The experience of research of the territorial context of civic engagement

Abstract

The article raises the problem of the limitations of existing practices and technologies of mass surveys which are ignored in the formal statistical analysis of the territory where they take palce. This leads to limited interpretive possibilities, excessive psychologized conclusions, and low applicability of results in decision-making. The experiment shows that not all statistical data included in the survey database is related to indicators of civic engagement. Five indicators out of fourteen included in the analysis are related to civic participation; they are town size, migration growth / loss, average monthly salary, living in an agglomeration area within 110 km, and historical settlements. Authors come to the conclusion that if the use of statistical data in mass surveys is continued, sociologists will have to tackle the problem of sorting the data by relevance to include it in the survey. We might find common characteristics shaping moods and attitudes of people across all or most of traditional social research topics, as well as unique features typical for specific area of study. The importance of sociological conclusions and synthesis is dependent on the selection of the most relevant statistical indicators, elaboration of techniques to obtain them and include in sociological analysis. In addition to statistical data, non-statistical data could be included in the region context parameters. This might be industrial specialization featuring local elites, and so forth.