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New research project "Social Capital in Russia, Germany and Spain"

A research project titled "Social Capital in Russia, Germany and Spain" was launched within the framework of preparation for LCSR Summer School-2015. The project is the first round of a large international comparative study conducted in three countries.

Within the framework of preparation for LCSR Summer School-2015, which will be held in Moscow from July 25 to August 3 and will be devoted to the vignettes methodology in comparative studies, LCSR has launched a research project "Social Capital in Russia, Germany and Spain". The purpose of the project is to collect data which will be analysed by the participants of the Summer School under the guidance of Professor Hermann Duelmer (University of Cologne). It is important to emphasize that this project is the first round of a large international comparative study conducted in three countries: Russia, Germany and Spain.

The cross-cultural design of the study will help to understand how trust in different groups varies depending on the social context of three chosen countries. To achieve this goal, the project will involve the survey of students studying sociology in the leading educational and cultural cities: Cologne (Germany), Bilbao (Spain), Moscow and St. Petersburg (Russia). Trust attitudes toward groups with different gender, race, religion, level of Russian language and the type of employment will be analysed. The method of «vignettes», belonging to the experimental techniques, will be used in the project as the basic one.

The method implies the description of situations varying in the characteristics of the trust object (for instance, gender, skin colour, etc.) and thus allows to determine the factors promoting individual trust attitudes. While the greater part of studies treats group identities as independent characteristics,    «vignettes» design takes into account the «overlap» of these characteristics. Since respondents simultaneously belong to many social groups this approach seems to be more appropriate and valid.  The additional advantage of this study is that «vignettes» helps to draw conclusions on the causal relationships between variables under investigation.  

The results of empirical analysis will be posted on our website at the end of Summer School - 2015 in special section: (lcsr.hse.ru/summer2015). 

We are grateful to everyone who has contributed to the project and will cooperate with us in the work on the project during the Summer School-2015!