The History and the Methodology of Comparative Cross-national Social Studies
The second methodological seminar of LCSS took place on March 24, 2011. The lecture “The History and the Methodology of Comparative Cross-national Social Studies” was delivered by Anna Andreenkova, PhD, assistant director of CESSI, director of European Social Study in Russia.
Prof. Andreenkova began her report by detailing the field of comparative studies. It is the comparison of the large social units (more frequently they are countries) by the means of empirical data collection using the mass survey method. The comparative studies can be classified by the number of countries (regional or world surveys) and by the number of time series.
Substantial increase of interest in comparative projects originated in the U.S.A. in the postwar period of the late 1940s, since a boom of development of the mass surveys methods fell on this period of time. The United States of America was one the first countries which realized the importance to study the public opinion of other countries about major issues. It is interesting that the first comparative projects carried out by the U.S.A. in 1947, was devoted to the study of opinions about the strategic bombing of the United States during the Second World War.
The various problems connected with the realization of the comparative projects came in the 1950s; therefore, the interest in such research was falling. But in the 1960s and 1970s the attention to the comparative studies increased again due to the active development of methodology of mass surveys. Exactly in this period the European Commission conducted the study about public opinion on the individual national priorities and on the integrated European functions and organizations in the six countries. Afterwards this investigation grew into the famous “Eurobarometer”.
In the 1980s and 1990s the systematic work in elaboration and improvement of the methodology of comparative studies began. At the same time there was the development of mass surveys based on the random sample in the USSR. The interest in comparative studies has also increased as well as the financing for these studies. The practices of the foreign countries had been actively adopted.
Where do the comparative studies go now? Prof. Andreenkova highlighted some of the most important points. Firstly, there is a basic tendency towards the expansion of openness and accessibility of comparative projects and their procedures, but at the same time they become more protracted because of that. Secondly, there is the complexification of the studies and data collection methods. Thirdly, the project organization becomes more democratic and international, more and more countries are included in the sample. Fourthly, the quality of the data collected is improved. Fifthly, the problem of translation and adaptation of tools becomes more urgent. And sixthly, the equivalence of samples is particularly important: the sampling error always takes place, but let it be the same for all countries (or other social groups) under study.
A number of questions and comments were expressed after the lecture. Particularly, prof. Kosals, LCSS at the HSE, pointed out two possible motivations for conducting the comparative studies: management problem (the awareness of reactions to the actions of one country by another states, as in the event of the American study of strategic bombing), and the problem of self-identification and inclusion in the international community (after the disintegration of the Soviet Union it is important to understand what place our country occupies in the international arena and what are its strengths and weaknesses in the judgment of other states).