June 11, 2014

SOEP Brown Bag Seminar

Eingabenstatistiken – a data source to evaluate the quality of life in the GDR?

Date

June 11, 2014
12:30 - 13:30

Location

Eleanor-Dulles-Raum
DIW Berlin im Quartier 110
Room 5.2.010
Mohrenstraße 58
10117 Berlin

Speakers

Prof. Ulrich Kohler and Dr. Marian Krawietz (both University of Potsdam)

Since now research rarely used quantitative methods to describe and explain societal trends in the former GDR. In consequence the current state of research concerning established sociological concepts such as quality of life is poor. One of the main reason for this desiderata is the lack of quantitative data. In our presentation we will introduce a hidden data base that probably allows quantitative research of the GDR's quality of life. The data we present are the so called "Eingabenstatistiken", which count and classify the GDR citizens' "Eingaben". These "Eingaben" were some kind of officially legitimated petitions, and in fact a very frequently used channel for GDR citizens to express discomfort with the circumstances in their direct environment. Facing the totalitarian context in which the Eingabestatistik was produced, we will evaluate our data carefully. The SOEP C-Sample will play herefore a significant role. One of our hypothesis is, that a high correlation between quality of life measurements given by the SOEP and our data mark Eingabenstatistiken as a valuable set to examine life quality in the GDR. Beside our validation concept via SOEP we present first results of a historical data evaluation, which underlines that Eingabenstatistiken contain valid information of important dimensions of quality of life. The presentation is based on a project proposal which was recently submitted to the DFG. (Presentation held in German)

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