European Social Survey in Luxembourg - ESS
Coordinating Institution:
CEPS / INSTEAD
From: 01/01/2003
To: 31/03/2005
Budget: 445,473.00€
Contact(s):
Borsenberger Monique
Summary
The European Social Survey (ESS) covers more than 20 nations. Its aim is to explain the interaction betweenEurope’s changing institutions and the attitudes, beliefs and behaviour patterns of its diverse populations. It is funded via the European Commission’s 5th and 6th Framework Programmes, the European Science Foundation and the FNR in Luxembourg.
In Luxembourg, the ESS was also conducted in the framework of the axe 6, point 6.2, of the FNR’s VIVRE Programme titled La production de données et l’accès aux données et aux sources.
The two surveys in Luxembourg were realised by CEPS/INSTEAD with respect to the usual scientific criteria relevant in this type of survey. With an experience of more than twenty years in the fieldwork, it could mobilise an experimented staff in this field. The interviews were conducted by sworn interviewers who have a long experience in the field and have followed a specific training for the ESS.
More than 1,500 one-hour face-to-face interviews with persons aged 15 or more were realised for each survey.
The first survey was realised between February and August 2004 and the answer rate was 43%. The second survey was realised between September 2004 and mid-January 2005 with an answer rate of 50%.
The questionnaire consisted of a ‘core’ module which remained relatively constant from wave to wave, plus two or three ‘rotating’ modules, repeated at intervals, each of which was devoted to a main topic or theme. The core module covered topics such as: Media, social trust, politics, well-being, socio-demographic profile. In 2003, the rotating modules covered citizenship, involvement and democracy, immigration. In 2004, they covered health and care seeking, economic morality, family work and wellbeing. Finally, a small supplementary questionnaire on human values was also administered. For each interview, the interviewers had to fill in a questionnaire about the conditions of the interview.
The original questionnaires were in English and were translated in Luxembourgish, German, French and Portuguese. Each interviewed person could choose between these five languages for the interview. In complement to these data, weekly reports had a look at the general context of the survey in terms of national and international events which happened during the survey time and could influence the answers. A report on the period between the two surveys, from August 2003 to August 2004, is also available.
All documents and results for the participating countries are online
The first results of the survey for Luxembourg are available on the following link
On 2 December 2005, the European Social Survey received the Descartes Prize for Research & Science Communication in social sciences from the European Commission.