NORCAL-L Archives

From: Elise Morris <>
Subject: Survey on migration and modern society
Date: Fri, 02 Oct 1998 22:35:49 -0700

This came from the Ohio list. Some of you might like to participate.
Elise Morris

Dear List Members:
>The National Geographic Society and a number of social scientists are
>conducting an online survey on migration and modern society, and we
>ask for your help in encouraging as many people as possible to
>participate in an unprecedented effort to gather original scientific
>data on the Internet.
>
>Along with many questions from the General Social Survey, the Survey
>2000 asks questions about mobility, and music, literature and food
>preferences. Survey respondents remain anonymous, though the compiled
>results will be made available on the National Geographic website
>(http://www.nationalgeographic.com/) in a few months. Unlike many
>surveys, the Survey 2000 makes use of the internet's multimedia
>abilities to make the survey fun and efficient.
>
>The survey period will end November 17, 1998 and we hope to have a
>diverse number of people from across the United States and around the
>world complete the questions. Please help us with the outreach effort
>by completing the survey yourself, and by passing on news of this
>project to your family, friends, colleagues or students.
>
>Over 16 Years Old:
>http://survey2000.nationalgeographic.com/survey2000/index.html
>
>Between 5 and 16 Years Old:
>http://survey2000.nationalgeographic.com/survey2000/kids.html
>________________________________________________
>>Survey 2000
>>Sociologists and demographers have identified why people move, but
>significant data has not been gathered about the effects of movement.
>One popular theory holds that increased mobility causes a sense of
>isolation and anomie and fragments traditional communities. On the
>other hand, a sense of geographic community may be on the wane, but
>new forms may be developing as people draw their sense of place and
>humanity from different sources.
>
>The survey will address several questions:
>
>* How does migration affect our sense of community?
>* How much are cultural tastes influenced by migration? Is regional
>variety giving way to an homogenized global culture? * Are people
>replacing geographic communities with substitutes such as profession,
>workplace, or the Internet?
>
>Hurdles
>>We are looking for roughly 18,000 respondents spread across various
>social groups. (Thirty respondents are required within each sub-group
>for the data to be statistically valid.) Utilizing the Society's
>resources, we hope to reach a wide variety of people and urge them to
>help us.
>
>Your support will help us reach as many people as possible. We need
>volunteer sponsors to publicize our survey and host events that offer
>internet access to people who would otherwise not participate in our
>survey. With your assistance we hope to reach out to homes,
>universities, schools, libraries, and recreation, community, and
>senior centers. We want to make October 1998 "Map the Global Village"
>Month. With a concerted effort we can reach our goal.
>
>Participants
>>Dr. Jim Witte of Northwestern University is spearheading the study and

>preparing the survey. Other participants are as follows:
>
>* Dr. Bethany Bryson, Princeton University. Author of The Sociology
>of Culture. Specialty: examination of shared cultural values through
>music.
>>* Dr. Wendy Griswold, Northwestern University. Specialty: regional
>literature.
>>* National Endowment for the Humanities.
>>* Isabel Wilkerson, New York Times Chicago Bureau Chief and 1994
>Pulitzer Prize winner, specialist in African-American migration from
>the South.
>>* Brian Nielson, Northwestern University, Computer Science Department.

>* William Bainbridge, National Science Foundation, Sociology Program
>Officer.
>>* Bonnie Erickson, University of Toronto, Cultural Sociologist.
>>* Barry Wellman, University of Toronto, Quantitative sociologist;
>social networks and surveys on the Net.
>*Dr. Mick Couper, Institute for Social Research and Director of Joint
>Survey Research for the Universities of Maryland and Minnesota,
>Sociologist in Survey Methodology.
>>* Carl Haub, Senior Demographer, Population Reference Bureau.
>>* Amy Bruckman, College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology
>>* Harm de Blij, Geographer and former Editor of the National
>Geographic Research Journal.
>>* Dr. Jim Peterson, Vanderbilt University, Cultural Sociologist.
>>* Phil Agre, University of California, Davis. Internet communications

>and quantitative sociologist.

This thread:

• Survey on migration and modern society by Elise Morris <>