Minutes of Meetings

Meeting Protocols of the Working Group

First Meeting/ Second Meeting/ Third Meeting/ Fourth Meeting

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First Meeting

Date:	November 14, 1998
Place:	MZES, Mannheim, Germany
Attending:	Jorgen Goul Andersen, Paul Dekker, Oscar W. Gabriel, Peter Geurts, Tore Hansen, Hanspeter Kriesi, William A. Maloney, Ken Newton, Sigrid Roßteutscher, Per Selle, Jan Teorell, Lise Togeby, Mariano Torcal, Peter A. Ulram, Jan W. van Deth, Anders Westholm, Paul Whiteley
Excused:	José Ramon Montero

1. The group decided to aim at an international comparative project on the broad topics of citizenship, participation/involvement, and democracy on the basis of national studies which have been carried out recently in several countries and which are planned in the near future within other countries.

2. The cooperation should allow both for national specifications and for empirical testing of different models/approaches in an unbiased way (that is, no a priori decision is made in favour of some specific theory or model).

3. The major part of the project consists of a comparison of national survey data. In addition, the opportunities for developing comparative research on the basis of organisational/local studies will be considered.

4. The project should provide arguments for developing a full-scale comparative project in the next 3-4 years. Opportunities here are the plans for a European Social Survey and the Fifth Program of the EU.

5. The first goal of the group is the design of a draft of a common-core questionnaire. The general overview of topics/themes/questions as included in the planned German study will be sent to the participants for comments and suggestions (see time table attached).

6. In addition, an overview of organisational/local types of studies will be prepared and sent to the participants for comments and suggestions (see time table attached).

7. The European Science Foundation will be approached for funding a total of four meetings within a period of three years, beginning in Autumn 1999. A draft of this proposal will be sent to the participants (van Deth).

8. A number of colleagues in other countries will be approached to see whether their involvement or participation is desirable/possible at this moment (Newton).

9. The next meeting will be held in Mannheim on Saturday, February 6, 1999. Depending on the topics on the agenda the meeting starts on Friday, February 6 (16.00 o’clock) and continues until Sunday, February 7 (12.30 o’clock).

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Second Meeting

Date:	February 5 - 7, 1999
Place:	MZES, Mannheim, Germany
Attending:	Jorgen Goul Andersen, Paul Dekker, Peter Geurts, Tore Hansen, Hanspeter Kriesi, William A. Maloney, José Ramon Montero, Ken Newton, Sigrid Roßteutscher, Per Selle, Lise Togeby, Jan W. van Deth, Anders Westholm, Paul Whiteley
Excused:	Oscar W. Gabriel, Peter A. Ulram

1. During extensive discussions consensus was obtained about the topics, concepts, and operationalisations to be used as the common-core set of questions in a cross-nation survey. Specific instruments are selected for:
   • political participation at different levels and in several areas
   • social participation and voluntary associations
   • community bonds
   • social trust
   • several social and political orientations
   • socio-demographic background variables

2. On the basis of the consensus mentioned, a first draft of a common-core questionnaire will be constructed. Time schedule:
   • each member sends his/her wishes concerning questions not discussed in Mannheim before the end of February to S. Rossteutscher;
   • a first draft will be circulated by mid-April (Rossteutscher/van Deth); comments appreciated until mid-May;
   • a first draft of the part on socio-demographic questions will be circulated by mid-April (Westholm); comments appreciated until mid-May;
   • circulation of a completed draft (including background variables and filtering questions) by the end of May (Rossteutscher/van Deth).

3. In order to overcome several problems of survey research (especially a lack of contextualisation), cross-national comparative organisation/local studies will be attached to the surveys of samples of the population. A discussion paper on possible designs of these studies will be discussed at the next meeting (Newton/Maloney).

4. The European Science Foundation will be sent a short report of the meeting and a confirmation of our plans (van Deth).

5. A draft of a module for the European Social Survey will be prepared and distributed early April (Newton).

6. With respect to the already broad area covered by the group, no attempts will be made to integrate the activities of the group into a common application for the 5^th Framework Program. However, contacts with the group initialised by Dario Castiglione looks promising and the opportunities to attune the activities of both groups have to be considered (van Deth).

