René Bautista, Director of the General Social Survey (GSS), a program developed by NORC, highlights the value of evidence-based social research for understanding social transformations, identifying emerging trends, and providing rigorous data in the public interest. He also addresses the main methodological challenges currently facing opinion research, such as representativeness, technological change, and declining response rates, and presents the strategies developed by NORC to ensure the quality, transparency, and accessibility of data.
The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Social Sciences has gone in this 18th edition to the Institute for Social Research (ISR) at the University of Michigan and NORC at the University of Chicago for “their long-term contribution to the objective measurement of public opinion and social life,” in the words of the committee. They are reco
René Bautista, Director of the General Social Survey (GSS), a program developed by NORC, highlights the value of evidence-based social research for understanding social transformations, identifying emerging trends, and providing rigorous data in the public interest. He also addresses the main methodological challenges currently facing opinion research, such as representativeness, technological change, and declining response rates, and presents the strategies developed by NORC to ensure the quality, transparency, and accessibility of data.
The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Social Sciences has gone in this 18th edition to the Institute for Social Research (ISR) at the University of Michigan and NORC at the University of Chicago for “their long-term contribution to the objective measurement of public opinion and social life,” in the words of the committee. They are recognized as having created “a reliable and unsurpassed source for social scientists, policymakers, and journalists” through their extensive data series built up over eight decades of research.
00:00 Introduction
00:13 How would you define the importance of empirical, data-driven social sciences in today’s world and their fundamental role in understanding contemporary societies?
02:10 What have been NORC’s key contributions to the objective measurement of public opinion and social life?
03:48 What are the main methodological challenges in designing public opinion studies today, and how has NORC addressed them?
06:14 Looking ahead, how does NORC plan to continue strengthening the empirical robustness of social science research in the public interest?
