The NatCen Blog

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Posted on 29 October 2020 by Sir John Curtice, Senior Research Fellow ScotCen

Is Scotland More Egalitarian than England?

It is often argued that Scotland is more left-wing than England. After all, the relative weakness of the Conservative party north of the border would seem a clear testament to that being the case. And the claim, which has often been made by SNP spokespersons, fits one of the key arguments that the party presents in favour of independence, that is, that for so long as it is part of the Union, Scotland is always at risk of having the realisation of its preferences stymied by the less progressive views of those living south of the border.
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Tags: BSA37, British Social Attitudes, ISSP, International Social Survey Programme, Scottish Social Attitudes, inequality
Posted on 08 October 2020 by Sir John Curtice, Senior Research Fellow ScotCen

The Legacy and Future of Brexit

Today sees the publication of two chapters on Brexit as part of the latest British Social Attitudes report. One examines the legacy of Brexit, that is, the impact that the process of leaving has had on our attitudes towards how we are governed. The other looks at what people hope Brexit will bring in future, that is, what they think the UK government should do with the new powers and responsibilities that it will acquire at the end of the transition period in December.
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Tags: BSA 37, Brexit, British Social Attitudes, political attitudes, public trust
Posted on 29 September 2020 by Alex Scholes, Researcher ScotCen

Twenty years of changing attitudes towards Holyrood and Westminster

Today sees the publication by the Scottish Government of a Scottish Social Attitudes (SSA) report on how attitudes in Scotland towards the devolved and UK-wide institutions have evolved since the Scottish Parliament was created in 1999.
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Tags: public trust, SSA, ScotCen, Scotland, Scottish Social Attitudes, elections
Posted on 18 September 2020 by Gillian Prior, Director

I hear you knocking…

In this article Gillian Prior, our Head of Surveys, Data and Analysis, considers a new NatCen panel survey examining the public’s views on face-to-face interviews, as well as the current possibilities for restarting face-to-face fieldwork on large-scale surveys.
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Tags: NatCen Panel, fieldwork, methods, safety
Posted on 24 August 2020 by Padmini Iyer, Senior Researcher

An intersectional approach to equality, diversity and inclusion at NatCen

This blog post is a collaboration between the co-chairs of NatCen’s Equality and Diversity Group, Padmini Iyer and Shivonne Gates, and the co-chairs of the NatCen LGBT+ Staff Network, Amelia Benson and Emma Corteen.
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Tags: BME researchers, LGBT, equality and diversity, inclusion, life at NatCen
Posted on 21 August 2020 by Martin Wood, Director

Longitudinal methods: innovation and development during Covid-19

The UK’s longitudinal social research studies have stepped forward during the Covid-19 crisis to offer a means of understanding the outbreak’s impact on work, family life, wellbeing and health-related behaviour.
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Tags: ESRC, English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, Understanding Society, fieldwork, longitudinal studies, methodology and innovation
Posted on 18 August 2020 by Shivonne Gates, Senior Researcher

Navigating the White research space: Experiences of BME researchers

As BME researchers early in our careers, Bethany Thompson and I regularly discussed challenges we faced in predominantly White workplaces. However, with limited experience in the workplace, we wondered if the challenges we faced were unique or shared more widely.
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Tags: BME researchers, early-career researchers, equality and diversity, event, life at NatCen, workshop
Posted on 21 July 2020 by Ceri Davies, Director, NatCen Centre for Deliberative Research

Digital engagement with citizens on the environment

Covid-19 is taking social researchers into new territory. With face-to-face fieldwork paused, researchers have been left to explore how else (if at all) they can continue existing studies. The pandemic also poses a particularly tricky question of how findings from research designed for pre-Covid-19 society should be interpreted in what will be very different future realities.
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Tags: 25 Year Environmental Plan, citizen engagement, deliberative research, fieldwork, online methods
Posted on 30 June 2020 by Guy Goodwin, Chief Executive

Someone’s knocking at the door

Most of the UK’s high-quality random probability social surveys use face-to-face interviewing. The Covid-19 lockdown meant an immediate pause to this work. When can, and should, interviewers return into the field to conduct social surveys and under what conditions? In this blog post, our Chief Executive Guy Goodwin addresses some of the key questions for both survey commissioners and research organisations.
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Tags: Covid-19 Infection Study, NatCen Opinion Panel, coronavirus, fieldwork, telephone surveys, web surveys
Posted on 17 June 2020 by Guy Goodwin, Chief Executive

Testing boundaries during the pandemic

Certainly, there is no question about the importance and relevance of some of our NatCen research right now, whether we’re finding out how older people are coping during the pandemic, helping with the volumes on the Covid-19 infection study or taking part in the partnership evaluating the contact tracing app pilot on the Isle of Wight.
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Tags: CATI, Computer-assisted telephone interviews, Covid-19 Infection Study, ELSA, English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, coronavirus, innovation