International Survey Center

Surveys and statistical analysis in many nations

The International Survey Center conducts research on social, economic and political issues using survey data from large, representative national samples from many nations. Most of our work is addressed to sociologists, economists and political scientists; it is based on rigorous multivariate statistical methods and is regularly published in sociology's leading academic journals (examples). To decision makers in business and government, we provide authoritative reports presented in a clear and readable style in the Australian Social Monitor. We also do commissioned  surveys and reports. Much of our data is freely available. ISC principals are: Professor MDR Evans (University of Nevada, Reno) and Professor Jonathan Kelley (University of Nevada, Reno & University of Melbourne); Professor Krzysztof Zagorski (CBOS, Poland), and Dr Joanna Sikora (Australian National University). Australian data collection is by Datacol (Canberra), directed by Malcolm Mearns.

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20th Anniversary IsssA survey is complete: 
INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE SURVEYS/ AUSTRALIA

This is our 18th large national sample survey. The first was in 1984.

Warmest thanks to survey respondents!

DETAILED ANALYSES OF GOVERNMENT, CATHOLIC, & INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS

Based on survey data from 1984 to 2002 with 37,000 cases:

1st article:  CHOICE BETWEEN GOVERNMENT, CATHOLIC, AND INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS: 
CULTURE AND COMMUNITY, RATHER THAN CLASS.
Jonathan Kelley and M.D.R. Evans

2nd article:  DO CATHOLIC SCHOOLS AND INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS ENHANCE 
EDUCATIONAL SUCCESS? 
M.D.R. Evans

3d article:  CLASS, RELIGION, AND EDUCATION:
WHO GAINS MOST FROM CATHOLIC AND INDEPENDENT SCHOOLING.
Jonathan Kelley

And another article, this one based on LSAY data:

4th article:  SCHOOL SECTOR DIFFERENCES IN TERTIARY ENTRANCE:
IMPROVING THE EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES OF GOVERNMENT SCHOOL STUDENTS 
Gary N. Marks

These articles are in the last three issues of the Australian Social Monitor. 
Abstract and full text for the first article are available for download there.

Published September, 2004. 
Based on survey data from 1984 to 2002.  27,000 cases in Australia; more in  dozens of other nations.
The second volume in the Australian Economy and Society series

  Australian Economy and Society 2002: 
Religion, Morality, and Public Policy in International Perspective, 1984-2002 
MDR Evans and Jonathan Kelley
Sydney: Federation Press, 2004.  Pps xii + 375.  (Hardback/ ISBN 1862874514). 

This second volume in the Australian Economy and Society series focuses on attitudes, beliefs, and values. It is especially about worldviews and their effects on moral stances and public policy attitudes.

Religion, abortion, and sexuality were among the topics we asked about in the first IsssA survey in 1984. Since then, our IsssA surveys have replicated these questions and have developed new questions exploring attitudes towards genetic engineering of crops, research and treatment using foetal stem cells, cloning of people and animals, xenografts, cord blood usage, and both somatic and germ-line genetic therapy for humans. On all these questions, the IsssA provides a series of surveys of large, representative national samples, with over 27,000 cases for the longest-running series.

We open by describing the root causes of many other attitudes and values --religious belief in Australia, denominational differences, the transmission of religious belief from parent to child, attitudes toward evolution and the scientific worldview. Our aim is to discover to what extent people apply their traditional moral toolkits to assess the good and evil in these moral issues, both old and new, and to what degree they use different approaches or turn to different authorities. Using powerful multivariate statistics, we seek to discover the extent to which Australians’ moral views are rooted in family background, social structure, religion, and attitudes to science; to what degree they are influenced by formal education and scientific knowledge; to what extent they are instead based on deference to religious, medical, or scientific authorities; to what extent they reflect consequentialist reasoning about the outcomes; and to what degree they spring deductively from the worldviews themselves. We have also studied the ramifications into charity, national goals, and the links between religion and politics.

We find that money, self-interest, status, and power have little sway over these attitudes. Rather the data tell tales of beliefs and values; tales featuring priests and scientists; contrasting tales told by religion about the centrality of mankind in a world created by God, with tales told by science about the vastness of the universe and the evolution of our species by means of natural selection.

Table of contents.

Introduction (160k PDF)

Authors and contributors:

MDR Evans
Jonathan Kelley
with contributions by Nan Dirk de Graaf, Bruce Headey, Joanna Sikora and Esmail D. Zanjani

The next volumes in the series, using our latest data up to the year before publication, will be:

Australian Economy and Society 2003-4: Marriage and the Family in International Perspective
     (scheduled for publication in 2005)
Australian Economy and Society 2005: Pay, Inequality and Politics in International Perspective 
    (scheduled for publication in 2006)  

After this first cycle of 4 volumes, we will revisit earlier issues in turn, adding new analyses and updating old analyses with the latest data, on a 5 year cycle: 

AES 2006: Education in International Perspective 
AES 2007: Work and Welfare in International Perspective 
AES 2008: Religion, Morality, and Public Policy in International Perspective 
AES 2009: Marriage and the Family in International Perspective 
AES 2010: Pay, Inequality and Politics in International Perspective 

To get the book:

Australia: Available from booksellers (RRP $75) or order directly from Federation Press for Australian $70 +  postage and handling. There is a schools only price of $40. 