7. The need to enlarge the group with colleagues from other countries was confirmed. A strong interest exists for contacts with France, Italy, Poland, and Hungary. Attempts will be made to contact colleagues from several countries (Newton).

8. The groups welcomed the attempts from Westholm to establish contacts with colleagues from Baltic states and Kriesi’s proposal to invite Klaus Armingeon to the group.

9. National data will be available to members of the group for cross-national analyses only. The rules for the assessment and for distributing data will be discussed later.

10. The next meeting will be held in Uppsala. The meeting starts on Friday, June 11 (16.00 o’clock) and continues until Sunday, June 13 (12.30 o’clock).

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Third Meeting

Date:	June 11-13, 1999
Place:	Uppsala, Sweden
Attending:	Jorgen Goul Andersen, Klaus Armingeon, Oscar W. Gabriel, Hanspeter Kriesi, José Ramon Montero, Sigrid Roßteutscher, Per Selle, Patrick Seyd, Jan Teorell, Vincent Tiberj, Lise Togeby, Jan W. van Deth, Anders Westholm, Paul Whiteley
Excused:	Jaak Billiet, Paul Dekker, Peter Geurts, Tore Hansen, William A. Maloney, Ken Newton, Peter A. Ulram, Jose Manuel Leite Viegas

1. The group acknowledged the fact that Klaus Armingeon (Switzerland), Patrick Seyd (UK), Vincent Tiberj (France), Jaak Billiet (Belgium), and Jose Manuel Leite Viegas (Portugal) accepted the invitations to participate in the project. Besides, the application from Hajdeja Igli (Slovenia) was accepted. Jan Teorell confirmed the inclusion of the Russian project. Attempts to involve colleagues from Hungary, Poland, Italy, and Greece have failed.

2. The decision about our ESF-Network application has been delayed by the ESF until September this year. Van Deth will inform ESF about the Uppsala-Meeting.

3. A proposal for a module for the European Social Survey has to be submitted this summer. Ken Newton already indicated that he will write a draft and circulate it among the members of the group.

4. In all member-countries, fieldwork is planned. The following studies are under way in the near future:

   - Denmark	Autumn 1999	funded
   - Britain	Spring 2000	funding decided in June
   - Norway	Spring 2000	funded
   - Switzerland	Spring 2000	funding decided in August
   - Spain	Autumn 2000	application prepared
   - Russia	Autumn 2000	funded
   - Germany	Summer 2000	application prepared

5. During extensive discussions consensus was obtained about the common-core set of questions in a cross-national survey. The final common-core will be limited to 30 minutes interview time (including background variables).

6. Sigrid Rossteutscher will implement the decisions taken and distribute a new draft of the common-core before June 21. Each participant is invited to react within three days.

7. Sigrid Rossteutscher, Lise Togeby, and Anders Westholm will meet to write a next to final draft of the questionnaire, which will be distributed again. William Maloney will be invited to do the language editing. By mid-July the standard English version of the questionnaire should be available.

8. Country-specific questions should be included in such a way, that the structure of the common-core questionnaire is not affected. Piloting and translation cannot be handled at the comparative/international level, but are tasks of the teams for each country.

9. The earlier decision about sampling was confirmed: representative samples of at least 1,500 residents age 18 and up (no age limits). Face-to-face interviews are preferred.

10. The next meeting is planned for late-October this year in Barcelona (José Ramon Montero will be the local organiser). Main points to be discussed are:
    • Design and organisation of the community/organisations studies.
    • Discussion about the use of the common-core in Denmark.
    • Planning of activities for the ESF-Network.

