. Info: David Rose, Fax +44- 1206-873151, [email protected]