Projects / Programmes
January 1, 2014
- December 31, 2019
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 5.03.00 |
Social sciences |
Sociology |
|
| 5.06.00 |
Social sciences |
Political science |
|
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| S210 |
Social sciences |
Sociology |
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| 5.04 |
Social Sciences |
Sociology |
| 5.06 |
Social Sciences |
Political science |
Researchers (15)
Organisations (1)
Abstract
The program is a continuation of the existing program Slovenian Public Opinion (SPO) and is based on the idea of monitoring social development through so called subjective indicators that are usually used in the framework of social surveys. We build on the assumption that development processes in various dimensions of social "life" should not be considered isolated and excluded from the complexity of social systems and social structures. Thus social and human development is usually studied on the following three dimensions: a) socio-economic, b) cultural; c) institutional. Coming from this starting point our general interest lies in the following research question:
Can we see, both in Slovenia and in international comparative context of current global social trends and by means of so called "subjective indicators", any association between different dimensions of development – socio-economic, cultural and institutional (political), and how these connections are exhibited?
For each of the three dimensions of the human and social development (socio-economic, cultural, institutional) , subjective indicators will include primarily the following thematic areas: perceptions of social inequalities and conflicts, attitudes towards marginal social groups, self-assessment of individual’s social and economic position, satisfaction with various aspects of personal and social life, social trust, social networks, demographic characteristics, quality of life, value orientations, life-style patterns, attitudes, religion, political values and orientations, trust in institutions, satisfaction with the performance institutions, perceptions of democracy, citizenship, voting behaviour, political participation, mass media, Slovenia in supra-national associations.
Apart from conceptual aspects, also methodological aspects of investigating social development by means of subjective indicators are important. This mainly concerns the following issues of operationalization and measurement: validity and reliability, equivalence, survey sampling design.
General and specific research methods of the program are tied to the social survey as a fundamental research design by which the research objectives of the program are planned to be achieved. The survey is planned annualy as personal interview of respondents from a sample of permanent residents of Slovenia and on the basis of instruments developed by the SPO program group. Important part is related to the SPO international cooperation, most notably participation in the annual international social survey the ISSP, and also WVS, EVS, and CSES. Thus, in this framework other methodological approaches should be mentioned: cross-national and cross-time comparative analyses, quantitative analyses (of social survey data), secondary analysis of the datasets (from cross-national) surveys, methodological experiment (for testing research instruments).
Research objectives and expected achievements can be classified into two groups: a) substantive – an answer to the research question through the testing of specific hypotheses, and b) practical (and methodological) – which, primarily include the creation of high-quality databases that will be accessible to social science community for further analysis.
Significance for science
Mission: Since its formation Slovenia Public Opinion Project has sought to achieve three main goals: 1) human development and improving the quality of life; 2) upholding standards of scientific excellence; 3) bringing together research and university teaching activities.
Short history: In 1968 a group of 6 university professors at (today’s) Faculty of Social Sciences formulated the first quantitative questionnaire titled ‘Slovenian public opinion’, effectively starting a chain of continuous measurements of social attitudes in the country. The survey introduced a new democratic element into the then one-party political system. During the eighties it became an important information basis for key politicians to test public acceptance of their pending decisions. By a simple fact of measuring public attitudes it indirectly contributed to the dynamic of social and political change, and, on the other hand, secured invaluable empirical data for a retrospective study of Slovenia’s recent history and social transformation. An important transitional point was year 1990, after which SPO team became gradually involved all important cross-national general social survey projects. The focus shifted from current political events to theoretically based and methodologically tightly regulated measurement of social phenomena, which was also reflected in the scope and character of SPO scientific outputs. During the last 20 years SPO has supplied Slovenian social scientists with a great number of reliable and comparative social indicators.
The programme will produce two types of scientific outputs, conceptual (substantive) and methodological. Prospective users, members of academic community can be divided into two larger groups:
a) Researchers, lecturers and students enrolled in courses that tackle value dynamic and value change in contemporary societies. The programme will supply them with a new generation of social indicators and simultaneously provide them with a better empirical basis for testing their scientific hypotheses in comparative context. Owing to the general, diverse and comparative nature of the indicators we anticipate that SPO programme based scientific advances will be most frequent in areas of sociology, political sciences, psychology, social policy, but also economy and education.
b) Researchers, lecturers and students on courses teaching social science research methods, who will benefit from the regular and timely transfer of methodological knowledge and expertise. The key element is close involvement of the SPO group in international survey projects, resulting in continuous exchange of knowledge and experience. Apart from efforts to raise standards of research process even further the aim is also to provide users with high-quality empirical basis for running scientific analyses or making qualified political decisions.
Significance for the country
Owing to its strong involvement in international cooperations the Slovenian Public Opinion (SPO) programme has set up a knowledge network for various user groups, both from public and private research area. The acquired expertise can be used most directly in the fields of marketing, advertising, all types of quantitative public opinion research, as well as in various analytical departments in other industries which make use of large data bases (human development departments, employee and customer satisfaction analysts, internal market analysis departments and similar.
Areas of implementation of Slovenian Public Opinion survey results:
a) Governance – In any contemporary society social surveys are a powerful tool for social and political self-observation and SPO outputs indirectly effect the level of governance and quality of life, assuming the gradual trickle of findings from basic scientific research to other social systems.
b) Strategic development – Policy-makers are an important target group of prospective users who employ SPO outputs as information basis for the formulation of their policies, identification of pressing social issues, creating political strategies, taking specific measures or planning public information campaigns.
c) Quality of life - Large number of social indicators collected may alert the social scientists, policy-makers, non-government organizations, media or the general public to issues, such as the growth of anti-democratic potentials, spots of social conflicts, persisting inequalities and marginalization and similar, enabling relevant players to react timely and appropriately.
d) National identity - New social indicators will expand and deepen the knowledge on Slovenian society in European and global context and will both directly and indirectly contribute to charting the contours of its specific identity. By participating in cross-national cooperations and publishing in international journals SPO will contribute to making the Slovenia a more recognizable and analytically attractive case.
e) Facilitating knowledge transfer - participation in numerous distinguished cross-national empirical projects results in prompt exchange of knowledge and experience and its passing on to university students. Many under-graduate and post-graduate courses at the Faculty of Social Sciences are already based on SPO research expertise, both at conceptual and methodological level. We anticipate that SPO program will continue to contribute substantially to the formation of a new generation of methodologically competent young researchers.
Most important scientific results
Annual report
2014,
2015,
final report
Most important socioeconomically and culturally relevant results
Annual report
2014,
2015,
final report
