Having its origins in the 1970s and being fielded on a large scale for the first time in 1981, the European Values Study is one of the longest existing ongoing survey data collection projects. Its core aim is to map the values, beliefs, and attitudes that people living in the various European countries hold in important spheres of their private and social lives. This entry provides an overview of the goals and research design of this unique survey project and its historical development. It concludes with a discussion of the project's value for sociological research on human values structures and for advancing our knowledge of what Europeans ideationally have in common and what separates them.
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In the preparation of the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the MA CESS all alumni were invited to participate in an alumni survey. The purpose of the survey was to thoroughly investigate the professional activities of MA CESS alumni and the way they build an alumni community. Another reason for starting the project is that it may play a part in maintaining and enhancing a mutually beneficial relationship between MA CESS and its alumni. All over Europe there are graduates working in the social and social political field who experienced the same education and spirit in the MA CESS course. It’s an important thing to reach out to them, renew and encourage a spirit of enthusiasm and desire for continuing education, by creating instruments of communication and networking opportunities. The first part of the report deals with the construction of the alumni survey, namely the background, the assignment, the survey design, the sampling, the research limitations, the influences of gender and age on professional activities and the way of making contacts, facts and figures about the sectors of activity in which the alumni are engaged, what alumni have to say about the international dimension in their professional activities, their ideas about network building, and finally their critiques and suggestions for the MA CESS study programme. The second part contains a reflection about the alumni community, particularly the role of CESSNET (Network of the Comparative European Social Studies Alumni ) in the strategy to reach out to the alumni. The report ends with conclusions and recommendations.
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The implementation of the Ment4EU curriculum on social mentoring (Ciff & Brady, 2025) marked a historic milestone in the advancement of mentorship practices within Europe. Held in Leeuwarden, Netherlands, from 3 to 7 February 2025 as a blended intensive program, this initiative stands as the first known enterprise of its kind in the region. It successfully brought together approximately 250 participants from 29 countries, uniting academics, researchers, practitioners, and students who shared a passion for fostering social mentoring as a transformative tool for inclusion, education, and personal and professional development. This evaluation report serves as a comprehensive reflection on the outcomes of the program, assessing its methodologies, impact, and the exchanges that took place among participants. Through a detailed examination, I aimed to highlight the strengths of this pioneering initiative, identify areas for refinement, and explore pathways for broader implementation across Europe. The discussions, collaborations, and insights generated during this event have laid the groundwork for future advancements in structured mentoring, emphasizing its essential role in social cohesion and knowledge-sharing. Through this comprehensive exploration, the report aims to contribute to the ongoing discourse on social mentoring, offering insights into best practices, challenges, and opportunities for expanding mentorship frameworks in European academic institutions. This evaluation report is part of the Erasmus Plus Cooperation Partnership in Higher Education “Mentoring forSocial Inclusion in Europe: Sharing Knowledge and Building Capacity” (Ment4EU), project number 2023-1-AT01-KA220-HED-000158214
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This curriculum on social mentoring is the result of a collaboration of a diverse group of academics, practitioners and students from around the world and was developed and facilitated as part of the Erasmus Plus Project “Mentoring for Social Inclusion in Europe: Sharing Knowledge and Building Capacity” (Ment4EU). It was implemented for the first time in Europe as a cross-organisational effort with a transdisciplinary approach as a blended intensive program with 30 participants from the partner countries joined by a further 220 students, practitioners and academics from NHL Stenden and the Netherlands for plenary sessions. The intended group of learners for this course are students, lecturers, researchers, academics and practitioners (mentors and program managers/coordinators of mentoring programs) interested in learning about mentoring for social inclusion and who are active in the fields of social work, youth work, sociology, health care, community work, management and organization, and related fields of practice and study programs. The weight of the program is 5 ECTS. This curriculum was developed as part of the Erasmus Plus Cooperation Partnership in Higher Educatoin “Mentoring for Social Inclusion in Europe: Sharing Knowledge and Building Capacity” (Ment4EU), as part of WP3_A2 Training Capacity in higher education institutions, project number 2023-1-AT01-KA220-HED-000158214
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When analysing the legitimacy of the welfare state, perceptions of the overuse and underuse of welfare are of great importance. Previous literature suggests that many people perceive overuse (misuse or fraud), and there is evidence that people also perceive underuse (non-take-up) of welfare benefits. Perceptions of overuse have therefore been called ‘the Achilles’ heel of welfare state legitimacy'. We analyse data from the European Social Survey for 25 countries and investigate the occurrence and the individual and contextual determinants of overuse and underuse perceptions. We find that both overuse and underuse perceptions are prevalent in all European countries. However, whereas overuse perceptions are more related to ideology, collective images of welfare recipients and selective welfare regimes, underuse perceptions are more shaped by self-interest and the levels of unemployment and social spending in a country. Instead of one Achilles' heel, welfare state legitimacy seems to have two weak spots.Key words: Benefit abuse, European Social Survey, non-take-up, welfare attitudes, welfare states
