As part of his doctoral thesis, Sebastian Bahr has published an interesting study based on the SHP on the relationship between urban greenery, mixed land use and life satisfaction in Switzerland. Taking into account different age groups, his study shows, among other things, that mainly the life satisfaction of older residents is positively influenced by a greener neighbourhood. It provides interesting insights for future urban planning.

You can find all the detailed results here.

To mark a quarter-century of longitudinal research in Switzerland, the Swiss Household Panel (SHP) and Transitions from Education to Employment (TREE) are pleased to announce a celebratory conference to be held at the University of Lausanne on June 4-5, 2025.

Keynote speakers

Corinna Kleinert – Leibniz-Institut für Bildungsverläufe
Flaviana Palmisano – Sapienza University of Rome

Conference Themes

The event will feature diverse thematic sessions, focusing on key areas such as:

• Education and Labour Market Pathways
• Health and Well-being Development
• Socio-economic Inequality and Mobility
• Family Formation and Dynamics
• Gender, Ethnic Minorities, and Migration
• Politics and Attitudes
• Methodological Issues in Longitudinal Surveys

Call for Abstracts and Session Proposals

We invite scholars to submit abstracts for individual presentations or 90-minute symposia (typically consisting of three related presentations) based on longitudinal data. Contributions from major projects such as SHP, TREE, SHARE, COCON, and other international longitudinal datasets are highly encouraged. The working language of the conference is English.

Submissions should address one or more of the thematic areas outlined above, with an emphasis on original research utilizing longitudinal methodologies.

The call

Submissions are to be made via the conference platform:https://www.conftool.net/longitudinal-surveys2025/

Deadline for abstract and session proposal submissions: January 17, 2025 

For further details, including venue information please visit the conference webpage.

FORS et DaSCH (Swiss National Data and Service Center for the Humanities) lancent une nouvelle série de webinaires en ligne gratuits sur la gestion des données pour les chercheuses et chercheurs en sciences humaines et sociales.

Le premier webinaire, Planning Data Management, aura lieu le 6 novembre 2024 (14h–15h30) et sera animé par Rita Gautschy (DaSCH) et Auriane Marmier (FORS). Il abordera les exigences en matière d’open science et de DMP (Data Management Plan), avant de présenter des études de cas sur la gestion des images et des données d’entretiens, suivies d’une discussion de 30 minutes.

Inscription au webinaire

Plus d’informations

À noter: Le deuxième webinaire portera sur Applying FAIR and CARE principles et se tiendra le 5 février 2025. Davantage de détails seront annoncés plus tard cette année.

Are you currently working with social science data you got from FORS? Or are you planning to do so in the next few months? Then consider submitting your paper to the FORS Data Re-use Award and get the chance to win up to 1’000CHF. The FORS Data Re-use Award is given to young researchers who carry out excellent research that is based on secondary data.

Young researchers, notably doctoral students and postdocs can apply for the award.

Up to three prices will be given.

First price: 1’000 CHF

Submission

• The manuscript must be based on data accessed via SWISSUbase.
• The data were not produced by any of the authors.
• The manuscript is a full paper. It can still be a work in progress but is not yet published. The author(s) plan(s) to submit it to a peer-reviewed journal.
• Research teams can submit papers. The first author must be an early career researcher (doctoral student or postdoc).
• The dataset is properly cited.
• The manuscript is written in English.

Evaluation

• Innovative use of the data
• Quality of the research design
• Quality of the empirical analysis
• Originality
• Relevance/impact
• Quality of writing and presentation
• Career stage
• Composition of the research team

Representatives of different units at FORS and researchers from the the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences of the University of Lausanne will evaluate all the submission and discuss them. All submissions should be sent to PD Dr. Oliver Lipps: oliver.lipps@fors.unil.ch

The deadline for submission is October 1, 2024.

The award will be given in November 2024 and the winner will be invited to present the paper in the FORS Lunch Seminar.

Further information: https://forscenter.ch/fors-data-reuse-award-2024/

L’appel MOSAiCH offre aux chercheuses et chercheurs une occasion unique de collecter gratuitement des données représentatives sur des questions sociétales actuelles en Suisse. L’appel officiel MOSAiCH 2026 sera publié au début de l’année prochaine, la date limite de soumission étant fixée à la fin du mois d’avril 2025.

Les chercheuses et chercheurs seront invité·e·s à proposer des questions pour la deuxième partie de l’enquête MOSAiCH 2026, dont la thématique sera axée sur le module ISSP 2026 “Role of Government VI”. L’enquête avec les propositions retenues sera réalisée au printemps 2026 et les données seront disponibles début 2027.

