The European Social Survey (ESS)

REVIEW OF THE EUROPEAN SOCIAL SURVEY

During the meetings of SAB and Funder’s Forum of 8-9 November 2006, it was agreed that the ESS evaluation should be prepared by the ESF and the funding agencies, and its terms defined prior to input from the Scientific Advisory Board.  The Central Coordinating Team was then asked to submit a self-evaluation report and an independent Review Panel was set up in the summer of 2007 to consider the material available and give its comments and recommendations.  It was decided that the best point in time for the evaluation to start would be in November 2007, in order to have available information on the impact of ESS in analyses and publications based on Rounds 1 and 2, on the quality of the data sets of Round 3, and details of the selected rotating modules for Round 4. The Review Panel thus met in Madrid on 15-17 November 2007 back to back with the SAB, and held interviews with several CCT and SAB members. The long-term involvement of ESF in the funding beyond Round 4 is dependent upon this evaluation.

The Review Panel published its report to the European Science Foundation in April 2008. The first of its numerous recommendations was the following:
"The panel unanimously finds that the importance of ESS, its demonstrated success in initial launch, and its clear signals of impact justify fully continuous funding at levels necessary to achieve its vision and maintain its quality"

The full Review report can be downloaded here

Background

The European Social Survey (ESS) has its origins in the ESF programme The Blueprint for a European Social Survey .  This programme enabled the development of the project, resulting in the ESS as we now know it - a multi-country survey, with each Round spanning a two-year period, from development of the questionnaire through to publication of its data, data which is freely accessible to all. 

The central funding for the ESS comes from the Framework Programme of the European Commission and national survey costs are covered by the national funding agency or agencies involved.  In the aim of encouraging and developing what is felt to be an important initiative for research infrastructure in Europe, the ESF Standing Committee for the Social Sciences (SCSS) decided to allocate additional funding to Rounds 1 and 2 of the ESS in order to cover the costs of meetings of five ESS bodies; for Round 3, the ESF has allocated funding to the meetings of the Funders’ Forum and Scientific Advisory Board. 

Currently, the ESF is inviting those countries participating in the ESS to sign a Memorandum of Understanding, to help ensure a more long-term funding.  The Memorandum would cover Rounds 3 and 4, i.e. the years 2005-2009.

The project is directed by a Central Co-ordinating Team led by Professor Roger Jowell and full details of ongoing work are available on the ESS website go to website

Round 1 (2001-2003)

The First Round of the ESS was completed with the deposit of survey data for almost all the 22 countries that participated.    These data are freely available through the ESS data website. more

A launch conference took place on 25-26 November 2003 at the European Commission where a range of papers about substantive and methodological findings were presented. more

Two rotating modules

• Citizenship, Involvement and Democracy (60 items)
  led by Kenneth Newton (UK)

• Immigration (60 items)
  led by Ian Preston (UK)

Participating Countries: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece , Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. 

Round 2 (2003-2005)

Following the success of the first round, 26 countries joined the second round of the survey. In addition to the core questionnaire, there were three rotating modules

• Family, Work and Wellbeing (60 items)
  led by Robert Erikson (Sweden)

• Economic Morality: Market Society and Citizenship (30 items)
  led by Susanne Karstedt (UK)

• Health and Care-Seeking (30 items)
  led by Sjoerd Kooiker (Netherlands)

The data release has taken place.  2005 also saw the creation of the European Social Survey Education Net, or ESS EduNet, an Internet-based analysis-training programme aiming to facilitate and enrich access to and usage of empirical data in the social sciences. The resource is developed at Norwegian Social Science Data Services. go to website

Participating Countries: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece , Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Kingdom. 

Round 3 (2005-2007)

The award of the  prestigious Descartes Prize in December 2005 - for an interview go to the ESF News Release - highlights the achievements of the ESS, as the first social science project having been awarded this prize, and shows the importance of continuing this time-series.  Currently, 25 countries have confirmed participation in this third round.

The two rotat

• Personal and Social Well-being: creating indicators for a flourishing Europe (50 items)
  led by Felicia Huppert (United Kingdom)

• The Timing of Life: The Organisation of the Life Course in Europe (50 items)
  led by Franceso C. Billari (Italy)

Participating countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine and the United Kingdom. 

Round 4 (2007-2009)

Two Questionnaire Design Teams were selected for Round 4 following a Call for Proposal in December 2006:

1. Experiences and Expressions of Ageism
Team:
Dominic Abrams,  University of Kent, UK
Luisa Lima, University of Lisbon, Portugal
Geneviève Coudin, Laboratoire de Psychologie Sociale, France

2. Welfare attitudes in a changing Europe
Team:
Stefan Svallfors, Umeå University, Sweden
Wim van Oorschot, Tilburg University, The Netherlands
Peter Taylor-Gooby, University of Kent, UK
Christian Staerklé, University of Geneva, Switzerland
Jørgen Goul Andersen, Aalborg University, Denmark
John Hills, LSE, UK
Tom Sefton, LSE, UK
Steffen Mau, University of Bremen, Germany

The Call for Question Design Teams for European Social Survey Round 4 has been published in the Official Journal of the European Communities, with a deadline for applications of 23rd February 2007. For more details see the call for proposals (published 21 November 2006)

The ESS is listed as one of the Research Infrastructures in the European Strategy Forum for Research Infrastructure (ESFRI) Roadmap that appeared in October 2006.  The Roadmap is the result of an intensive two-year consultation and peer review process involving over 1000 high level European and international experts. It identifies 35 large scale infrastructure projects, at various stages of development, in seven key research areas including Environmental Sciences; Energy; Materials Sciences; Astrophysics, Astronomy, Particle and Nuclear Physics; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Social Sciences and the Humanities; Computation and data Treatment.  More details on ESFRI and an electronic copy of the report can be found on the ESFRI web pages: go to website (published 21 November 2006)

The Central Coordinating Team of the ESS issues regular news bulletins that can be consulted on the main ESS website.  You can subscribe to receive the lastest information. go to website

Contacts

European Social Survey
Central Co-ordinating Team
Centre for Comparative Social Surveys
City University
Northampton Square,
London EC1V 0HB

Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7040 4901
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7040 4900

Link to ESS contacts page

Dr.BalázsKissE-Mail

Head of Unit

Mrs.CélineQuedrueE-Mail

Administrator - EUROCORES Coordination