British participation in the 2017 European Values Study / World Values Survey

The European Values Study (EVS) is a large-scale, cross-national, repeated cross-sectional survey research programme on basic human values. It provides insights into the ideas, beliefs, preferences, attitudes, values and opinions of citizens all over Europe. It is a unique investigation into how Europeans think about life, family, work, religion, politics and society.

The EVS started in 1981, when a thousand citizens in each of the European member states of that time were interviewed using standardized questionnaires. The survey has been repeated every nine years in an increasing number of countries. The fourth wave in 2008 covered no fewer than 46 European countries, from Ireland to Azerbaijan and from Portugal to Norway. The fifth wave in 2017 is being run in cooperation with the World Values Survey (which grew out of the EVS) and will extend to scores of countries around the world.

This grant will support British participation in the 2017 EVS/WVS survey.

The central research question is whether values are changing in modern European society, to what extent and in what direction. Values are basic convictions that are prior to, and help to organize, more particular attitudes, actions and moral judgments. The question of how and why values are changing is important because values determine what people care about, with potentially profound impact on society and politics.

The questionnaire covers topics that include national identity, culture, diversity, insecurity, support for democracy, tolerance of foreigners and ethnic minorities, support for gender equality, the role of religion, the impact of globalization, attitudes towards the environment, work, family, politics, subjective well-being, and so on. The questionnaire also contains items on issues of personal and civic ethics, from smoking indoors to suicide. The overarching topic of the current EVS wave is 'Social Solidarity and European Identity'.

Many of the items replicate those from previous surveys, thus enabling analysis of change over time on the key dimensions. With the addition of the new wave, the EVS/WVS study will be a unique source of trend data for the past four decades. The range of potential research questions that can be addressed by scholars and research users is very wide, involving any of the topics covered, using either this dataset on its own or in conjunction with previous waves, and looking either at Great Britain alone, comparisons within Europe, or global cross-national comparisons.

The EVS allows researchers to investigate whether economic harmonisation is accompanied by cultural and ideological integration. Three and a half decades on from the first survey in 1981, the questions are as important as ever. The benefits of transnationalism are disputed; the impact of globalisation in an open market has been strongly felt, and debates continue over the nature of national identity and the consequences of cultural diversity. Support for both the European project and the development of multicultural societies has wavered, divided to some extent along social fault lines defined by region, generation, education and class.

The values surveys carried out by the EVS/WVS are the largest non-commercial, cross-national, time series investigation of human beliefs and values ever executed, currently including interviews with almost half a million respondents. These surveys are the only academic study covering the full range of global variations, from very poor to very rich countries, in all of the world's major cultural zones.

The surveys seek to help researchers and policy makers understand changes in the beliefs, values and motivations of people throughout the world. Thousands of political scientists, sociologists, social psychologists, anthropologists and economists have used these data to analyse such topics as economic development, democratization, religion, gender equality, social capital, and subjective well-being. These data have also been widely used by government officials, international organisations, journalists and students.

The EVS specifically has been widely used by policy makers (especially those in European institutions) and has a wide following among politicians, public administrators, church leaders, journalists, teachers, private sector managers and others. The best demonstration that this interest is more than casual is that funding of the EVS has not come entirely or even largely from academic bodies. Sponsors for the current and previous waves in other countries include charitable trusts and foundations, government ministries, companies, religious organisations and private individuals.

WVS findings are valuable for policy makers seeking to build civil society and democratic institutions in developing countries. Groups at the World Bank have analysed the linkages between cultural factors and economic development.

The discussion of values has been made especially topical by the arrival of substantial numbers of non-European immigrants and the development of societies that are multicultural (in fact if not in self-conception). These developments have provoked debates on the consequences of value diversity and over the source of cultural and national identity. Furthermore, EU enlargement and integration have fuelled nationalistic sentiments and movements. The issues of identity and the survival of national cultures are high on the public agenda in many countries. Whether the European project and large scale immigration will encourage cultural and ethnic conflict or accommodation is one of the most important issues of our time.

The new data will offer an excellent resource for conducting research on the new societal challenges, as well as for grounding significant political decisions. The connections between values and economic, social and political change have been explored by researchers around the world.