Perspectives in Rural Areas

Attitude to life in the country. Judgement on the situation in rural
areas.

Topics: judgement on one´s own economic situation and assessment of
further development next year; local ties; reasons for choice of place
of residence; year of arrival; advantages and disadvantages of life in
small municipalities or large cities; negative changes at place of
residence; personal effort for improvements at place of residence and
experiences made in the process; reasons not to make an effort for
changes at place of residence; description of the infrastructure and
cultural institutions at place of residence and necessary improvements;
place of shopping for groceries and larger acquisitions; commutes to
school and work for individual family members; contact for personal
things; most important leisure activity; judgement on clubs available
at place of residence; club memberships and honorary activities;
outstanding club activities; personal activity in agriculture or
contacts with persons who are active in agriculture; most important
problems and those primarily responsible for the problems in
agriculture; attitude to agricultural subsidies; most important social
tasks of agriculture; significance of environmental protection and
competitive ability in agriculture; assessment of general environmental
damage; greatest polluter of the environment; preference for attracting
business or environmental protection in rural areas; general
maintenance of value; satisfaction with the political system; sympathy
scale for the parties; left-right continuum; party preference (rank
order procedure); interest in politics; self-classification on a
top-bottom scale; residential status; possession of car or motorbike;
means of transport used on the way to work; problems due to an assumed
unemployment; personal activities for additional protection against
unemployment; assumed adequate government support in case of
unemployment; personal unemployment in the last ten years and duration
of unemployment; fear of unemployment; adequate retirement program and
security in case of disability; personal provision or trust in
government aid in case of personal economic need; year of birth and
month of birth; religiousness.

The following additional questions were posed to managers of
agricultural companies: size of company; full-time or part-time
occupation; employment of outside workers; working hours in
agricultural companies and in another job; type and economic situation
of the agricultural company; most important reasons for shutting
company down; planned company changes; using up financial reserves and
credit burdens from earlier investments; judgement on one´s own chances
in the job market; participation or interest in retraining; support of
retired parents; advantages and disadvantages of the occupation as
farmer; the picture of farmers; most important technical sources of
information; most important advisers in business questions; judgement
on government subsidy policy for agriculture; current most important
topics in agriculture policy; participation in program of taking land
out of production; membership in an agricultural trade organization;
assessment of the political influence of the farmers organization;
children helping in the agricultural company and intent to take over
the farm.

Interviewer rating: presence of third persons during interview;
intervention by these persons in the course of the interview;
reliability and willingness of respondent to cooperate; degree of
tiredness of respondent; type of house; type of city; location of the
house; selection of respondent by quota or at random.

Also encoded was: sex of interviewer; age of interviewer; city code.