Slovenian Public Opinion

Code:

P5-0151

Period:

1.1.2014 - 31.12.2019

Range on year:

2.32 FTE | 2016

Head:

izr.prof.dr. Mitja Hafner Fink

Research activity:

Social sciences

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.

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