L’enquête MOSAiCH porte sur différents thèmes sociaux et vise à connaître les attitudes et les comportements de la population suisse vis-à-vis des institutions politiques et sociales. La première partie de l’enquête intègre le module actuel de l’International Social Survey Programme (ISSP), ainsi que des questions socio-démographiques sélectionnées. La deuxième partie de MOSAiCH est déterminée par l’appel à contributions correspondant et complète le module ISSP soit d’un point de vue thématique ou analytique, soit explore d’autres dimensions présentant un intérêt particulier pour la Suisse.

Le module ISSP « Rôle du gouvernement » sera réalisé pour la quatrième fois en Suisse en 2026 et se concentrera sur des thèmes tels que les responsabilités de l’État, la confiance dans l’État, le marché et d’autres institutions sociales, les dépenses publiques, l’intérêt pour la politique, les interventions de l’État dans l’économie, la sécurité nationale versus les droits civiques, l’atténuation du changement climatique, l’assistance sociale ainsi que la sécurité et la préparation aux crises.

Pour plus d’informations :
MOSAiCH : https://forscenter.ch/projects/mosaich/?lang=fr
International Social Survey Programme (ISSP): https://issp.org/

Utilisez-vous SWISSUbase pour partager ou accéder à des données ? Si vous souhaitez en savoir plus sur la plateforme, ses services ou les équipes et institutions qui la soutiennent, visitez notre nouveau site d’information : https://info.swissubase.ch.

The ISSP is pleased to announce the release of the final version of the international ISSP 2021 Health and Health Care II data file (ZA8000_v2.0.0), which includes data from Switzerland and 29 other ISSP member countries and provides a global perspective on attitudes and behaviours towards health and health care.

The data and associated documentation for this release can be found at the following link:
https://www.gesis.org/en/issp/data-and-documentation/health-and-health-care/2021

In addition, the Call for Abstracts for the third ISSP User Conference is open until September 23, 2024. The virtual conference entitled “Celebrating 40 Years of the International Social Survey Programme” will take place on November 25, 2024. For more details please visit: ISSP User Conference.

We are pleased to announce the release of our updated search tool, designed to provide a detailed overview of the available SHP questions and variables. Visit our platform to make use of the updated search tool and discover the data you need.

Search by Domain
The tool allows users to search across various domains such as health, politics or employment, making it straightforward to find relevant questions.

Custom Search Options
For more specific needs, the custom search feature allows users to specify parameters such as variable names, labels or waves. This customization helps users find the exact variables they need.

Why Use Our Search Tool?

– Comprehensive Coverage: Access a wide range of questions/variables across numerous domains.

– Customizability: Fine-tune your searches for precise results.

– User-Friendly Interface: Navigate variable lists efficiently.

To download the SHP-data, please go to https://www.swissubase.ch/en/catalogue/studies/6097/20179/datasets

We are pleased to announce that the beta-version of wave 25 of the Swiss Household Panel has been published on SWISSUbase. Wave 25 contains the two modules “Social Participation” and “Political Behaviour and Values”.

You can access this preliminary data set here: https://www.swissubase.ch/en/catalogue/studies/6097/latest/datasets/932/3254/overview

Valérie-Anne Ryser and her colleagues at FORS have published a new study on the well-being of older adults before, during, and after the Covid-19 pandemic. They found that older people experienced increased stress levels as well as decreased life satisfaction and positive affect after the pandemic. The authors conclude that older people face more difficulties adapting to the new uncertain post-pandemic world.

Please find the detailed results here: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00127-024-02706-1.pdf

The Swiss Political Science Review (SPSR) invites paper submissions for a Special Issue on the 2023 Swiss National Elections, guest edited by Line Rennwald, Marlène Gerber, and Elie Michel.

Contributions are sought that explore new theoretical, methodological, or empirical aspects of election campaigns and voting behavior in Switzerland, with a preference for studies using Swiss Election Study Selects data, though studies using other data sources (e.g., political campaign ads, EFK/CDF campaign funding) are also welcome. Work with a longitudinal or comparative perspective and contributions related to new questions and modules in the 2023 surveys (e.g., affective polarization, perceptions of social groups) is encouraged. Innovative use of various datasets is highly valued. Proposals (max. one page) should be sent to the Guest Editors by September 23, 2024. Accepted papers will be presented in a workshop in April 2025 and published in June 2026 following peer review.

