Category Archives: Dissemination

The new Atlas of European Values

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Do Europeans really feel European? Do they trust each other and are they solidary? What do they think of immigration and refugee influx? Do they want a greener and more sustainable Europe, and at what cost? Are democracy and human rights ingrained in Europe or are they under pressure?

A new edition (2022) of the ‘Atlas of European Values’ answers these and other questions related to pressing topics such as migration, democracy, sustainability, welfare, identity, and solidarity in an attractive, visual way. In the The Atlas of European Values: Change and Continuity in Turbulent Times (authors: Loek Halman, Tim Reeskens, Inge Sieben and Marga van Zundert), the reader will find maps, charts and graphs based on data from the European Values Study, combined with data from other scientific sources. Texts on current social theories and interviews with European scholars and thinkers clarify the findings. The foreword to the Atlas was written by President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.

This third edition of the Atlas of European Values has been published in the new European Values Series, open access at Open Press Tilburg University. This means that the Atlas is freely accessible to everyone and easily downloadable (in pdf-format).

The first copy of the Atlas of European Values was presented on Europe Day, 9 May 2022, in the House of the Dutch Provinces in Brussels by the authors and TiU rector magnificus Wim van de Donk to Robert de Groot, permanent representative of the Netherlands to the European Union. De Groot said that this Atlas is more important than ever: how are we going to unite on a continent that is so diverse and how can we ensure that we come out stronger from the war that is currently raging in Ukraine? According to him, the Atlas can help answer these pressing questions.

More information on the Atlas 2022, previous editions, and related projects can be found here.

Improving measurements by survey infrastructures synergies: insights from the revised gender role attitudes scale in EVS2017

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In this recent article published in Quality & Quantity, Vera Lomazzi (secretary of the Executive Committee of EVS) uses the revised scale of gender role attitudes (GRA) surveyed in the fifth wave of the European Values Study (EVS2017) as an example to explore how cooperation between survey programmes can produce improved measurements in a context of methodological innovation.

Lomazzi, V. Improving measurements by survey infrastructures synergies: insights from the revised gender role attitudes scale in the european values study 2017. Qual Quant (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-021-01312-6

Why Measurement Invariance Testing is Important in Comparative Values Research

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In the upcoming webinar of the Monthly Multidisciplinary Webinars on Culture and Values organized by Plamen Akaliysky, Bart Meuleman member the EVS methodology group will address relevant issues concerning comparability in cross-cultural values research.

Why Measurement Invariance Testing is Important in Comparative Values Research: Between Statistical Dogmatism and Anything Goes

Presenter: Bart Meuleman (KU Leuven)

Time: May 26 (Thu), 12:00-13:30 (CET).

Abstract: Over the past decades, tests for measurement equivalence have become increasingly popular in cross-national and cross-cultural research. Among various techniques (see van de Vijver et al. 2019 for an overview), multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (MGCFA) has become the method of choice to assess whether survey instruments can successfully travel linguistic and cultural borders (Davidov et al. 2014). The spread of this technique has contributed importantly to the concern for and understanding of the issue of comparability of measurements.

At the same time, however, the increased popularity of assessing measurement equivalence has brought along several challenges. First of all, many frequently-used instruments are found to violate (stricter levels of) equivalence, leaving researchers with puzzlement about the comparability of their valued survey data, and with uncertainty as to whether they could safely perform cross-group comparisons. Second, the rather technical nature of equivalence testing has stimulated the measurement literature to focus almost exclusively on statistical details, while neglecting the question of theoretical validity. As a reaction to these trends, some voices have called for ‘a paradigm shift’ away from the current practice of MGCFA-based equivalence testing (Welzel & Inglehart 2016; Welzel, Brunkert, Kruse & Inglehart, 2021).

In this contribution, I argue that testing for measurement invariance is still important for comparative value researchers; but that it is nevertheless useful to revisit the logic of equivalence testing. The presentation outlines the epistemological foundations of equivalence testing and its operationalization into concrete statistical procedures. By doing so, I show that some criticisms are based on misconceptions about measurement, while others can be addressed within the current framework of measurement equivalence.

References

Davidov, E., Meuleman, B., Cieciuch, J., Schmidt, P., & Billiet, J. (2014). Measurement equivalence in cross-national research. Annual review of sociology, 40, 55-75.