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Fourth Meeting

Date:	November 19-21, 1999
Place:	Fundació Jaume Bofill, Barcelona
Attending:	Jorgen Goul Andersen, Paul Dekker, Emanuel von Erlach, Juan Font, Maria Jesùs Funes, Tore Hansen, Hajdeja Iglic, Jacint Jordana, Hanspeter Kriesi, Francisco Llerz, José Manuel Leite Viegas, William A. Maloney, José Ramon Montero, Francesc Pallarès, Sigrid Roßteutscher, Andrej Rus, Per Selle, Joan Susirats, Mette Tobiasen, Mariano Torcal, Jan W. van Deth, Anders Westholm, Paul Whiteley
Excused:	Jaak Billiet, Oscar W. Gabriel, Peter Geurts, Ken Newton, Patrick Seyd, Vincent Tiberj, Lise Togeby

1. The minutes of the Uppsala Meeting as well as the agenda for the Barcelona Meeting are accepted as drafted. Messages of inability to attend the meeting from Billiet, Gabriel, Geurts, Newton, Seyd, Tiberj, and Togeby are acknowledged.

2. Brief reports on the development of national studies are presented and discussed (see attached overview). The group regretted the lack of participation from especially France, Italy, and Greece. Decisions:
   • French colleagues (Mayer, Cautres) should be approached again (JvD);
   • information is lacking about the participation of Austria (Gabriel, JvD);
   • several US-researchers (Uslaner; Stolle) indicated their interest in the project;
   • for Eastern and Central European countries the WZB might be helpful.
   • The European Science Foundation has accepted the proposal to establish an ESF-Network and has agreed to provide an award of FF 450,000 over three years. ESF already received a confirmation of the acceptance of this award (JvD). Further information will be distributed after a formal decision of ESF is available.
     The European Social Survey will probably not be in the field before 2001. A draft of a module for the European Social Survey will be prepared (Newton) in order to make sure that the group is prepared to submit an application for the first wave.
     

3. The ‘task force’ reported on the work to design a common-core questionnaire on the basis of the discussions in Uppsala and the comments received in the last few months. Especially the requirement to restrict the common core to about 30 minutes average interview time proved to be a very difficult obstacle. On the basis of the comments presented by Montero and Torcal several questions were added to the questionnaire; the comments presented by Whiteley lead to several minor modifications of especially question wordings. These additions and modifications resulted in a new estimated average interview time of about 35 minutes. After lengthy discussions the following agreement was accepted:
   1. The common core is to be considered as the final version of the questionnaire to be included in each country study in exactly the same way.
   2. Nation-specific modifications are restricted to additions only. Nation-specific modification are allowed if, and only if, (i) additional questions or items do not interfere with the common core and do not change its meaning, (ii) specific phenomena or objects do not exist in a country, or (iii) functional equivalents are required to avoid apparent problems during the interview.
   3. Each participant includes the common core completely in the national projects. (Only the British made the reservation that a common core longer than 30 minutes cannot be accepted. The consequences of (not) including Britain in further co-operation will be faced as soon as the British questionnaire is available.)
   4. In order to increase comparability with other projects, each participant is invited to include additional measures (especially measures used in other surveys) for concepts already covered by the common core.

4. In order to increase the opportunities for comparative research each national team is invited to indicate which nation-specific additions are planned. A brief indication of these plans should be sent to van Deth and will then be compiled and distributed to the group.

5. The main characteristics of the design of the survey were confirmed:
   • population: adult residents of a country (that is, from 18 through 99 years);
   • sampling: quota sampling should be avoided;
   • method: face-to-face, preferably CAPI, if possible;
   • no translations of questionnaires for immigrant groups are planned;
   • an unambiguous indicator for residential area of each respondent (postal code or similar) has to be included.

6. In order to overcome several problems of survey research (especially a lack of contextualisation), cross-national comparative organisation/local studies are attached to the surveys of samples of the population. The group discussed the broad outlines of the research proposal by Maloney/Rossteutscher/van Deth and other variants available in this area. The general feeling was, that much more time is needed to prepare these studies and so the decisions reached are:
   • the organisational/local studies are an integrated part of the groups activities and each member is committed to try to get national studies developed and funded;
   • the next meeting should be addressed to these studies only;
   • the next meeting should be organised as soon as possible.

7. The next meeting will be held in Strassburg or Geneva. The meeting starts on Friday, March 3 (16.00 o’clock) and continues until Sunday, March 5 (12.30 o’clock).

