Surveys
Surveys of participants in Occupy can be a key tool for understanding the movement, its strengths and limitations, and much more. For example, we might imagine the utility of even basic demographic information drawn from across camps, about who is participating, as well as more complex and nuanced understandings of what is motivating people to participate, how information circulates within and between camps, etc. There are a number of existing surveys (linked below), created by a range of groups with different motivations. This page is for gathering information about existing surveys (add links where possible), as well as for proposing new surveys and discussing survey methods. Another goal is for more people to learn about how to develop, conduct, and analyze social movement surveys. One high priority project identified by several participants in Occupy Research is to develop a short-form, basic survey instrument to be used across as many camps as possible, in a distributed survey process that Occupy movement can use as a mirror to better understand itself, and to make grounded claims to others about who is participating in the movement. That survey was released in early December.
OccupyResearch General Demographics and Participation Survey now Open!
The OccupyResearch network is pleased to launch this exciting survey, which aims to create a better understanding of who engages with the Occupy movement, and how--it includes questions about media, communication, activities, and more. The survey is open to people living in any country, regardless of their level of involvement with the Occupy movement. The survey is open until January 6, 2011. Once closed, the data will be publicly available through the OccupyResearch website (occupyresearch.net). The survey is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike Generic License 2.0.
Get in touch with us at owsgeneralsurvey@gmail.com and let us know how you'd like to be involved.
Out-of-date survey documents:
People
The following people have been involved in the Occupy Research survey working group (please edit to add your name if it's not here!):
- Christine Schweidler, Data Center
- Harisson Shultz, CUNY
- Hector Cordero-Guzman, CUNY
- Julia Sebastian, Data Center
- Mara Ortenburger, Data Center
- Saba Waheed, Data Center
- Sasha Costanza-Chock, MIT, Center for Civic Media, Occupy Research
- Stefania Milan, The Citizen Lab, Toronto
- Yvonne Yen Liu, ARC, Colorlines, Occupy Oakland
- Zeynep Tufekci, from UNC, and Berkman
- Sonya Rifkin, Data Center
- Martha Fuentes-Bautista, UMass Amherst
- UMass students (COMM397AB)
- David Gibson
- Patrick McCurdy
- Bobbywego (?)
- jean-luce morlie (from belgium)
- mronayne74 (?)
- Carla Borsoi
- DSS (?)
- DJJRJR (?)
- Anonymous
- Tristan Lear, Occupy Toledoz
- JThomas, Austin TX
Process
Several people have asked for more information about the Occupy Research General Demographic and Political Participation Survey; the following is an attempt to provide more info about who/what/why this Survey exists:
Occupy Research is a totally open network formed through a transparent and participatory process that mirrors the evolution of Occupy as a whole, with a lot of participation by occupiers and sympathetic researchers from many different camps, GAs, working groups, and institutions. You can find ALL of the minutes from all of our meetings linked from this wiki (occupyresearch.net).
The Survey Working Group, and the development of this survey, followed the same (open, transparent, accessible to anyone w/the interest) process. We have done our best to be in communication w/research working groups in multiple locations, with interoccupy, with GAs that we have participated in, etc.
re: privacy: the survey gathers no individual identifying info (name, contact, address) and results are anonymous. The data, as announced in multiple places, will be PUBLICLY AVAILABLE under creative commons attribution sharealike 2.0 license. Individual occupations and local research working groups are (of course) totally free to participate or not in the general survey process, but we hope that many as possible will! Participating in the shared process means using the shared survey instrument, uploading results to the shared dataset, and being ok with having the (non personally identifying) data being PUBLIC and shared.
The accountability comes from the process we've used to build a research network within the occupy movement, using process from the movement (consensus and transparency), with researchers who (mostly) also identify with the movement, and by listening as much as possible to feedback from others within this movement :)
I hope this helps.
Also Please check out the full survey guide:
http://occupyresearch.wikispaces.com/file/view/OccupyResearch+Survey+Guide+and+Instrument.pdf
peace,
@schock for Occupy Research
Existing Surveys
- WS participants, Conducted OctoSurvey of Ober 14-18, 2011; Based on interviews with 301 respondents. Response rate: 78%. Panagopoulos, Costas. n.d. Occupy Wall Street Survey Results October 2011. Retrieved October 31, 2011 (http://bit.ly/rr8KIf).
- Survey of site visitors to occupywallst.org; http://www.occupywallst.org/media/pdf/OWS-profile1-10-18-11-sent-v2-HRCG.pdf
- OccupyBoston primary issues survey; There is a survey of OccupyBoston participants about what issues they care about: Here is the survey itself: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHhSSGl1dnVsVFVaOTlUa3RFck04RHc6 | Here are the results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AqBxYhlFsdpAdHhSSGl1dnVsVFVaOTlUa3RFck04RHc#gid=0
- Open Technology Initiative survey of Information Technology and media use at Occupy DC: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dEkxRmFTXy1od0NvRTU3Rmt3dE9kMnc6MQ
- Survey of OWS camp by professional survey firm contracted by Fox News [anyone have the link?]
