Past News

On April 4th, the School of of Geography jointly hosted a briefing on the European Social Survey with the School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice. The briefing, aimed at students and researching staff, was concerned with using the results of the ESS to increase international impact. People from across the university attended the briefing which introduced the Survey, its scope and methods. The presenter, Dr Amy Healy, postdoc researcher for the National Steering Group, took participants through the surveys uses. Dr Eoin o'Mahony, Geography then talked about using the ESS as a long time user.

The European Social Survey (ESS) is a major source of data on attitudes and values across Europe, running every two years since 2002. The ESS is easy to integrate into undergraduate and postgraduate courses, into teaching and into academic and non-academic research projects. The 2016 survey included 23 countries. (Read more by clicking (opens in a new window)here) 

The first part of the seminar consisted of:

- descriptions of ESS data sets (individual- and macro-level data, media data);

- a discussion of topics covered regularly and within the rotating modules;

- an explanation of how to access the data and of the different ways the data can be used (including the ESS online analysis system) 

- the impact of using ESS in research.