scholarly journals Fieldwork Monitoring for the European Social Survey: An illustration with Belgium and the Czech Republic in Round 7

2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 659-686
Author(s):  
Caroline Vandenplas ◽  
Geert Loosveldt ◽  
Koen Beullens

Abstract Adaptive and responsive survey designs rely on monitoring indicators based on paradata. This process can better inform fieldwork management if the indicators are paired with a benchmark, which relies on empirical information collected in the first phase of the fieldwork or, for repeated or longitudinal surveys, in previous rounds or waves. We propose the “fieldwork power” (fieldwork production per time unit) as an indicator for monitoring, and we simulate this for the European Social Survey (ESS) Round 7 in Belgium and in the Czech Republic. We operationalize the fieldwork power as the weekly number of completed interviews and of contacts, the ratio of the number of completed interviews to the number of contact attempts and to the number of refusals. We use a repeated measurement multilevel model, with surveys in the previous rounds of the European Social Survey as the macro level and the weekly fieldwork power as repeated measurements to create benchmarks. We also monitor effort and data quality metrics. The results show how problems in the fieldwork evolution can be detected by monitoring the fieldwork power and by comparing it with the benchmarks. The analysis also proves helpful regarding post-survey fieldwork evaluation, and links effort, productivity, and data quality.

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 55-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia S. Mastikova

This article, based on a European social survey for the year 2016, analyzes the attitudes of Russian and European citizens towards the influx of migrants into their respective countries, as well as towards the changes that said migrants bring with them. Despite the fact that Russia is among the leading countries in terms of migrant count, while remaining separated from those migration flows which bred the current European migrant crisis, it is among the top three nations with the most negative attitudes towards people migrating to their country, as well as in terms of evaluating the changes attributed to said migrants. In regards to migration inflow, the utmost negative assessments are prevalent in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Russia. Positive assessments were recorded in Iceland and Sweden. When it comes to changes introduced by migrants, the most negative assessments among all of the countries surveyed were again recorded in Hungary, Russia and the Czech Republic. The most tolerant countries in this regard turned out to be Scandinavian nations: Iceland, Sweden and Finland. Negative assessments in Hungary and the Czech Republic can be attributed to the fact that these nations act as migration transit points of sorts on the path towards the wealthiest of European states. They do not possess the resources necessary to handle accommodating and supporting transit migrants, as well as providing security for their own host populations. This article also cites the discussion on potential reasons for anti-migrant attitudes in foreign research. Among the main reasons highlighted are cultural factors (values and beliefs in the countries studied), economic (competition in the labor market, income level, GDP, the proportion of migrants among the general population), social-demographic (gender, age, education level, type of settlement), contextual factors (religion, political orientation, mass-media influence) etc. In Russia, aside from the aforementioned factors, the effect of low living standards and propagandistic coverage of the European migrant crisis in mass-media is also a consideration.


2021 ◽  
pp. 193672442199825
Author(s):  
Felix Bittmann

According to the theory of liking, data quality might be improved in face-to-face survey settings when there is a high degree of similarity between respondents and interviewers, for example, with regard to gender or age. Using two rounds of European Social Survey data from 25 countries including more than 70,000 respondents, this concept is tested for the dependent variables amount of item nonresponse, reluctance to answer, and the probability that a third adult person is interfering with the interview. The match between respondents and interviewers is operationalized using the variables age and gender and their statistical interactions to analyze how this relates to the outcomes. While previous studies can be corroborated, overall effect sizes are small. In general, item nonresponse is lower when a male interviewer is conducting the interview. For reluctance, there are no matching effects at all. Regarding the presence of other adults, only female respondents profit from a gender match, while age is without any effect. The results indicate that future surveys should weigh the costs and benefits of sociodemographic matching as advantages are probably small.


Author(s):  
Bohdan Stejskal

Municipal waste landfilling is the most common practice of municipal waste disposal in the Czech Republic. As a member state of the EU the Czech Republic must comply with the legislative requirements set for waste management. EU Council Directive 1999/31/EC requires member states to limit the amount of bio-degradable waste into landfill.To achieve the objectives of the Plan of Waste Management of the Czech Republic, various methods has been proposed. Prior to the waste processing, it is necessary to know the waste material composition, and after that select the most appropriate method and procedure for waste utilization or disposal.Therefore an analysis of graveyard waste composition has been carried out, where, by repeated measurements of samples weighing more than 500 kg (the total amount of analyzed waste was 3107 kg), it was found out that the graveyard waste consists of almost 77 % of bio-degradable matter. It is operationally impossible to separate bio-degradable matter from non-bio-degradable materials. Therefore it is desirable to collect compostable cemetery green waste separately from the waste coming from the decoration of gravestones that may be energetically utilized.