For more details, visit https://forscenter.ch/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/cfp_selects_2023.pdf

On Selects
The Swiss Election Study Selects has been investigating turnout and electoral behaviour in federal elections since 1995. In order to gain a better understanding of how citizens form their opinions and decide whom to vote for, Selects also collects data on media coverage and candidates’ campaign activities. Selects is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and conducted by FORS.

Further information on Selects: www.selects.ch

Lisez le rapport en ligne https://forscenter.ch/selects_reports/slc-2024-00002/

Auteurs : Tresch, Anke, Rennwald, Line, Lauener, Lukas, Lutz, Georg, Alkoç, Nursel, Benvenuti, Romane et Oscar Mazzoleni (2024). Élections fédérales 2023. Participation et choix électoral. FORS-Lausanne. DOI: 10.24447/SLC-2024-00002.

L’étude électorale suisse Selects ainsi que la traduction de cette publication sont soutenus par le Fonds national suisse. Projet no 198472

L’étude électorale suisse Selects

Depuis 1995, l’étude électorale suisse Selects analyse la participation et le comportement électoral lors des élections fédérales. Afin de mieux comprendre la formation de l’opinion et la décision électorale des citoyen·ne·s, des données sur la couverture médiatique et les activités de campagne des candidat·e·s sont également collectées. Selects est financé par le Fonds national suisse de la recherche scientifique (FNS) et réalisé par FORS à Lausanne.

Dans le cadre de Selects, des enquêtes approfondies ont été menées pour les élections fédérales suisses de 2023 :

• Une enquête post-électorale auprès de 5’033  citoyen·ne·s ;
• Enquêtes répétées auprès des mêmes personnes avant et après les élections, avec entre 8’000 et 5’500 électeurs éligibles par enquête
• Une enquête auprès de 2’527 candidat·e·s au Conseil national et au Conseil des États ;
• Étude des médias : Analyse du contenu de 116 médias imprimés et en ligne (journaux quotidiens et hebdomadaires)

Tous les fichiers de données sont documentés et librement disponibles à des fins scientifiques auprès de SWISSUbase : https://www.swissubase.ch/en/catalogue/studies/20738/latest

Le rapport existe en français, allemand et italien : https://forscenter.ch/projects/selects/#Publications

Based on the structure of the SPSS version of the Swiss Household Panel (SHP) data, a new R package developed by Gilbert Ritschard, Professor Emeritus at the University of Geneva, provides a function that searches for user-specified variable data in each of the wave files and assembles them into sequences. The function also matches the sequences with variables from unique files such as the personal and household master files (MP, MH), social origins (SO), or calendar of activity (CA) data.

https://cran.rstudio.com/web/packages/seqSHP/seqSHP.pdf

Survey data collected in the latest round of the European Social Survey (ESS) is now available for 13 countries.

Round 11 data has been published for Austria, Croatia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Lithuania, The Netherlands, Norway, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

The data is available from the ESS Data Portal and is published with design weights only. Post-stratification weights will be added when data from the majority of countries is available later this year.

There are 31 countries who have participated in this latest round of our survey – a second data release including a larger number of countries will be published in November / December 2024.

Following on from a mixed mode approach implemented in the previous round due to the pandemic, Round 11 (2023/24) data collection has been conducted using face-to-face fieldwork (including video interviewing)[1].

Data is available for more than 200 questions asked in all countries, including respondents’ ancestry; education; employment; financial circumstances; household composition; and other socio-demographics including sex, age as well as information about their partners and parents.

Attitudinal data collected in every round focuses on climate change and energy; crime and justice; democracy and government; immigration; health and wellbeing; institutional and social trust; media and internet use; European, national and ethnic identity; perceived discrimination; political affiliation, interest and participation; religion; social exclusion; and values.

Round 11 includes two rotating modules that focus on gender, for the first time, and social inequalities in health, with many questions repeated from Round 7 (2014/15).

Proposed by a team led by Susan Banducci (University of Exeter), the gender module explores attitudes towards feminine and masculine identities, sexism, gender discrimination and gender equality.

The health proposal was submitted by the majority of researchers involved in the initial module and was led by Mirza Balaj (CHAIN Scientific coordinator Norwegian University of Science and Technology).

A combination of repeat and new items examine the social determinants of health in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and how they are related to income and wealth inequalities.

Further information: https://europeansocialsurvey.org/news/article/round-11-data-now-available

[1] Only one country (Czechia) has been forced to collect data using self-completion methods in this round, due to restrictions in the capacity of in-person interviewers.