North America: Order from Wm W Gaunt & Sons.

UK & Europe: Order from Willan Publishing. 

New Zealand: Order from Dunmore Press

Previous volume in the Australian Economy and Society series
Published October, 2002.
 Data from 1984 to 2001 for Australia, with over 25,000 cases; more from dozens of other nations.
Australian Economy and Society 2001:
 Education, Work and Welfare. 
MDR Evans and Jonathan Kelley
Sydney: Federation Press, 2002. Pps vi + 330.  (Hardback/ ISBN 1862873887). 

This book opens an annual series analysing Australian economy and society, emphasising changes over time, comparisons between social groups, and comparisons to other nations. We present our findings in a clear, concise and, we hope, readable style. However the results underpinning our findings are authoritative: reflecting rigorous, quantitative analyses by ourselves and other established academics, peer reviewed, and based on our large, representative national sample surveys of Australia and other nations. 

This first volume concerns education, work, and welfare in Australia over the last decades of the 20th century - topics that might be called "economic sociology", or "social economics", or "public policy". We begin with education, children's "work" of acquiring skills they will use to earn their living as adults. Next we explore the nature of work, the evolution industrial relations, and the links between work, public policy, welfare, and politics. Our analyses of these different topics are unified by common themes that run through the different topics, by a common methodological strategy, and by a shared source of survey evidence.

With  contributions by Peter Dawkins, Bruce Headey, Ben Jensen, Peter Krause, Craig Littler, Joanna Sikora, Maria Rebecca Valenzuela, Elizabeth Webster, and Krzysztof Zagorski

Table of contents.

To get the book:

Australia: Available from booksellers or  directly from Federation Press for Australian $70 + postage and handling. There is a schools only price of $40. RRP at better booksellers is $75.

North America: Order from Wm W Gaunt & Sons.

UK & Europe: Order from Willan Publishing. 

New Zealand: Order from Dunmore Press

Worcester Prize 2003
The World Association for Public Opinion Research
at its annual meeting in Prague
presented their Worcester Prize for the best article in the 
International Journal of Public Opinion Research in 2002
to
"National Pride in the Developed World: Survey Data from 24 Nations
by

M.D.R. Evans and Jonathan Kelley

Congratulations are also due to the International Social Survey Program's Drafting Committee which designed the survey (Professor Max Haller chaired the design committee) and to the survey groups belonging to the ISSP who conducted the surveys in 24 nations.

Abstract

Evans, M.D.R. and Jonathan Kelley. 2002. “National Pride: Survey Data from the USA and 23 Other Nations”  International Journal of Public Opinion Research 14(3): 303-338

Available now in libraries and from the publisher 

NEW!  Working paper now available. 

"Economic Change and the Legitimation of Inequality: The Transition From Socialism to the Free Market in Poland and Hungary, 1987-1994." Jonathan Kelley and Krzysztof Zagorski. forthcoming. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility. (Vol. 22).

Abstract

Download full working paper (460k PDF)

Other Recent Publications

"Stepparenting in Australia" 

Jonathan Kelley and M.D.R. Evans. 2003.  Australian Social Monitor 6(1): 1-4.

Abstract                    Download article (95k PDF file)

"Public Opinion on Britain, a Directly Elected President, and an Australian Republic:  22 Years of Survey Evidence" 

 Jonathan Kelley, M.D.R. Evans, Malcolm Mearns and Bruce Headey. 2002  Pps 113-130 and 243-252 in Constitutional Politics: The Republic Referendum and the Future (John Warhurst and Malcolm Mackerras, eds.) University of Queensland Press. 

Abstract                    Available from booksellers or directly from University of Queensland Press. 

   Geographic Influences on Quality of Employment

Abstract: This paper explores the effects of geographic context on the quality of the jobs people get, specifically the impact of postcode socio-economic status (SES) on their occupational status  -- a robust and reliable measure of job quality. Our analysis is based on data from several large (N=2,835), representative national samples of Australia from the International Social Science Survey (ISSS) and uses structural equation (LISREL) models to correct for measurement error. The results suggest that, other things being equal, growing up in a low SES postcode is only a slight occupational disadvantage. The disadvantage comes about entirely because children in low SES postcodes get less education than comparable children in high SES postcodes. Previous claims that postcode SES has a major impact on jobs are mainly based on flawed analyses, for reasons explained in the paper. By Jonathan Kelley (Australian National University) and MDR Evans (University of Melbourne) 

 (Full text -- 110k PDF file)
   Released May 2002 

Available now in libraries and from the publisher 

Joanna Sikora and Jonathan Kelley. 2002. "Attitudes to Private and Public Ownership in East and West: Bulgaria, Poland, Australia and Finland, 1994/97. The Soviet and Post-Soviet Review 26(1):13-46.

