Albert Simkus

Guest Editor's Introduction: The SEESSP Project

This issue of the International Journal of Sociology presents some of the first studies based on the South-East European Social Survey Project—a social survey data resource for the sociology and social history of the group of societies included in what is now commonly referred to as the Western Balkans during late 2003 and early 2004. This introduction is intended to give an overview of the project that produced these data, concentrating on the data structure itself. It also discusses the articles based on the project that are included in this journal issue.

War-Related Distress Among Kosovar Albanians

This study focuses on war experiences, war-related distress, and health. It is based on face-to-face interviews in a representative survey of 1,000 Kosovar Albanians. Results show that direct war experiences have a stronger impact on war-related distress and health than indirect war experiences. The strongest predictor among crucial single experiences was being held prisoner of war. Among Kosovo-Albanians, direct war experiences may have had a strong effect on war-related distress, even 4 years after the end of the war.

Cross-National Differences in the Western Balkans in Three Dimensions of Attitudes: Ethnic Exclusionism, Gender Role Conservatism, and Conservative Sexual Mores

This article presents basic analyses of overall cross-national and cross-ethnic group differences within this region regarding three of the projects topics of interest: ethnic exclusionism, gender role conservatism, and moral conservatism regarding sexual mores. Ethnic groups that represent at least approximately 10 percent of the population in each country are contrasted. These analyses demonstrate the relative importance of both general social-demographic variables acting across societies in this region and the continuing importance of cultural and contextual issues affecting specific ethnic groups in each country. As we demonstrate, the importance of one set of factors versus the other varies greatly depending upon the topic.

Disaggregating Public Opinion on the Ethnic Conflict in Macedonia

This article presents a multilevel analysis of the variation in Macedonian public opinion on two key issues: (1) perceptions of the causes of the conflict during 2001; and (2) support for the rapid implementation of the Ohrid agreement, which was a vital part of the end of hostilities. This analysis disaggregates the differences among Macedonians on these issues on the basis of a three-level model where the municipalities constitute the highest level; the intermediate level, neighborhoods, is represented by the sampling clusters; and the lowest level is represented by the individual respondents. We assess the relative importance of geographical unit versus individual differences for these beliefs and attitudes, and seek to explain these with geographical contextual variables and individual attributes. These analyses are based on data on approximately 2,500 adult respondents to national Macedonian surveys conducted during November-December 2003. We find a significant degree of ethnic Macedonian-ethnic Albanian polarization, which makes other individuallevel determinants insignificant or trivial in effect. However, we do find considerable significant variation across municipalities and clusters, after taking into account respondents ethnicity. The significance of such contextual variables as violent events in the area and the proportion of Albanians differs depending on the issue and the geographical units involved.

6 Attitudes Toward Inequality: Cross-National Comparisons and Class Divisions in Hungary

Abstract:National survey data from Hungary and eight capitalist countries in 1987 demonstrate that at that time Hungarian citizens were more egalitarian in their attitudes than citizens in capitalist countries. Within Hungary, the most significant class differences in such attitudes were between higher nonmanual employees and the remainder of the population. Temporal comparisons show no changes in such attitudes in Hungary between 1987 and 1992. Cross-national comparisons based on a larger set of eighteen formerly state-socialist and capitalist countries indicate that public opinion in the formerly state-socialist societies was still relatively egalitarian in 1992.

Differences in Values within Macedonia: Macedonian—Albanian Comparisons

The previous chapter compared the average responses of citizens of Macedonia to value-related questions in the European Values Surveys (EVS) with comparable average responses of people in other European countries. Since ethnic Macedonians1 are the clear majority within Macedonia, the positions of Macedonia in the constellations of countries in the figures of the previous chapter mostly reflect their values, while the positions of other ethnic groups in Macedonia may be quite different. In this chapter, we concentrate on differences in values within Macedonia related to the attitudes, cultural norms, and religiosity of the Macedonian and Albanian populations. In addition to showing overall Macedonian—Albanian differences, we go on to explore Macedonian—Albanian differences in changes across age groups or birth cohorts, differences across educational groups, and urban versus rural differences. Limitations in the available data prevent us from emphasizing exactly the same variables as those examined in Chapter 3. Instead, following a number of arguments in Sabrina Ramet’s chapter on civic virtues and liberal values, we stress values related to ethnic exclusion, gender-role equality, consensus on basic mores concerning sexual behavior, and religiosity.

2 Analyses of Social Distances Among Classes: Detailed Analyses for Hungary and Poland

Abstract:This paper presents detailed analyses of eight dimensions of objective distances among social classes in Hungary and Poland based on large-scale social surveys carried out during the 1980s. The data for both countries could be fitted well with a modified log-multiplicative model that included a single set of relative class distances and class-specific tendencies for homophily across all dimensions. Social distances were greatest with regard to the selection of friends, and endogamy with regard to class of spouse and career mobility. Distances were more moderate with regard to intergenerational social mobility, endogamy with regard to spouse’s father, and similarities among siblings. They were smallest for residential segregation and two-generation intergenerational mobility. In Hungary, homophily was greatest for workers in agriculture, the self-employed, and higher professionals. The largest gaps in unidimensional class distances were between skilled and semi-skilled workers and between higher p...

1 An Introduction to Data Resources and Methodological Issues in Studying Class Divisions in East-Central Europe

Abstract:This introduction provides an overview of the history of large-scale stratification and mobility surveys conducted in Eastern Europe under state socialism. This summary is provided for those who are not specialists in East European history and social science research in this region. It describes the project “Social Stratification in East-Central Europe, 1949–1988,” which was the basis for the analyses reported in this special issue of the International Journal of Sociology. We also include an introduction to relevant statistical issues and terminology for those who are not specialists in quantitative analyses of social mobility.

Differences in Attitudes towards Gender Roles within and between the Countries of the Western Balkans

Objective gender inequality can be measured in many dimensions, as Katalin Fabian pointed out in Chapter 2 — so too can subjective attitudes regarding gender inequality. Furthermore, it is reasonable to expect various relationships between objective inequalities and subjective attitudes toward inequalities. On the one hand, we may suspect that subjective attitudes tend to conform to objective inequalities, either because attitudes and norms may have guided objective practices and outcomes or because such attitudes and norms have been accommodated to objective practices and outcomes. On the basis of this line of reasoning, Fabian concludes, among other things: If we wish to balance income indicators of gender with other meaningful and important aspects of the gender relations, the composite indices would need to pay more attention to the various types of representation in post-communist societies to include qualitative measures, such as attitudes (for example, towards women’s work in the labor force and household).

Macedonian Civic Values within a European Perspective

Subsequent chapters of this book in Parts II and III will be primarily concerned with qualitative historical-theoretical accounts of the modern history of internal and international relations among groups, institutions, and the state. Here we offer another perspective to these discussions by describing Macedonian civic values in comparison to other European countries based on data from the European Values Study (EVS).