- Survey of visitors to ocupywallst.org 11-10-2011. Happy to discuss. Please email: hcordero@aol.com This is the survey instrument. OWS-Survey-v2-2-HRCG-11-10-11.pdf
- Survey of Occupy Oakland organizers by public opinion firm, http://www.scribd.com/doc/73519959/330-163-Occupy-Oakland-Summary-Memo-Final
- Occupy Cal Survey Link: __http://pmjblog.weebly.com/1/post/2011/11/occupy-cal-survey-results.html__
- Occupy Toledo, Appreciative Inquiry survey: live / results / summary
- Opinion Survey on Occupy Wall Street 2011 by Keith Goldstein (kiisukaneishi@gmail.com), PhD candidate in sociology and anthropology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem-Israel:http://tiny.cc/protestsurvey. Selected survey results will be published at the end of the study at the following site: http://eshkol.huji.ac.il.
- Survey of OWS and Occupy DC, conducted October 14th-15th 2011by Anandraj Singh, Geography Student, George Mason University; Sample size for Occ DC: 43, Sample size for OWS: 61. Convenience Sampling, Margin of error: 10%, Confidence interval: 90%
Polls
Proposed Process for a shared survey across camps
- in the GAs announce that we're looking for people to participate in the research working group
- need to have a standardized text for presenting what this is at the general assemblies
- also standard script to follow w/individual survey respondents
- do trainings on how to sample
- script for surveyors to read when they apply the survey
- sampling method: approach every x (3rd) person, record response rate.
- IRB: get exemption. consent process: verbal consent so that names aren't gathered.
Sampling method
[very short explanation of why this matters]. When conducting a survey, it's important to have a systematic way to choose people to approach. Otherwise, the surveyor may be biased (towards choosing people who look 'nice' or approachable to them, for example) in selecting respondents, which undermines the validity of the results. Fortunately, it's fairly easy to avoid this. One proposed sampling method is to approach every 3rd person. This doesn't mean you must convince every 3rd person to do the survey! It means approach them with the same script, if they decline, record that someone declined so that we will know response rate later.
Overview questions for people creating surveys, by DataCenter:
1. Start Here: THE BIG PICTURE
What campaigns or organizational goals will the research support? Do you want to improve working conditions? Organize workers? Build organizational knowledge about issues your members are facing?
How will research support your goals?Help you convince decisionmakers? inform campaign priorities? Get media attention on issue? Iinvolve or educate members? reframe the issue to the public?
What information are you looking for? Demographics of workers, working
conditions, health issues, gentrification?
Who is/are the audience(s) for this information? Members?Organizers? Campaign target or key decision-makers? Shapers of public opinion with influence over decisionmakers?
How do you want to release the information to reach your audience? Do you want to publish a report, factsheet, keep it for internal use only?
When do you need to release the research? Any benchmarks to note or relevant dates that will affect teh research?
Part 2: Nuts and Bolts of Survey
How many surveys do you want to collect? At least 500 for media credibility? A certain percentage of your constituency
Who will you survey? - range in your sample such as age, ethnicity,immigration status, etc.
What issues will you face surveying your sample and how will you address them?
Ex.Language - need translation; Fear - need trusted surveyors or confidentiality provision; Lack of time - shorter survey
How will the survey be conducted? In person by members and volunteers? Over the phone? Online?
Where will the surveys be conducted?
Engaging members - ways to engage them in process Identifying info to collect; Taking surveys; Conducting surveys; Analysing data
Part 3. Check your Resources - WHO will do it? How will you cover the costs?
Who will coordinate the project? coordinate the process, surveyors and surveys as they they come in
Who will conduct the surveys? Volunteers, members, ally organizations, students?
Trainings. Who will conduct the training? How long will the training be? Who will design it? How many does someone need to go through to be able to become a surveyor?
Database issues The information can be entered into an Access or Excel file or online hosts
like SurveyMonkey. Analysis of the data would occur in statistical software that can import from those databases. Who would create the initial database?
Who will do Data entry? Volunteers, paid temps, inhouse, etc.
Who will develop Dissemination materials - plan, write, review, edit, design, print, distribute?
Will you involve Ally orgs? Who? What roles will they play?
Do you need to do Fundraising? What for, how much, how soon?
Part 4. Timeline - WHEN will it be done? Fill in date(s)
a) Create Survey tool
b) Pilot Survey
c) Finalize Survey
d) Train surveyors
e) Conduct the survey
f) Create database
g) Data entry finished
h) Data analysis
i) Compile information
j. Disseminate information
Protest Survey Examples
- Look at Favio Rojas' work, short form surveys of antiwar protestors.
Protest survey project
F2F_protestsurveyproject.doc
Tips and How To
- short interviews work better (1-2 minutes)
- a combination of data that can gathered by observing the person and data that derive from asking questions seem to work well
- multiple choice. prepare printouts of the F2F interview and bring a clipboard - write down answers on the spot. Open-ended questions like "why are you here" are difficult to handle in a noisy demo. Better be asked in a separate interview with selected protesters.
- selection bias....! we should try to give everyone the same chance to be selected. People who studied interviewing and sampling techniques on the field realized that interviewees are more likely to select people they find themselves confortable with - smily people, young if young person, eccetera. There are methods to reduce this risk - can share upon request (-- ask stefi)
- attached you find a model F2F - nothing really targeted to the protests we are observing but could serve as a good model? The question on satisfaction with democracy for example, or
- interest in politics might be interesting to ask in such a context too. we should definitely have questions on ICT use and media ecology
IV. Movement-building short survey:
What survey questions, and what population, most useful for building OWS and connecting to POC movement networks and CBOs?