Ben Clements

‘We No Longer Love You, But We Don’t Want To Leave You’: The Eurozone Crisis and Popular Euroscepticism in Greece

Abstract This article analyses whether and how public opinion towards the European Union (EU) in Greece has changed in the context of the current Eurozone crisis. It provides the first detailed treatment of how the crisis has affected citizens’ views in a traditionally pro-European member state. It examines whether public opinion has become more Eurosceptic and which societal groups have changed their views and in what direction. It uses data from Eurobarometer surveys conducted before and during the current crisis. Unsurprisingly, the findings show that negative sentiment towards the EU has increased across all social groups in recent years. However, we find a paradox of a decline in general support for the EU and an increase in support for the Euro. In a country seen as traditionally pro-European, Greek public opinion has fallen out of love with the EU, but it clearly does not want to leave the Eurozone or renounce membership altogether.

The sociological and attitudinal bases of environmentally-related beliefs and behaviour in Britain

Whilst environmental issues are now a prominent part of the public policy agenda in Britain, less attention has been paid to the factors shaping contemporary public concern for the environment. The sources of environmentally-related beliefs and behaviours in contemporary British public opinion are assessed, using data from the British Household Panel Survey 2008–9. Exploratory data reduction analysis is undertaken on multiple indicators of environmental concern. Two multi-item scales relating to the perceived impacts of climate change and consumer behaviours are examined. Linear regression analysis shows that sociological and attitudinal factors have similar effects on beliefs and behaviour. The sociological factors showing consistent effects are gender, age, religious salience and education. Attitudinally, there are broadly consistent effects for partisanship and political engagement. The effects of other variables differ across beliefs and behaviours.

Evaluating the use of the ICF as a framework for interviewing people with a visual impairment about their mobility and travel

Large-scale social surveys of visually impaired people often explore participants’ mobility and travel behaviour. What is methodologically more challenging is gathering participant-centred data in relation to their own interpretation of the barriers they face. Findings from a national survey of visually impaired people are presented in this article (N = 960, probability sample drawn from the British registers of blind and partially sighted people). The research made use of the World Health Organisation ‘International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health’ (ICF) to develop an interview schedule in relation to visually impaired people’s participation in mobility and travel. Results found that participants identified a range of barriers and enablers to greater mobility which included individually-based explanations (e.g. difficulties with their eye sight) and socially-based explanations (e.g. inadequate public transport systems). Logistic regression analysis revealed that participants who particularly focused upon individually-based barriers had more severe visual impairment, worried most about their vision, and had most recently lost their sight. The findings highlight how professionals and family must be cautious not to reinforce visually impaired people’s perceptions of individual barriers and any associated sense of helplessness. The use of the ICF model also provided an innovative approach to survey-based studies: the methods adopted encouraged participants to identify issues they thought were important, while still generating findings which can be statistically generalised.

Which factors affect the chances of paid employment for individuals with visual impairment in Britain

OBJECTIVES To analyze which factors affect the probability of people registered as blind and visually impaired in Britain being in paid employment. PARTICIPANTS Consist of 559 registered individuals of working age with a visual impairment. This sub-sample is drawn from the first wave of a larger, nationally-representative survey of adults who are blind and visually impaired in Britain. METHODS After examining descriptive statistics for employment status and key analysis variables, a multivariate analysis is undertaken to assess the relative impact of: demographic and household characteristics, socio-economic status, aspects of visual impairment, including severity and age of onset, and presence of additional disabilities. RESULTS Educational attainment, housing tenure, registration status (as blind or visually impaired) and having additional disabilities have the strongest impact on the likelihood of an individual registered as visually impaired being in work. CONCLUSIONS The findings underline the need to examine the varying labor market experiences of groups with different types of disability and the importance of assessing the individual effects of severity of visual impairment, age of onset, and presence of additional disabilities.

