Mitchell centre seminar series
| Dates: | 1 May 2019 |
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| Times: | 16:00 - 17:30 |
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| What is it: | Seminar |
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| Organiser: | School of Social Sciences |
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Siobhan McAndrew, University of Bristol
Explaining values divides using network methods
The ongoing rise of authoritarian populism has revealed new political cleavages rooted in values, and academic attention has turned to their study. Social scientists however overwhelmingly rely on standard scale measures rather than unpacking their structure. Survey data can be treated as network data, noted as early as 1997 by Borgatti and Everett but to date little pursued with some notable exceptions (Belotti and Mora 2016; Boutyline and Vaisey 2017; Lizardo 2014, 2018). I propose a study of the content and forms of cultural values by applying network analytic methods to European Values Study data. The EVS has run every nine years since 1981, covering over forty European countries in the fourth and fifth waves, with a rich repertoire of values measures: trust in members of different communities (such as family and neighbourhood members, people of another nationality), perceived duty to work, desired character traits in children, agreement as to whether a variety of moral and immoral behaviours ‘can ever be justified’, national and ethnic identities, perception of democratic integrity, immigration attitudes, security, and perception that it is important to share British or European culture. The 2017 survey for Britain also includes a question on happiness versus disappointment with leaving the EU, where 54 percent of respondents gave a response at the extreme values of 1 or 10.
I discuss the opportunities provided by belief network analysis and the EVS as a resource for answering questions on the structure of values and their social and civic effects. For example, what is the network structure of cultural, moral and political values? Are there distinct clusters of values in the person-by-values network? What factors predict having high ‘cultural bridging’? Do values network measures predict civic attitudes and behaviours? How do values networks change over time and how do they vary across Europe?
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G7
Humanities Bridgeford Street
Manchester