Meeting Protocols of the Network

First Meeting/ Second Meeting

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First Meeting

Date:	Friday, 3-5 March 2000
Place:	Strasbourg
Attending:	Jorgen Goul Andersen, Klaus Armingeon, Daniel Badescu, Simone Baglioni, Jaak Billiet, Paul Dekker, Maria Jesùs Funes, Oscar W. Gabriel, Peter Geurts, Jean-Phillipe Huertin, Hanspeter Kriesi, William A. Maloney, José Ramon Montero, Ken Newton, Sigrid Rossteutscher, Andrej Rus, Per Selle, Lise Togeby, Jan W. van Deth, Anders Westholm, Daniel Wohlgemuth, and Marianne Yagoubi (ESF)

1. The participants gratefully acknowledged the nomination as a "Network" by the ESF and the organisational work done in Strasbourg for the first meeting of the group.

2. The minutes of the Barcelona Meeting as well as the agenda for the Strasbourg Meeting are accepted as drafted.

3. Brief reports on the development of national studies are presented and discussed (see attached overview). The group regretted the lack of participation from especially Italy and Central European countries. Kriesi will contact Italian colleagues who might be interested. Gabriel will speak with Hans-Dieter Klingemann (WZB) about contacts in Central Europe.

4. The proposals and decisions of the Steering Committee (see minutes of the Meeting of March 3, 2000) were discussed and accepted without modifications.

5. In order to overcome several problems of survey research (especially a lack of contextualisation), cross-national comparative organisation studies are attached to the surveys of the populations. The group discussed the outlines of various research proposals and possibilities (Kriesi, Dekker, Maloney/Rossteutscher/van Deth, Geurts, Funes, Selle, Westholm/Wohlgemuth) and other variants available in this area. The earlier decisions that organisational studies are an integrated part of the group’s activities and that each member is committed to try to get national studies developed and funded were confirmed. In addition, a common research design was accepted, which has as a core a "column" with the following steps/phases:
   • selection of a theoretically relevant (geographical) "community" as the basic unit;
   • within this community, a list of all organisations is to be constructed;
   • a short questionnaire is sent out to all organisations to obtain basic information;
   • on the basis of the information obtained, a selection of organisations is defined;
   • a number of people belonging to a selected organisation receive a questionnaire (that is, people belonging to an organisation, including the inactive, but excluding people working full-time for the organisation).
   The second "task force" (see decisions of the Steering Committee) is invited to further develop the operational aspects of the organisational studies and to co-ordinate national activities in this area in the next few months. Each country is urged to include more than one "column" in their design along the lines suggested by the Swiss study.

6. Danish and Swiss experiences with the common-core questionnaire for the population studies make clear that the average interview takes about 40 minutes (and not 35 minutes as estimated in Barcelona). Research proposals to be submitted should take these experiences into account. No specific problems with the use of the questionnaire are reported.

7. Documentation of research activities is centralised in Mannheim. Each participant will send copies of original documents and English translations (questionnaires, sample instructions, coding schemes, etc.) to van Deth.

8. The earlier decisions about access to the data obtained were confirmed. In addition, it is decided that only people who have contributed to the work of the group (that is, have collected data or played an active role in other activities of the group) will have access to the various data sets. The common core questionnaire is a result of the collective activities of the group so far and cannot be used without permission of the group.

9. The group is open for participation of other colleagues. However, presentation of research findings is restricted to analyses of data sets collected within the context of the Network’s activities.

10. The plans for a European Social Survey are discussed briefly. Van Deth will inform the Chairman of the ESS-Committee about the developments of the work of the group in order to make sure that the group is ‘visible’ when plans for an ESS are realised. No member of the group will apply for inclusion of questions included in our common-core questionnaire without discussing this application with the group.

11. The next group meeting will be held in Geneva. The meeting starts on Friday, October 12, 2001 and continues until Sunday, October 14, 2001.

