Survey Research and Sampling

Dr Jan Eichhorn is a Senior Lecturer in Social Policy at the University of Edinburgh. Using mostly large-scale survey data, he focusses on researching political engagement and attitudes of people across Europe and explores empirical challenges to orthodox microeconomic assumptions. Jan’s research presents challenges to commonly held assumptions about people’ political views. He particularly has developed empirical insights into the political views and behaviour of 16- and 17-year olds when enfranchised to vote. Jan teaches courses in quantitative methods and public policy as well as courses on economic thinking. In addition to his academic work, he also acts as research director of the Berlin-based think tank d|part, which aims to make research on political participation useful for practitioners.

• IntroductionSampling Approaches: How to achieve representativenessSampling mode: how we actually collect the dataQuestionnaire design: asking the right questionsEnsuring survey quality: piloting, checks and cross-cultural comparabilityConclusion