European Social Survey, Switzerland - 2002

The "European Social Survey" (ESS, http://www.europeansocialsurvey.org) is an international survey with the aim of measuring the opinions and attitudes of the European population and explaining reactions to changes of the institutions in Europe. On the one hand, it is about tackling problems that are at the heart of current social science research. For example: What does citizenship mean and involve today or how do the various European countries deal with migration issues? In 2002, the exchangeable modules will deal with the following topics: Attitudes towards immigration, citizenship and democracy.

This survey aims at a very high standard of quality and sets out many strict methodological conditions to ensure that the data are truly comparable between countries. The ESS surveys take place every two years. The first edition, which was carried out in autumn 2002, was conducted in more than 20 countries, and today there are over 30 countries. At least 1500 people take part in each survey in Switzerland. The survey in Switzerland is currently carried out by the MIS Trend Institute on behalf of FORS.