Released April 2002 

Available now in libraries and from the publisher 

Evans, M.D.R. and Jonathan Kelley. 2002. “Changes in Public Attitudes to Maternal Employment: Australia 1984 to 2001.” People and Place 10(1):42-57

Released March 2002 

Available now in libraries and from the publisher 

Evans, M.D.R., Esmail Zanjani and Jonathan Kelley. 2002. “Strong Public Support for Treatment and Research Using Fetal Tissue, Particularly Among Those Accepting the Scientific World-View"  Stem Cell Research and Development 11:711-717.

Released August 2002 

Available now in libraries and from the publisher 

Evans, M.D.R. and Jonathan Kelley. 2002. "Attitudes Towards Childcare in Australia" Australian Economic Review 35(2):188-196.

Released May 2002 

Available now in libraries and from the publisher 

Kelley, Jonathan and M.D.R. Evans. 2002. "When Human Life Begins: Public Perceptions." Australian Social Monitor 5(1): 15-20. 

• Extended with new data and reprinted in abbreviated form as "When Does Human Life Begin?" Australasian Science 23(9): 27-29.

Released March 2002 and October 2002 respectively 

Available now in libraries and from the publisher 

Kelley, Jonathan, M.D.R. Evans and Esmail D. Zanjani. 2002. "Moral Views on the Use of Foetal Tissue Depend on the Source of the Cells." Australian Social Monitor 5(3): 57-67.

• Extended and reprinted in abbreviated form as "Harvesting Foetal Tissue: Public Support Depends on the Source" Australasian Science 23(10): 31-33

Released August 2002 and November 2002 respectively 

In recent issues of the Australian Social Monitor :

• Can voluntary work be a substitute for gainful employment?

• Which older Australian men work?

• When human life begins: Public perceptions

• Trade-offs between time spent on work and family among older Australians

• Does parental marital conflict impair their children's education?

• Is corruption necessary for upward mobility? Perceptions from 26 nations. 

• The consequences of organizational downsizing   (Full text -- 160k PDF file)

Shorter reports include:

• Adult asthma in Australia 2002 

• Australian attitudes to research using foetal tissue 

• Catholic's attitudes to research using foetal tissue 

• Trends in extended working hours 

• Consequences of working long hours  

• Long working hours: International comparisons  

• Mature age students at universities

• Consumer sentiment recovers 

• Recent shifts in political support 

Authors of articles in recent issues of the ASM include MDR Evans (University of Melbourne), Marcel Erlinghagen (Institut Arbeit und Technik, Gelsenkirchen, Germany), Bruce Headey University of Melbourne), Jonathan Kelley (University of Melbourne), Ann Leahy (University of Melbourne), Tatjana Lukic (Commonwealth Government), Joanna Sikora (Australian National University), 
Gert G. Wagner (German Institute for Economic Research, Berlin) 
and Mark Wooden (University of Melbourne).

Coming soon from ISC authors: 

• Evans, M.D.R. and Jonathan Kelley. "Effect of Family Structure on Life Satisfaction" Social Indicators Research, forthcoming.. 

Overview

Contact: e-mail            www.international-survey.org

Who are we?

• The ISC is an international collaboration -- a virtual organization, at home wherever its principal investigators are to be found -- most often in the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research at the University of Melbourne (Evans and Kelley), CBOS in Poland (Zagorski), and the Australian National University (Sikora).
• Data collection in Australia is by Datacol (Malcolm Mearns, principal), in Poland by CBOS, and in other nations by various, mostly academic, organizations.

Who are our sponsors? Principal Australian sponsors of our research have been:

• The Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, University of Melbourne, is our primary sponsor.
• The Australian Research Council was the primary sponsor of our first survey, in 1984.
• The Australian Research Council supported Research Infrastructure Grant for the development of a pooled 1984-2001 IsssA file, and a second Research Infrastructure Grant for the pooled 30 nation World Inequality Study.
• The Research School of Social Sciences, Institute of Advanced Studies, the Australian National University, was the primary sponsor of six surveys between 1986 and 1997, and made substantial contributions to two more.
• The Standing Committee of Attorneys-General was the primary sponsor for two surveys and The Age newspaper (Melbourne) was the primary sponsor of another.
• Other sponsors of major projects include the Department of Industry, Science and Technology; the National Center for Epidemiology and Population Health; the Marka Institute; the Christian Research Association; the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General; the Polish Academy of Sciences; Office of the Aged/Aged and Community Care, Commonwealth of Australia; and the Department of Employment, Workplace Relations, and Small Business, Commonwealth of Australia.

Our affiliations? Our principal academic ties are with the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research at the University of Melbourne; the Polish Academy of Sciences; the Department of Sociology in the Australian National University; and the Interuniversity Center for Social Science Theory and Methodology (Universities of Groningen, Nijmegen, and Utrecht).

In Association with 

Get our book Australian Attitudes: Social and Political Analysis from the National Social Science Survey

or our  Revolution and the Rebirth of Inequality: A Theory Applied to the National Revolution in Bolivia

or our  Australians' Attitudes to Overseas Aid: Report from the National Social Science Survey

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