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Overview of Country Studies (March 2001)

	Population Survey		Organisational Study
Country	Planning	Fieldwork	Planning	Fieldwork
Austria	Submitted	Winter 2001	-	-
Denmark	Finished	Spring 2000	Developed	Autumn 2001
Germany	Finished	Spring 2001	Finished (Mannheim) Submitted (Stuttgart)	Feb. 2000 - May 2001 Summer 2001
Italy (Florence)	-	-	Developed	Summer 2001
Netherlands	Finished	Spring 2001	Finished	Feb. 2000 - May 2001
Norway	Finished	Summer 2001	Finished	(other studies available)
Portugal	Finished	Summer 2001	-	-
Russia	Finished	Autumn 2000	-	-
Slovenia	Finished	Summer 2001	-	-
Spain	Finished	Autumn 2001	Finished	Winter 2001
Sweden	Finished Summer 2001	1997 Autumn 2001	-	-
Switzerland	Finished	Autumn 2000	Finished	Feb. 2000 - May 2001
UK (Sheffield)	Finished	2000	-	-
UK (Aberdeen)	-	-	Finished	Feb. 2000- May 2001
UK (Southampton)	-	-	Submitted	Winter 2001
USA	Submitted	Autumn 2001	-	-

Contacts exist for developing studies in France, Finland, and Belgium. Applications failed in Georgian Republic and Romania.

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Second Meeting

Date:	October 12-13, 2001
Place:	University of Geneva
Attending:	Andersen, Armingeon, Badescu, Baglioni, Font, Gabriel, Geurts, Iglic, Kriesi, Llera, Maloney, Marian, Montero, Pisica, Plopa, Rossteutscher, Selle, Stuck, Thaidigsmann, Tobiasen, Torcal, van Deth (chair), Viegas, von Erlach, Westholm, Zmerli
Excused:	Newton, Teorell, Torpe

1. Messages are received from Billiet and Togeby that they cannot continue their participation in the network.

2. The progress of the project in several countries was discussed, including the attempts to develop similar projects in the USA, Italy, Canada, and Israel. (See Overview of the present situation in several countries as of October 2001.)

3. A report about the Young Scholars Meeting of the network in Mannheim, September 28-29, 2001 was presented. Ten young scholars from several countries discussed their experiences and research interests at that meeting.

4. An application for a module in the European Social Survey along the lines of our Common Core Questionnaire was submitted early October 2001 by Newton representing the Network. If a positive decision is obtained from the ESS a Task Force 4 will develop these plans further. Members of this new Task Force are Kriesi, Montero, Rossteutscher, and Westholm with Newton as acting co-ordinator.

5. Stuck reported about the construction of the integrated data set for the population studies from Denmark, Switzerland, Portugal, Russia, and Germany. The discussions lead to the following conclusions:
   - A first version of the integrated data set will be available in the next few months.
   - At this moment, funding of the continuation of the construction of the integrated data set is unclear. No additional funding will be available from Mannheim after the first phase is finished.
   - Each country team should provide a brief report about evident problems with the implementation of the Common Core. These reports are to be sent to all participants.

6. Geurts will co-ordinate the construction of an integrated data set for the first part of the organisational studies. He will send out instructions for preparing the national data sets this autumn.

7. The general rules for access to the data, publication policy, and assignment of chapters/contributions (see report of Task Force 3) are discussed and the general principle is accepted that the data are only available for work within the context of the project and can be used by the participants only. The final agreement looks as follows:

General Restraints for Publications

1. These restraints apply to all publications and presentations based on the data from two or more countries collected in the context of our Network.
2. In the first phase of the network the population studies and the organisational studies will be used for two separate publications. Integration of the two parts will be the major aim in the second phase (2003 - ...).
3. All contributions deal with cross-national comparisons only; that is, no country studies are accepted in this phase.
4. All contributions deal primarily with micro-level analyses on a country-by-country basis and should be truly comparative; that is, national differences are to be considered in order to avoid a simple repetition of micro-level findings in several countries.
5. Results of the international project are not to be published in any form or presented at any other conference until the Network has discussed these manuscripts and specified its publication policy (see below).

Assignment of Contributions

1. All contributions are drafted as collaborative enterprises; that is, for each contribution two or more researchers from different countries collaborate closely and are listed as joint authors. Besides, young scholars and more established colleagues are expected to collaborate.
2. For each contribution, one author functions as the co-ordinator. He/she bears the main responsibility for the contribution.
3. Each participant is encouraged to contribute both to the organisation study and the population study.
4. Each participant can be involved in several contributions, but he/she can function as the lead-author for only one contribution to the organisation study and only one contribution to the population study.
5. In case a number of participants apply to contribute to the same theme, participants who were evidently involved in the development and execution of the studies in the last few years have the first rights.