Examining Public Attitudes towards Recent Foreign Policy Issues: Britain's Involvement in the Iraq and Afghanistan Conflicts

This article assesses which factors underpin public attitudes towards two recent and controversial foreign policy issues: Britains involvement in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Using data from the 2005 and 2010 British Election Studies, it undertakes a statistical examination of which sociological and political factors are related to support for and opposition to British involvement in these conflicts. It shows that attitudes are structured both by social characteristics and by beliefs and evaluations rooted in domestic politics. The former include gender, age and ethnic group, while the latter include partisanship and newspaper readership. It demonstrates the need for further investigation of foreign policy attitudes among the British public.

The European Issue and Party Choice at British General Elections, 1974–2005

Abstract Political scientists have long debated whether “issues” influence vote choices. It is now generally agreed, however, that policy preferences and evaluations of party performance have some limited impact on vote decisions. It has also been shown that the influence of issues varies both between individuals and between elections. This article adds to our understanding of these issues by examining how the European issue influenced individual vote decisions at each general election since 1974. We use Manifesto Research Group (MRG) data to show that the effect of Europe on individual vote decisions increases as the parties became more polarized and decreases as they converge on the European issue.

Religion and the Sources of Public Opposition to Abortion in Britain: The Role of ‘Belonging’, ‘Behaving’ and ‘Believing’

This article examines the relationship between religious factors and opposition to abortion in Britain. It provides a detailed analysis of public opposition towards abortion undertaken for different reasons, as well as general views on whether abortion is justified or not. It assesses the relative influence of religious faith using the multi-dimensional ‘belonging, behaving and believing’ framework for micro-level analysis, as well as the impact of personal salience. It also accounts for the impact of socio-demographic factors and political partisanship. It uses data from two nationally representative social surveys and multivariate estimation techniques. The main finding is that opposition to abortion is not solely based on differences in faith or denominational affiliation but that greater religious involvement or commitment, as measured by attendance at services and personal salience, and more traditionalist beliefs underpin opposition. These findings generally hold across surveys, different estimation techniques and different specifications of the dependent variable.

Explaining Public Attitudes towards the Integration of Muslims in British Society: The ‘Solidarity of the Religious’?

There has been growing concern in recent years about the integration of Muslims and the emergence of ‘Islamophobia’ in Britain. But there has been a lack of research into the sources of public opinion towards Muslims in British society. This article contributes to emerging research in this area by using a nationally representative survey to examine public opinion towards Muslims’ efforts to integrate into British society. It examines the relative impact of social, religious, and attitudinal variables. Religious affiliation has no impact, while greater religious salience and pro-religion attitudes on religious–secular policy issues are related to positive views of Muslims’ efforts to integrate. Women and the university-educated are more positive in their assessments. A traditionalist view of Christianity, socially authoritarian beliefs, and anti-immigrant bias are related to negative views of Muslims’ efforts to integrate. Overall, the findings lend support to the ‘solidarity of the religious’ perspective and should encourage further investigation into attitudes towards religious groups in Britain.

Research Note: The Sources of Public Feelings towards Religious Groups in Britain: The Role of Social Factors, Religious Characteristics, and Political Attitudes

This research note examines public feelings towards religious groups in Britain, using thermometer scores from nationally representative survey data. It first examines whether there are significant differences in feelings by religious characteristics. It then assesses the role of religious factors in a series of regression models accounting for social factors and political attitudes. There are common factors underlying less positive feelings towards religious groups. These include being male, holding no or lower-level qualifications, supporting a minor political party or having no partisan attachment, and lower levels of political engagement. Age, religious affiliation, personal importance of religion, and ideological beliefs show a more complex set of relationships with feelings towards religious groups.

Understanding public attitudes in Britain towards faith schools

This paper provides a detailed analysis of different aspects of public attitudes towards faith schools in Britain. It examines two questions relating to government policy on this issue and two questions that ask about the perceived outcomes of this type of school. After discussing existing public opinion on this issue it uses data from the British Social Attitudes Survey 2007 to analyse the bivariate relationships between attitudes towards faith schools and religious characteristics. It then assesses the relative impact of religious characteristics on public attitudes when estimating logistic regression models that simultaneously examine for the effects of other explanatory variables. These include demographic characteristics, socio‐economic status, party‐political affiliation and ideological beliefs. The main findings are that religious characteristics, especially attendance at religious services and perceived religiosity, have a strong impact in all four model estimations, while previous or current atte...