`I've always enjoyed reading the British Social Attitudes survey, which shows what the British people really think, as opposed to what journalists and politicians like to pretend they think' - John Pilger Britain is a well-documented nation. We know a lot about the characteristics of our society - who we are and what we do. We know much less about what we think and feel about our world and ourselves. The indispensable annual British Social Attitudes survey fills this gap. It compiles, describes and comments on a range of current social attitudes. The information is derived from interviews carried out by the National Centre for Social Research's own interviewers among a nationwide sample of around 3,500 people each year. The series seeks to chart changes in British social values over a period of time in relation to other changes in society, and is core-funded by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation. A full report is published each year. The 17th Report summarizes and interprets data from the most recent survey, as well as making comparisons with findings from previous years. The data are publicly available through the ESRC Data Archive at the University of Essex.

One of the key aims of devolution in Scotland was to change the way people felt about their country and the way they were governed. This book draws on a unique range of Scottish Election Studies and Scottish Social Attitudes surveys to explore the early success -- or otherwise -- of devolution in meeting this objective. It asks how the Scottish public has reacted to the initial experience of devolution, and the lessons this experience might have for the future of devolution. The following questions are considered: * How have public attitudes towards the governance of Scotland within the Union evolved from pre-devolution to the end of the first term of the Scottish Parliament? * What has happened to support for the principal advocates for leaving the Union, the SNP? * Why are fewer people voting in devolved elections than in UK elections? * To what degree does the behaviour of those who vote reveal a sense of involvement in the work of the Parliament? * What are voters' attitudes to the additional member electoral system? * Who are regarded as fellow Scots by those who all themselves 'Scottish'? * What are Scots' attitudes towards the Pakistani and English minorities in Scotland? Drawing on rich sources, this book presents a comprehensive and complete analysis of the Scottish public's evolving view of devolution. Key Features: * Provides a short history of devolution including how the 1999 and 2003 elections were fought and their outcomes * Looks at public attitudes to 4 key objectives many hoped devolution would achieve: (i) a better-governed country; (ii) a public more involved in how the country is governed; (iii) an electorate with more influence; (iv) the development of open civic nationalism, not one based on narrow notions of ethnicity * Asks what we should expect of devolution over the next decade based on what we have learnt about public opinion in Scotland * Written by an established team of writers known for their work in Scottish survey analysis

Unmarried heterosexual cohabitation is rapidly increasing in Britain and over a quarter of children are now born to unmarried cohabiting parents. This is not just an important change in the way we live in modern Britain; it is also a political and theoretical marker. Some commentators see cohabitation as evidence of selfish individualism and the breakdown of the family, while others see it as just a less institutionalised way in which people express commitment and build their families. Politically, 'stable' families are seen as crucial - but does stability simply mean marriage? At present the law in Britain retains important distinctions in the way it treats cohabiting and married families and this can have deleterious effects on the welfare of children and partners on cohabitation breakdown or death of a partner. Should the law be changed to reflect this changing social reality? Or should it - can it - be used to direct these changes? Using findings from their recent Nuffield Foundation funded study, which combines nationally representative data with in-depth qualitative work, the authors examine public attitudes about cohabitation and marriage, provide an analysis of who cohabits and who marries, and investigate the extent and nature of the 'common law marriage myth' (the false belief that cohabitants have similar legal rights to married couples). They then explore why people cohabit rather than marry, what the nature of their commitment is to one another and chart public attitudes to legal change. In the light of this evidence, the book then evaluates different options for legal reform.

New Scotland, New Society asks a series of vital questions regarding the attitudes and behaviour of the Scots. Are the ties that bind people to each other and to the democratic system fragmenting? Do people no longer trust each other? How do people relate to each other in terms of social trust? How do they relate to social institutions such as the family and systems of morality? Is constitutional reform restoring that trust? Drawing on the Scottish Social Attitudes Survey and its predecessors, the overall aim of the book is to provide an independent account of public opinion in post-devolution Scotland. Chapters will cover a range of contemporary debates. Attitudes to key issues such as co-habitation, teenage pregnancy, religion, sexuality, abortion, and racial prejudice will be explored. The capacity of Scotland's new political institutions to restore trust will be questioned, and the links between the trust which people have in each other and the trust they have in their institutions will be tested.These attitudes will be set in context over time and also in comparison with the rest of the UK, to see how attitudes have developed, and whether Scottish attitudes are distinctive. Much of the public debate in Scotland in recent years has been about constitutional and political change. This book moves beyond these issues to look at their social basis. It asks whether popular attitudes might actually be even more fundamental than the undoubtedly important constitutional upheaval that Scotland has recently experienced.