Encyclopedia of Sociology

DATA BANKS AND DEPOSITORIES

the International Federation of Data Organiza-
tions (IFDO was founded in 1977 to enhance the
cooperation already started by CESSDA).

CESSDA promoted the acquisition, archiving,
and distribution of data for social research through-
out Europe, facilitated the exchange of data and
technology among data organizations, and sup-
ported the development of standards for study
description schemes to inform users about the

archival holdings, classification schemes for access
to variables by subject and continuity guides for
coherent data collections. In the 1970s and 1980s,
European membership grew continuously and
CESSDA started to associate and cooperate with
other international organizations sharing similar

objectives. Today Europe has a good coverage of
CESSDA member archives, while planning proc-
esses are under way in several more countries that
still lack a social science infrastructure.

Recent trends reveal a type of limitation to the
growth and proliferation of national SSDA. This
occurs partly through the opening of decentral-
ized bureaus and partly through more specialized
data file collections—ones with more well-defined
inquiry areas. Exemplary regarding this last issue

is the Rural Data Base of the ESRC, or even the
CESSDA internal agreement aiming at a study
field subdivision between the different European
SSDA (Tannenbaum 1986).

SSDA have been useful not only in their specif-
ic field (especially retrieving, storing, gathering,
and making available data) but also have improved
general quantitative research techniques, second-
ary analysis, statistical and administrative software
packages, and have made available the best hard-

ware in social research. Most of the SSDA publish
their own bulletins, organize methodology schools
for social science, hold updating seminars, and
cooperate in research projects. In the second half
of the 1980s SSDA were particularly active in
defining the standards for the information system

to be used among these institutions. More recent-
ly, SSDA have been working on international ac-
cess practices on two levels: developing standard
study description procedures (to define each data
file) and promoting access to online archives.

SOCIAL SURVEY INSTRUMENTS

Major social survey instruments are those institu-

tionalized initiatives that have produced some of

the most interesting results from the autonomous

research applied to problems of general interest.

The General Social Surveys, the Continuous National

Surveys, and the U.S. National Surveys are the most

interesting examples of longitudinal studies.

Eurobarometers and the International Social Sur-

vey Program (ISSP) are discussed here because,

although not strictly comparable to general social

surveys, they are two of the most comprehensive

and continuous academic survey programs. Al-

though it is not discussed here, a student of the

social sciences should examine the European House-

hold Panels. This project integrated national house-

hold panels from Germany (since 1984), Sweden

(since 1984), Luxembourg (since 1985), France

(since 1985), Poland (since 1987), Great Britain

(since 1991), and Belgium and Hungary (since

1992). These panels include variables on house-

hold composition, employment, earnings, occupa-

tional biographies, health, and satisfaction indica-

tors. (In order to create an international comparative

database for microdata from these projects, the

Panel Comparability Project (PACO) was formed).

General Social Surveys. General Social Sur-

veys (GSS) were developed to set out data on

demographic, social, and economic characteristics

of the population, as well as opinion data on social

life (e.g. family, politics, institutions, relationships).

This important survey instrument improved over

time. In the mid 1940s the Survey Research Center

of the University of Michigan conducted panel

studies on a national level on specific issues, such

as political behavior, socioeconomic status, and

consumers’ attitudes. In the early 1970s, the Na-

tional Opinion Research Center (NORC) of the

University of Chicago organized the first GSS,

which was immediately followed by the Continu-

ous National Surveys program.

Following the consolidation of the research

method based on enlarged quantitative surveys on

a national level, some institutions committed to

the transfer of the results, both within the U.S.

academic community and toward universities and

research centers worldwide. One should note that

data provided by the GSS are given a particular

treatment inside the ICPSR, which, besides trans-

ferring the data, gathers the sociologists interested