1. Mariya Potabenko GRID-Arendal Guest-researcher USE OF SOCIOLOGICAL SURVEYS FOR ASSESSING ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION NEEDS

2. Content Why sociological surveys? Methodology Qualitative surveys Quantitative surveys Content-analysis surveys Internet surveys

3. Methodology Subject Object Hypotheses Principal plan of a survey Investigative Descriptive Analytical Scales construction and sample design

4. Qualitative surveys Focus-group discussions In-depth interviewing Expert interviewing Other qualitative surveys

5. Focus-group discussions Target group of 6-12 persons, moderator, non-formalized conversation +: Discovers motivation of actions and a variety of opinions - : Group influence; no opportunity to discuss personal questions Ex: Marketing surveys

6. In-depth interviewing 1-2 respondents, non-formalized and non- structured conversation +: Discusses personal questions; discovers attitudes of people who are difficult to reach or put together -: Only valid for interviewed individuals Ex: Obtaining primary or personal information about organization or state of issue

7. Expert interviewing Specially selected experts; interview is structured and either formalized or non- formalizedSpecially selected experts; interview is structured and either formalized or non- formalized +: Discovers opinions of professionals; gives an opportunity to get relevant advices or ideas; helps to discover hypotheses+: Discovers opinions of professionals; gives an opportunity to get relevant advices or ideas; helps to discover hypotheses -: Sampling needs special techniques-: Sampling needs special techniques Ex: Environmental policy making, policy papers preparingEx: Environmental policy making, policy papers preparing

8. Other qualitative surveys Observation Group methods Brainstorming Conflict groups Group interviewing/questioning

9. Quantitative methods Face-to-face (individual) interviewing Mail surveys Telephone surveys

10. Face-to-face (individual) interviewing Interviewer reads questions and registers answers +: Questionnaire can be long and include complicated questions -: Interviewer influences respondent Ex: National survey on environmental awareness

11. Mail survey Questionnaires are sent to randomly selected respondents +: Relatively cheap; anonymity and interviewer-related bias is absent -: Low rate of responses; fieldwork takes long time; respondents can skip questions

12. Telephone survey Randomly selected respondents are contacted by phone. Answers are registered by interviewer. +: Fast turnaround time of a survey; preference of verbal communication -: Interviewer influence a respondent, voice misunderstandings, blocking telecom systems

13. Content-analysis survey Press texts are selected and studied. Context, number of certain words and their density are analyzed. +: Analysis of mass media involvement and influence on social processes -: A studied problem is not necessarily covered by mass media; high costs; unclear representativity Ex: Elections, referendums.

14. Internet surveys Questionnaire is located on a web site. Interested users answer it. +: Interactivity; low cost; easy data processing -: No control over respondents; unclear representativity; access to a researcher’s server Ex: Interviewing target audience in different countries and regions simultaneously