In the context of flourishing cross-national and multi-level research, the variety of macro and micro data sources available to researchers have evolved into an interdependent ecosystem of social indicators. Focusing on four comparative social surveys, this paper examines the extent to which secondary data users take advantage of a range of complementary data sources to broaden the breadth or strengthen the robustness of their research. Using two Google Scholar-based datasets of 2789 and 796 publications, we find that, despite the complex equivalence issues in comparative survey research, users combine data to a considerable extent, aiming to increase conceptual, geographic, and temporal coverage and cross-validate findings. Selecting the example of the European Social Survey, 183 journal articles are qualitatively examined to identify specific epistemic gains attained by analysts when combining ESS survey data with data from other comparative programmes. The strategy involves risks, emanating from either analysts' own misjudgements or arising from the wider issues of comparability and transparency in cross-national survey research. However, a number of data harmonisation platforms have recently emerged that may facilitate the standardisation of measures across surveys, augmenting the possibilities for future theory development and research.
The article contributes to the literature on the changing concept of citizenship in the process of globalisation. It sets out from the thesis that the classic concepts of citizenship, which are linked to the nation state, are slowly but steadily losing their monopoly on explaining the relationship between individuals, the political community and government. Based on a theoretical discussion of the new models of citizenship, the authors seek to identify the elements of ‘post-national’ citizenship. The main research goal of the analysis is to discover the conditions in which elements of post-national citizenship are most likely to occur. The analysis is based on aggregated individual (survey) data (from the ESS 2008 and the EVS 2008) and macro contextual data on European Union countries. On the macro (country) level, the authors conduct a hierarchical cluster analysis and crisp set QCA and make the following findings. First, two groups of countries are formed: (a) a fairly homogeneous group of six ‘post-national’ citizenship countries; and (b) a more heterogeneous group of classic citizenship countries. Second, ‘post-national’ citizenship is to be expected in countries in which the following conditions are combined: on the one hand, secularised and post-industrial societies with less emphasis on a knowledge society, and on the other hand, societies with a stable national status where knowledge is important.
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