Exploring public attitudes, informing public policy Selected fi ndings from the fi rst three rounds 113369_ESS3369_ESS RRevealingevealing aattitudesttitudes 66.indd.indd 1 111/11/081/11/08 112:33:282:33:28 The European Social Survey has developed a unique scientifi c methodology for mapping changes in social attitudes… providing an authoritative source of EU data for academics and policy makers ˆ Janez Potocnik, EU Commissioner for Scienceˆ and Research Janez Potocnik refl ects on the award of the Descartes Prize for ‘excellence in scientifi c collaborative research’ to the ESS, during his opening speech at the Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities in Europe, European Parliament, 2005 13369_ESS Revealing attitudes 7.indd 2 19/11/08 10:52:58 Exploring public attitudes, informing public policy 1 Attitude shifts in a changing Europe It was in the 1990s that the The ESS has three linked aims: ‘…has generated new insights and European Science Foundation knowledge on key issues, problems, fi rst identifi ed the need for 1 To measure changes in public attitudes and topics within the social sciences’ a new regular and rigorous and behaviour patterns both over time … and… ‘improved standards of Europe-wide survey to and across nations methodological rigour and transparency, chart changes in social raising international standards of fi eldwork, values throughout Europe 2 To improve the quality of comparative questionnaire design and sampling for quantitative measurement in Europe other European social surveys and market This booklet contains summaries of a and beyond research, especially in countries which lack number of fi ndings from the European accumulated expertise in survey research’. Social Survey (ESS), which started in 3 To establish robust attitudinal indicators 2001 and is now in its fourth biennial to stand alongside existing behavioural So the ESS has swiftly become an round. Seed-funded in the 1990s by the and factual indicators of national authoritative source of reliable data European Science Foundation, it has since well-being about Europe’s evolving social fabric been funded by the European Commission and a key vehicle for knowledge transfer. and up to 34 national Research Councils In 2005, the ESS became the fi rst social This booklet focuses on a selection of throughout Europe (26 EU countries science project to win the Descartes Prize published fi ndings from the accumulated and 8 others). None has ever withdrawn for ‘excellence in scientifi c collaborative ESS data sets which are widely quarried from the study. research’. It has subsequently been selected by academics, researchers, politicians, as one of a small number of projects policy-makers and journalists. which form part of the European Roadmap for Research Infrastructures. In 2008 a top-level review commissioned by its 35 funders concluded that the ESS: Contents Addressing key issues 2 Education and politics 8 Sex and sexuality 16 The European social model 3 Families and work 10 The training gap 18 Ageing and fi nancial security 4 Keeping the faith 11 Education matters 20 A digital divide? 5 Public responses to migration 12 More than a survey 22 A question of trust 6 What makes a good citizen? 14 ESS institutions and framework 24 113369_ESS3369_ESS RRevealingevealing aattitudesttitudes 66.indd.indd 3 111/11/081/11/08 112:33:292:33:29 2 European Social Survey Addressing key issues The ESS questionnaires ESS questionnaire topics include: Investigating public attitudes in up to 30 cover a wide range of topics European countries every two years and that tap into key issues facing • Citizen involvement and democracy disseminating the results without delay contemporary Europe • Moral and social values enables governments, policy analysts and • Trust in institutions scholars to keep up to date on social trends Some questions are asked in every • Social capital and social trust that affect how democracy is working and round of the survey. Others are asked • Immigration and asylum how European citizens perceive their lives, on a rotating basis by leading academic • Family and working life their nations and the world. specialists in the fi eld in association with • National, ethnic and religious identities questionnaire design specialists within the • Economic morality In an era of falling political participation ESS team. The subjects and authors of • Political values and engagement and low electoral turnout, the ESS is rotating modules are selected following • Health and social care becoming an ever more important aid a Europe-wide competition at each round. • Personal and social well-being to good government at both a national • Perceptions of the life course and European level. Supplementing other • Crime and personal security reliable sources of offi cial data which chart • Household circumstances changes in people’s social and economic • Attitudes to welfare circumstances or behaviour, the ESS also • Financial circumstances provides rigorous cross-national data about • Attitudes to and experience of ageism shifts in people’s long-term perceptions, • Education and occupation preferences, preoccupations and concerns. • Social exclusion • Socio-demographic characteristics ESS FACT The EC Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen has derived a set of unique indicators of ‘active citizenship’ based on ESS data 113369_ESS3369_ESS RRevealingevealing aattitudesttitudes 66.indd.indd 4 111/11/081/11/08 112:33:292:33:29 Exploring public attitudes, informing public policy 3 One of Europe’s most enduring Their key fi ndings are that: contributions has been its model of The welfare provision in which everyone’s • Higher social security spending does not taxes contribute to the health and fi nancial diminish individual acts of social support security of all. But from time to time the European system has come under fi re from those • There is no evidence for the notion that the who argue that societies actually function welfare state ‘crowds out’ social solidarity social better when citizens spontaneously interact with and care for one another. Such activity • The higher the average income in supposedly withers in welfare states where a country, so the more inclined are model formal government provision ‘crowds out’ its citizens to provide for one another Does Europe’s model individual acts of social support because of welfare provision people step aside and leave things to the • Economic security strengthens rather reduce individual acts state. The more this happens, they suggest, than weakens social ties, perhaps of social support? the less frequent will be even the most because individuals more readily turn basic acts of solidarity such as doing their attention to others only once a sick neighbour’s shopping. their own basic needs are met Tom van der Meer and colleagues from These conclusions were made possible by Radboud University in the Netherlands the scale of the ESS’s large cross-national have investigated these claims by drawing dataset which enabled common patterns on data from the fi rst round of the ESS*. to be identifi ed. The unusually detailed They analysed data on individual help given background data in the ESS enabled the to fellow citizens and linked it to aggregate effects of certain national differences – national data on social security expenditure such as the likelihood of living in a large and average income. family – to be taken into account in the analysis, making it possible to identify the ‘independent’ impact of increases in social security spending and differences ESS FACT in average income between countries. A large programme of methodological research is carried out by the ESS team to investigate and improve questionnaire design, fi eldwork protocols and response rates, and to *Van der Meer, T., Scheepers, P. and te Grotenhuis, M. (2008), ‘Does the state affect the informal connections achieve cost savings without between its citizens? New institutionalist explanations of social participation in everyday life’, in: H. Meulemann (ed), resulting losses in data quality Social capital in Europe: similarity of countries and diversity of people? Multi-level analyses of the European Social Survey 2002, Leiden & Boston: Brill. 113369_ESS3369_ESS RRevealingevealing aattitudesttitudes 66.indd.indd 5 111/11/081/11/08 112:33:292:33:29 4 European Social Survey With an ageing population in Europe, how The graph reveals that women in almost well-prepared are people for their retirement, all countries are especially concerned that Ageing especially at a time when occupational and their income in retirement will be too small state pensions are under acute pressure? to see them through their later years, and that these concerns are most marked and What is clear from ESS data is that many in many Eastern European countries – Europeans are worried about whether where there is already more overall concern. fi nancial they will have an adequate income to cover their retirement years. As always, variations Long-term trend data via the ESS will between countries are large, with over enable these issues to be tracked and security half of those in some countries and only be related to actual changes in pension Many people, especially one-tenth of people in others expressing provision in each country. women, are concerned concern. People who are most worried about the adequacy of are also more inclined to see it as ‘the People who are most their pension provision. government’s responsibility’ to provide an worried are also more inclined But these worries are much