On April 24, 2024, during a meeting involving over 60 representatives from national research infrastructures, the Swiss nodes of European ERICs and long-term projects, we launched the “Social Science and Humanities Open Cluster Switzerland (SSHOC-CH)”. This initiative aims to enhance collaboration, find synergies among social sciences and humanities infrastructures, and coordinate national resources to better support SSH scholars in their research and in managing their data in the spirit of Open Science and FAIR principles.

Beat Immenhauser, General Secretary of the Swiss Academy of Social Sciences and Humanities, commended the bottom-up formation of SSHOC-CH, noting its broad-based membership from the very beginning. This new organization seeks to streamline coordination across research infrastructures concerning European and national roadmaps, ERICs (European Research Infrastructure Consortium), and the creation of joint tools, platforms, and services.

Bonnie Wolff-Boenisch, Director of CESSDA (Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives) and Chair of the SSHOC Open Cluster, praised the initiative, reflecting on SSHOC’s evolution from a top-down European Commission project to a sustained collaborative effort backed by a Memorandum of Understanding among European Research Infrastructures that is now also reaching out to the national level.

The founding meeting participants discussed a whitepaper contextualizing SSHOC-CH within the broader national and European framework, outlined the mission and potential activities, which include participating in the ongoing national policy dialogues, developing joint policies especially with respect to data management and sharing, creating an inventory of existing resources, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, enhancing community engagement, and coordinating funding strategies and training programs.

The founding assembly also formalized the organization by approving its Statutes, electing a Board with 10 members, and appointing Georg Lutz, director of FORS to the President position.

In his concluding remarks, Georg Lutz emphasized the need for the SSH community to leverage existing resources effectively. The SSH community should design and build robust, valuable projects and infrastructures that bring added value and services to the different research communities and that are professionally managed.

However, he also stated that this should lead to a better recognition of SSH infrastructure needs and ongoing clustering efforts by key policy makers in Switzerland. In the last round of the national roadmap process, only two new rather small projects made it on the infrastructure roadmap, and they still struggled to get funding, the entire roadmap process was biased against SSH projects. The SSH community in Switzerland is now at the forefront of building such a coordinating organisation.

In the coming months, the SSHOC-CH Board will start working on the priorities and thus lay the foundation for a stronger and better coordinated national infrastructure landscape.

For more information and to become a member: www.sshoc.ch

The Kohli Foundation for Sociology has recently announced this year’s laureate of the Infrastructure Prize for Sociology. The prize goes to the European Social Survey (ESS). “With its European focus and excellent accessibility, the ESS is one of the outstanding infrastructure projects for sociology and related fields”, says the Kohli Foundation.

For details see:

Infrastructure Prize for Sociology 2024: European Social Survey – Kohli Foundation

Members of the Swiss Household Panel team have published a call for contributions in Frontiers in Sociology for the Research Topic “Exploring Social Stratification Dynamics: Insights from Longitudinal Survey Data”. Interested researchers can submit their abstract until 31 July 2024.

The editors welcome substantive contributions from different conceptual and theoretical approaches, addressing topics such as education, employment, material reward, health, social networks, integration, political behaviour, or attitudes and values. Articles based on the SHP data and comparative analyses using the Cross-National Equivalent File (CNEF) are particularly welcome.

Please find all the information here: fro.ntiers.in/RT64137

Nous avons le plaisir d’annoncer la publication de notre Rapport Annuel 2023. Ce rapport reflète nos diverses activités tout au long de l’année, illustrant notre engagement à faire progresser la recherche en sciences sociales en Suisse et au-delà. Le rapport offre des perspectives approfondies sur divers aspects de nos activités, notamment les enquêtes, la gestion des données, le développement de l’infrastructure, les collaborations scientifiques, la recherche méthodologique, la collecte et l’analyse des données, les statistiques du personnel et les informations financières.

Dans l’éditorial, le directeur de FORS, Georg Lutz, décrit le 15e anniversaire de FORS comme une étape significative, célébrée avec de nombreux invité×e×s. Cette occasion a offert la possibilité de réfléchir sur la situation actuelle de FORS et sur son orientation future.

Le Rapport Annuel 2023 est désormais disponible ici.