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This article describes a European project which was aimed at improving the situation of persons with psychiatric or learning disabilities with regard to social participation and citizenship. The project took place in three countries (Estonia, Hungary and the Netherlands) and four cities (Tallinn, Budapest, Amersfoort and Maastricht). The project included research and actions at the policy level, the organizational level and the practice level. At the policy level, the framework of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (United Nations, 2006) and the European Disability Strategy (European Commission, 2010) were used to look at national and local policies, at the reality of the lives of those with disabilities and at the support that professional services offer with regard to participation and inclusion. The project generated a number of insights, recommendations and methods by which to improve the quality of services and increase the number of opportunities for community engagement. In this article, we present some of the lessons learned from the meta-analysis. Although the circumstances in each country are quite different with regard to policy, culture and service systems, it is remarkable that people with disabilities face many of the same problems. The study shows that in all three countries, access to services could be improved. Barriers include bureaucratic procedures and a lack of services. The research identified that in every country and city there are considerable barriers regarding equal participation in the field of housing, work and leisure activities. In addition to financial barriers, there are the barriers of stigma and self-stigmatization. Marginalization keeps people in an unequal position and hinders their recovery and participation. In all countries, professionals need to develop a stronger focus on supporting the participation of their clients in public life and in the development of different roles pertaining to citizenship
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Hallmark events have a great impact on a host community, and local support for such events is vital. Previous research has mainly focussed on resident attitudes towards sport events rather than cultural hallmark events. This paper analyses the 2018 European Capital of Culture (ECOC) in Valletta, Malta, to understand resident’s attitudes towards a cultural event. A resident survey a few months prior to the event generated 267 responses. A Confirmatory Factor Analysis reveals that resident support for the ECOC was influenced by levels of perceived benefits and perceived costs, in line with social exchange theory. Perceptions of benefits and costs were related to levels of community attachment, community concern, resource utilisation and European identity. Levels of community involvement and identification with European culture are particularly important in generating support for the event, in line with the European Commission’s stated aims for the event.
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In the literature about web survey methodology, significant e orts have been made to understand the role of time-invariant factors (e.g. gender, education and marital status) in (non-)response mechanisms. Time-invariant factors alone, however, cannot account for most variations in (non-)responses, especially fluctuations of response rates over time. This observation inspires us to investigate the counterpart of time-invariant factors, namely time-varying factors and the potential role they play in web survey (non-)response. Specifically, we study the effects of time, weather and societal trends (derived from Google Trends data) on the daily (non-)response patterns of the 2016 and 2017 Dutch Health Surveys. Using discrete-time survival analysis, we find, among others, that weekends, holidays, pleasant weather, disease outbreaks and terrorism salience are associated with fewer responses. Furthermore, we show that using these variables alone achieves satisfactory prediction accuracy of both daily and cumulative response rates when the trained model is applied to future unseen data. This approach has the further benefit of requiring only non-personal contextual information and thus involving no privacy issues. We discuss the implications of the study for survey research and data collection.
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Objectives: This study assesses social workers’ orientation toward the evidence-based practice (EBP) process and explores which specific variables (e.g. age) are associated. Methods: Data were collected from 341 Dutch social workers through an online survey which included a Dutch translation of the EBP Process Assessment Scale (EBPPAS), along with 13 background/demographic questions. Results: The overall level of orientation toward the EBP process is relatively low. Although respondents are slightly familiar with it and have slightly positive attitudes about it, their intentions to engage in it and their actual engagement are relatively low. Respondents who followed a course on the EBP process as a student are more oriented toward it than those who did not. Social workers under 29 are more familiar with the EBP process than those over 29. Conclusions: We recommend educators to take a more active role in teaching the EBP process to students and social workers.
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The European Open Platform for Prescribing Education (EurOP2 E) seeks to improve and harmonize European clinical pharmacology and therapeutics (CPT) education by facilitating international collaboration and sharing problem-based, online, open educational resources. The COVID-19 pandemic forced teachers to switch to virtual modalities, highlighting the need for high-quality online teaching materials. The goal of this study was to establish the online problem-based teaching resources needed to sustain prescribing education during the pandemic and thereafter. A nominal group technique study was conducted with prescribing teachers from 15 European countries. Results were analyzed through thematic analysis. In four meetings, 20 teachers from 15 countries proposed and ranked 35 teaching materials. According to the participants, the most necessary problem-based-online teaching materials related to three overarching themes. Related to learning outcomes for CPT, participants proposed creating prescription scenarios, including materials focusing on background knowledge and resources on personalized medicine and topical/ethical issues such as the prescription’s impact on planetary health. Second, related to teaching, they proposed online case discussions, gamification and decision support systems. Finally, in relation to faculty development, they recommend teacher courses, a repository of reusable exam questions and harmonized formularies. Future work will aim to collaboratively produce such materials.
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