Meuleman, B., Żółtak, T., Pokropek, A., Davidov, E., Muthén, B., Oberski, D. L., … & Schmidt, P. (2022). Why Measurement Invariance is Important in Comparative Research. A Response to Welzel et al. (2021). Sociological Methods & Research, 00491241221091755.

Van de Vijver, F. J., Avvisati, F., Davidov, E., Eid, M., Fox, J. P., Le Donné, N., Lek, K., Meuleman, B., Paccagnella, M. & van de Schoot, R. (2019). Invariance analyses in large-scale studies. OECD Education Working Paper 201.

Welzel, C., & Inglehart, R. F. (2016). Misconceptions of measurement equivalence: Time for a paradigm shift. Comparative Political Studies, 49(8), 1068-1094.

Welzel, C., Brunkert, L., Kruse, S., & Inglehart, R. F. (2021). Non-invariance? An overstated problem with misconceived causes. Sociological Methods & Research, 0049124121995521.

THIRD ITALIAN CONFERENCE OF EVS/WVS DATA USERS

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The Italian team of EVS/WVS organizes the conference “Crisis after Crisis: Value Change in Italy” – Third Italian conference of EVS/WVS data users. The conference will take place on 29-30 September 2022, at the University of Bergamo. The conference will also include an international seminar on the study of values in turbolent times.

The focus of theThird Italian Conference of EVS/WVS data users: Since the beginning of the century, Italy has gone through an impressive sequence of crises on a regional as well as global scale. The economic downturn that began in 2008, the refugee crisis in the last decade, the COVID-19 pandemic, the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, just to mention the main events. Besides the social and economic impacts of the crises, it is essential to study changes and possible impacts on values and attitudes. The conference aims to discuss value change in Italy – also from a comparative perspective by considering different domains – and offer an opportunity for scholars studying the Italian case on the basis of EVS and WVS data to meet.


Call for papers The conference aims to gather methodologically high-quality, theoretically based contributions using EVS and WVS data. Presentations combining EVS, WVS and other data are also welcome. The call asks for a special emphasis on Italy: comparative and longitudinal contributions are encouraged. The conference welcomes presentations on any values domain, as well as methodological contributions.


Deadlines Abstracts no longer than 500 words should be submitted to the organizing committee (italy.values@gmail.com) by 20 June 2022. Abstracts may be in English or Italian and should be accompanied by 5 keywords. Authors will be notified by the organizing committee concerning the selection of the presentations by 30 June 2022. For any further information, please contact italy.values@gmail.com or visit https://www.spstrend.it/

Organizing Committee Ferruccio Biolcati Rinaldi (University of Milan) Vera Lomazzi (University of Bergamo) Ruud Luijkx (Tilburg University, University of Trento) Giancarlo Rovati (Catholic University of Milan)

Advisory Committee Rita Bichi (Catholic University of Milan) Ferruccio Biolcati Rinaldi (University of Milan) Antonio M. Chiesi (University of Milan) Vera Lomazzi (University of Bergamo) Ruud Luijkx (Tilburg University, University of Trento) Marco Maraffi (University of Milan) Giancarlo Rovati (Catholic University of Milan) Paolo Segatti (University of Milan)

Read the full call for abstracts for more information:

EVS-WVS-Third-Italian-Conference-EnglishDownload
EVS-WVS-Third-Italian-Conference-ItalianDownload

European Values conference 9-11 May 2022

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The European Values Conference 2022: A look at the past, present and futures is taking place in Brussels/Tilburg on May 9th-11th, 2022.

The program includes two topical moments: on Monday 9th, the new Atlas of European Values will be presented to Robert de Groot, Permanent Representative of the Netherlands to the European Union (Livestream via https://youtu.be/btputyTdYdw) . On Tuesday at 16:30, we will celebrate Loek Halman’s retirement with a keynote lecture by David Voas (Livestream via https://www.tilburguniversity.edu/campus/live-broadcast/auditorium). In addition, some other keynote events are livestreamed.

Please see blow the full program. For further information, please consult the event webpage.

valuesconfDownload

EVS Webinar Series

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The EVS Webinar Series is a regular activity aimed at offering occasions for scientific exchange among values scholars. The focus of the series is the discussion over topical issues related to European values.