2021 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 431-459
Author(s):  
Bruno Šimac ◽  
Tijana Trako Poljak ◽  
Vladimir Ivanović

This paper examines the care for nature in Croatia based on the European Social Survey (ESS) data from Round 4 (2008) and Round 9 (2018) over time and cross-nationally, in comparison with five other Central European (CE) countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia). We correlate the item about the care for nature with Schwartz’s Human Values Scale (HVS), as adapted for the ESS, to investigate whether values as defined by Schwartz serve as good predictors of the care for nature in selected CE countries. We also look at the correlation with respondents’ socio-demographic characteristics. Our analysis reveals that, while there are similarities regarding environmental attitudes and values among CE countries, there are also some individual differences. Croatia shows the strongest increase in the support for the care for nature over the 10-year period, and both Croatia and Slovenia score the highest on the care for nature in 2018. Poland, Slovakia and Czech Republic show an overall stagnation in the results, while Hungary exhibits a significant decrease between 2008 and 2018. Our research in CE countries confirms that Schwartz’s HVS can be predictive of pro-environmentalism. However, while the findings for the higher-order value of Self-transcendence are in line with existing literature, the result suggesting that Conservatism is also a moderately good predictor of the care for nature is somewhat surprising. We posit that the reason could lie in the difference between collectivist vs. individualist value types, which provides a new dimension for the interpretation of environmental attitudes in these countries.


2009 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Štěpánek ◽  
P. Zahradníček ◽  
P. Skalák

Abstract. Quality control and homogenization has to be undertaken prior to any data analysis in order to eliminate any erroneous values and non climatic biases in time series. In this work we describe and then apply our own approach to data quality control, combining several methods: (i) by applying limits derived from interquartile ranges (ii) by analyzing difference series between candidate and neighbouring stations and (iii) by comparing the series values tested with "expected'' values – technical series created by means of statistical methods for spatial data (e.g. IDW, kriging). Because of the presence of noise in series, statistical homogeneity tests render results with some degree of uncertainty. In this work, the use of various statistical tests and reference series made it possible to increase considerably the number of homogeneity test results for each series and thus to assess homogeneity more reliably. Inhomogeneities were corrected on a daily scale. These methodological approaches are demonstrated by use of the daily data of air temperature and precipitation measured in the area of the Czech Republic. Series were processed by means of developed ProClimDB and AnClim software (http://www.climahom.eu).


Human Affairs ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daiva Skučiene ◽  
Julija Moskvina

AbstractThis paper aims to establish which factors influence whether people in eastern/central European countries decide to continue in paid work or retire. The situation in Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, and Slovakia in 2010 is analysed. In order to pursue this aim, the following objectives were set: firstly, to analyse previous research on the topic, secondly, to evaluate factors influencing people’s decisions on whether to continue in paid work or retire in selected eastern/central European countries, and, finally, to conclude. Secondary analysis was conducted in order to pursue the research aim. Sources of data include European Social Survey Round 5 (2010) data, Eurostat, and MISSOC. Descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression were used to analyse the data. The extent to which a person is willing to engage in work on reaching the legal age of retirement is analysed in relation to economic situation, state of health, and working conditions.


1998 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Koupilova ◽  
Vagero ◽  
Leon ◽  
Pikhart ◽  
Prikazsky ◽  
...  

Pflege ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 233-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gianfranco Zuaboni ◽  
Luciana Degano Kieser ◽  
Bernd Kozel ◽  
Katharina Glavanovits ◽  
Jörg Utschakowski ◽  
...  

Zusammenfassung. Hintergrund: Der Recovery-Ansatz gewinnt in der psychiatrischen Forschung und Praxis zunehmend an Bedeutung. Im englischen Sprachraum ist die praktische Etablierung und wissenschaftliche Auseinandersetzung fortgeschritten. Um die Implementierung des Ansatzes zu unterstützen, sind Einschätzungsinstrumente notwendig. Ein verbreitetes und anerkanntes Instrument ist die Recovery Self Assessment Scale (RSA). Diese besteht aus vier Versionen eines Fragebogens, welche die Perspektiven von Nutzenden, Fachpersonen, Angehörigen und dem Management erfassen. Ziel/Methode: In diesem Artikel werden die Entwicklung des Instrumentes und der Übersetzungsprozess dargestellt. Zwei voneinander unabhängige Arbeitsgruppen verwendeten unterschiedliche Übersetzungsverfahren: Die Arbeitsgruppe aus der Schweiz (AGS) orientierte sich an den ISOR-Prinzipien, die Arbeitsgruppe aus Norddeutschland (AGN) an den Richtlinien des European Social Survey Programme zur Übersetzung von Fragebögen – TRAPD. Die Methoden unterscheiden sich darin, dass die TRAPD Fokusgruppen vorsieht. Die Ergebnisse der Arbeitsgruppen wurden mittels eines Konsensusverfahrens zur RSA-D zusammengeführt. Ergebnisse: Bei der Übersetzung und kulturellen Anpassung der RSA-D wurde die Nähe zum theoretischen Bezugsrahmen der RSA gewahrt und die Übertragbarkeit in den deutschsprachigen Kontext berücksichtigt. Schlussfolgerung: Bevor die RSA-D in der Praxis und Forschung eingesetzt werden kann, sollte in weiterführenden Studien die psychometrische Testung erfolgen.


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