Publication of Results

1. All results of the international projects (organisational study and population study) are initially published as a "CID Working Paper" with a common title page. These working papers can be downloaded from the CID web site.
2. All contributions are prepared for delivery at the Bilbao meeting in Autumn 2002. These papers, too, appear as "CID Working Papers".
3. Results of the international projects covering two or more countries are not to be published in any form or presented at any other conference.
4. National teams intending to publish results from two or more countries on a very restricted topic or for a linguistically restricted audience are allowed to do so only after a request has been accepted by Steering Committee and the principal investigators of the countries concerned raise no objections.
5. Each publication based on the results of the project includes a standard footnote referring to the Network activities. This rule applies to any publication (including publications of national results only).

8. The proposal for the organisational study is discussed and the following modifications are accepted:
   - the focus of Ch.2 should be broadened;
   - Ch.7 should follow directly after Ch.4;
   - in addition to Ch.10 a new chapter on contextual issues is added;
   - include the term "tensions" in the title of Ch.6;
   - Ch.9 is dropped.
   Co-ordinators of the work in this area are: Maloney, Rossteutscher, and Kriesi.

9. The proposal for the population study and an alternative proposal by Westholm and Teorell are discussed. The general opinion is that a more variable-orientated division of tasks is required than proposed by Task Force 3. Co-ordinators of the work in this area are: Westholm, Montero, and van Deth. On the basis of the decisions taken van Deth indicates that he cannot play a major role in the co-ordination of the work in this area.

10. The need for comparative research is stressed. Each author is to take contextual and institutional characteristics of the countries into account.

11. Each group of authors responsible for a specific chapter decides who will be the main author for this contribution.

12. The authors responsible for Ch. 3 of the organisational study and for Chs. 2 to 8 of the population study will send out a brief note on the construction of central measures not later than April 1, 2002. These notes include proposals for the constructions of indices and SPSS-set-ups to construct the measures and are to be sent to all participants with the request for comments. If no serious doubts are raised before April 21, 2002 the measures are to be used as proposed. All analyses will be based on the integrated data set available on February 1, 2002.

13. Young scholars are to be invited to indicate their interest to participate in work on chapters where no young scholar is available now.

14. The remaining budget is available for the Steering Committee Meeting (March 2002) and the Bilbao meeting (November 2002) only. All other activities (including collaboration between authors for distinct chapters) have to be paid by the participants themselves.

Overview of Country Studies (October 2001)

	Population Survey		Organisational Study
Country	Planning	Fieldwork	Planning	Fieldwork
Austria	Submitted	?	-	-
Denmark	Finished	Spring 2000	Developed	Autumn 2001
Germany	Finished	Spring 2001	Finished (Mannheim) Submitted (Stuttgart)	Feb. 2000 - May 2001 Winter 2001
Italy (Florence)	-	-	Developed	Summer 2001
Moldavia	Finished	Autumn 2001	Finished	Spring 2002
Netherlands	Finished	Spring 2001	Finished	Feb. 2000 - May 2001
Norway	Finished	Summer 2001	Finished	(other studies available)
Portugal	Finished	Summer 2001	-	-
Romania	Finished	Autumn 2001	Finished	Spring 2002
Russia	Finished	Autumn 2000	-	-
Slovenia	Finished	Autumn 2001	-	-
Spain	Finished	Spring 2002	Finished	Spring 2002
Sweden	Finished Winter 2001	1997 Autumn 2001	-	-
Switzerland	Finished	Autumn 2000	Finished	Feb. 2000 - May 2001
UK (Sheffield)	Finished	2000	-	-
UK (Aberdeen)	-	-	Finished	Feb. 2000- May 2001
UK (Southampton)	-	-	Submitted	?

Contacts exist for developing studies in Italy, Canada and Israel. Applications failed in the USA.

Meeting Protocols of the Task Force "Organisational Study"

First Meeting/Second Meeting