The first EVS webinar “Values, Polarization, and Cultural Backlash?” focuses on polarization of democratic values, political trust and political values orientations and takes place on March 4th, 2022 at 14 CET.

Our speakers are Prof. Frédéric Gonthier, presenting his recently published paper (with Tristan Guerra): How Party Polarization Shapes the Structuring of Policy Preferences in Europe and Dr. Marlene Mauk, presenting her paper Rebuilding Trust in Broken Systems? Populist Party Success and Citizens’ Trust in Democratic Institutions. Read more about this webinar here.

The discussion will be chaired by Morten Frederiksen.

The EVS Webinar Series is organized by Morten Frederiksen, Vera Lomazzi, Natalia Soboleva

To participate, you need to register: Fill this form by March 3rd.

EVS Bibliography 2022

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The new edition of the EVS Bibliography, edited by the team at GESIS, has been now published.

The updated version includes 2823 publications based on EVS data:

1506 Journal Articles

  324 Books

 630 Book Chapters

    64 Conference Papers

    71 Dissertations

    64 Master’s Theses

  153 Working Paper

    20 Miscellaneous

Is your EVS publication not in the EVS Bibliography?
Please send us an email at evs.bibliography@gesis.org with the bibliographic information on your publication (title, author(s), year of publication, journal or publisher, online resources).

Improving Measurements by Survey Infrastructures Synergies

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Vera Lomazzi will present her work on the topic: “Improving Measurements by Survey Infrastructures Synergies: Insights from the Revised Gender Role Attitudes Scale in the European Values Study 2017” at the next regular seminar of the Ronald F. Inglehart Laboratory for Comparative Social Research, which will be held as a Zoom session on February, 10 at 16-30 p.m. (GMT+3). 

A link to Zoom session is available by request via natsobol@gmail.com.

Abstract. Survey infrastructure synergies can support the sustainability of existing European survey programmes by maximising resources and expertise. The study uses the scale of gender role attitudes (GRA) surveyed in the fifth wave of the European Values Study (EVS2017) as an example to explore how such cooperation could produce improved measurements in a context of methodological innovation. The EVS implemented tools and strategies that may affect cross-sectional comparability, such as the translation approach and the use of mixed-modes as well as the increased standardisation of the procedures, documentation and monitoring.  After describing the revision of the GRA scale of EVS2017 and assessing its content validity, the study discusses its comparability. By applying multi-group confirmatory factor analysis and the recently established alignment method, measurement equivalence is reached both cross-sectionally and across modes of data collection.

The working language is English.

How party polarization shapes the structuring of policy preferences

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While polarization has garnered a lot of academic attention, not much is known about its influence on citizens’ preferences. Frèderic Gonthier and Tristan Guerra show, in their recent article in Party Politics, that party polarization enhances the ideological consistency of belief systems.

First they apply Correlation Class Analysis to the latest EVS data to classify respondents based on the extent to which they use similar principles for structuring their economic and sociocultural preferences. Second they demonstrate that Europeans’ belief systems are more consistently aligned with the progressive-conservative continuum in polarized party systems. It means that when citizens receive a rich supply of coherent and distinctive elite cues, they are prompted to structure their policy preferences according to the progressive-conservative polarity.

The authors also find that greater party polarization results in more tightly organized belief systems for all Europeans, regardless of their degree of political sophistication (see figure below).

Image

This turns out to be an overlooked effect of party polarization: Elite cues becoming clearer reduce the reservoir of cross-pressured voters that radical parties may appeal to.

Gonthier F, Guerra T. How party polarization shapes the structuring of policy preferences in Europe. Party Politics. January 2022. doi:10.1177/13540688211064606

Just published in the International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy

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In this paper, Natalia Soboleva (National Program Director of EVS in Russia and member of the Theory Group of EVS) uses EVS data to explore the effect of work values and socio-demographic characteristics upon the link between life satisfaction and job satisfaction.

Findings

Socio-demographic characteristics matter more than work values in explaining the effect of job satisfaction on life satisfaction. The association between life satisfaction and job satisfaction is stronger for higher educated individuals and those who are self-employed and weaker for women, married individuals, religious individuals and those who are younger. Extrinsic and intrinsic work values significantly influence life satisfaction independent of the level of job satisfaction.

Soboleva, N. (2022), “The determinants of the link between life satisfaction and job satisfaction across Europe”, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSSP-06-2021-0152

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