Nous avons le plaisir d’annoncer la publication des données MOSAiCH/ISSP 2023 sur l’identité nationale et la citoyenneté collectées au printemps 2023. Les données et la documentation sont disponibles ici : https://www.swissubase.ch/en/catalogue/studies/20527/latest

L’édition 2023 de MOSAiCH est construite autour du module « Identité nationale et citoyenneté » de l’International Social Survey Programme (ISSP). Ce module est une combinaison de deux études ISSP existantes qui ont déjà été menées en Suisse en 2003 et 2013 (Identité nationale) et en 2004 et 2014 (Citoyenneté). La partie internationale est complétée par des questions socio-démographiques sélectionnées, ainsi qu’un module composé de questions spécifiques à la Suisse.

In 2024 in response to requests from past editions’ participants, we are introduction three new courses:

Bayesian modelling

Visual data and visual methods for the Social Sciences

Agent-based modelling

Check out the programme

Register here.

The European Social Survey (ESS) is seeking applications from multinational research teams to design modules of questions for its upcoming rounds. The ESS questionnaire comprises a fixed core module of substantive and socio-demographic questions, alongside two rotating modules of around 30 questions each.

Previously, these rotating modules, which cover specific academic or policy concerns in Europe, have been selected for each round. These modules are designed by competitive Question Module Design Teams (QDTs) collaborating with the Core Scientific Team (CST) of the ESS.

In the latest call for Round 13 Rotating Modules, the ESS is inviting research teams to apply for the creation of either 15 or 30-item modules. This novel addition of a 15-item module option aims to encourage submissions on pertinent topics that may not necessitate a full 30-question module.

To the call

L’enquête MOSAiCH porte sur différents thèmes sociaux et vise à connaître les attitudes et les comportements de la population suisse vis-à-vis des institutions politiques et sociales. Elle s’intéresse également à des sujets d’actualité, comme par exemple l’environnement, l’identité nationale, la famille ou le travail.

La célébration du 15e anniversaire de FORS a eu lieu le 16 novembre 2023 à l’Université de Lausanne, marquant un événement mémorable. L’événement a rassemblé de nombreux anciens et actuels membres de FORS pour des discussions centrées sur le remarquable parcours de FORS et sa trajectoire future.

Estelle Doudet, Présidente du Conseil de la Fondation de FORS et Vice-Rectrice de l’Université de Lausanne, a souligné l’histoire et l’impact de FORS. Créée il y a 15 ans en tant que fondation indépendante à l’Université de Lausanne après un concours national, FORS a considérablement contribué à faire progresser la collecte de données de haute qualité et la recherche empirique en sciences sociales en Suisse et au-delà.

Une table ronde a été organisée, réunissant des experts du domaine et mettant en lumière les contributions de FORS aux sciences sociales. FORS a joué un rôle crucial en soutenant la communauté de recherche en sciences sociales en répondant aux besoins de production et d’accessibilité des données, tout en gérant efficacement les archives et en favorisant la connexion entre les chercheurs∙euses. Les défis liés à l’obtention de financements à long terme pour FORS ont été abordés, tout en reconnaissant son succès. Les débats ont souligné la nécessité d’innover tout en assurant la stabilité pour maintenir la qualité des enquêtes et des services de données. En anticipant les tendances actuelles dans les sciences sociales, les panellistes ont discuté du rôle futur de FORS dans la coordination d’initiatives diverses au-delà des sciences sociales, tout en reconnaissant son expertise dans la gestion des données ouvertes et fair.

Enfin, Georg Lutz, le Directeur de FORS a souligné l’importance de s’adapter à l’évolution des défis en matière de données de recherche, tout en exprimant sa gratitude envers les contributeurs∙trices ayant participé au succès de FORS au fil des ans.

FORS demeure un acteur clé dans le paysage suisse de la recherche, s’appuyant sur ses réalisations passées tout en s’adaptant aux évolutions futures pour maintenir son excellence en tant qu’infrastructure de référence pour les sciences sociales.

Pour plus d’informations, consultez le communiqué de presse.

The CESSDA Country Spotlight series showcases national service providers and holds interviews with representatives of the national service providers and members of the CESSDA community.

This time the series portrayed FORS. Discover the interview with Brian Kleiner, Head of Data & Research for Social Sciences at FORS. It sheds light on the power of CESSDA to foster teamwork in data archives.

The whole interview and further information:

https://www.cessda.eu/News/CESSDA-Newsitem-nid3592

Georg Henning from the German Centre of Gerontology in Berlin, Germany, and his colleagues have published their research on historical and cross-country differences in life satisfaction across retirement between 2000 and 2019 in Germany and Switzerland. They used data from the SHP and the SOEP and found that life satisfaction trajectories around retirement age have improved over the last 20 years. Their findings may be explained by general improvements in the health and psychosocial functioning of older people.

Please find the detailed results here: https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbad066