This book explains harmonisation techniques that can be used in survey research to align national systems of categories and definitions in such a way that comparison is possible across countries and cultures. It provides an introduction to instruments for collecting internationally comparable data of interest to survey researchers. It shows how seven key demographic and socio-economic variables can be harmonised and employed in European comparative surveys. The seven key variables discussed in detail are: education, occupation, income, activity status, private household, ethnicity, and family. These demographic and socio-economic variables are background variables that no survey can do without. They frequently have the greatest explanatory capacity to analyse social structures, and are a mirror image of the way societies are organised nationally. This becomes readily apparent when one attempts, for example, to compare national education systems. Moreover, a comparison of the national definitions of concepts such as "private household" reveals several different historically and culturally shaped underlying concepts. Indeed, some European countries do not even have a word for "private household". Hence such national definitions and categories cannot simply be translated from one culture to another. They must be harmonised.

Above all, this book focuses on the application of sociodemographic survey questions. Based on theoretical foundations, it addresses the operationalization of variables and presents socio-demographic questionnaire modules for within- and across-country comparative survey research. The book pursues three main objectives: to provide a thorough and comprehensive overview of the survey instruments currently available for the measurement of sociodemographic variables in cross-national comparative research; to offer the reader a set of harmonized international demographic standards; and to show how these standards can be implemented by the various parties involved in international comparative surveys - from the central project coordinators, to the researchers on the national survey teams, to the fieldwork agencies and their interviewers, to respondents, and eventually, to the data processing experts preparing the datasets for comparative analysis. The book offers a valuable resource for researchers, practitioners and students actively involved in producing and analyzing sociodemographic survey data. The typical readers will be social science researchers, qualified consultants and professionals interested in the field of (comparative) survey research. The book can also serve as a useful supplement to introductory textbooks on survey methodology and is suitable for Bachelor and Master students of the social sciences.

This book explains harmonisation techniques that can be used in survey research to align national systems of categories and definitions in such a way that comparison is possible across countries and cultures. It provides an introduction to instruments for collecting internationally comparable data of interest to survey researchers. It shows how seven key demographic and socio-economic variables can be harmonised and employed in European comparative surveys. The seven key variables discussed in detail are: education, occupation, income, activity status, private household, ethnicity, and family. These demographic and socio-economic variables are background variables that no survey can do without. They frequently have the greatest explanatory capacity to analyse social structures, and are a mirror image of the way societies are organised nationally. This becomes readily apparent when one attempts, for example, to compare national education systems. Moreover, a comparison of the national definitions of concepts such as "private household" reveals several different historically and culturally shaped underlying concepts. Indeed, some European countries do not even have a word for  "private household". Hence such national definitions and categories cannot simply be translated from one culture to another. They must be harmonised.    ​

Die Lander vergleichende Umfrageforschung benotigt Befragungsinstrumente, die in jedem an einem Projekt beteiligten Land das Gleiche messen. Fur das Ubersetzen von Fragen zu Einstellungen und Verhalten gibt es akzeptierte Prozeduren. Fur die Ubertragung von soziodemographischen Variablen ist ein Ubersetzen nicht moglich - Surveyfragen zu soziodemographischen Merkmalen mussen harmonisiert werden. Die Statistikabteilungen von UN und Eurostat arbeiten zwar mit vergleichenden Messinstrumenten, diese sind aber nicht immer sinnvoll fur die sozialwissenschaftliche Forschung einzusetzen.

Die Autoren zeigen einerseits auf, welche Messinstrumente auf dem Markt existieren. Andererseits entwickeln sie zu den zentralen soziodemographischen Variablen eigene Messinstrumente fur den internationalen sozialwissenschaftlichen Vergleich, die vorgestellt und diskutiert werden.

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