SWS was established in August 1985 as a private non-stock, nonprofit social research institution. Its members, called Fellows, are social scientists in economics, political science, sociology, statistics, market research, and other fields. Find out more about the Social Weather Surveys and how SWS operates.
MISSION
The Social Indicators Perspective:
Multiple Social Concerns
Democratic Values
Social Science as Social Persuasion
The SWS Strategy: Survey-Based Social Monitoring
Socially-Relevant Research Agenda
Quot homines tot sententiae: Respect For Diversity
Insistence on Academic Excellence
Objectives of the SWS Strategy:
Education: So eyes may see social conditions
Conscientization: So hearts may feel social problems
Analysis: So minds may understand their solutions
SWS's basic functions include:
social analysis and research, with stress on social indicators
and the development of new data sources;
design and implementation of social, economic, and political
surveys, including public opinion polls;
the dissemination of research findings through publications,
seminars, briefings, and other channels.
SWS operates as a self-supporting, non-subsidized, academic institute for survey research on topics of public interest. It is non-endowed, and achieves financial sustainability by:
Charging subscription fees to clients for the privilege of advance information available in the Social Weather Surveys;
Accepting commissioned questions in the Social Weather Survey operating as an omnibus;
Contracting for social surveys on areas of its expertise;
Charging fees for training and consultancy on a case-to-case basis.
SWS does its own fieldwork and data-processing, making it a full-service survey research institute.
It conducts regular Social Weather Surveys, to which it invites public subscriptions. The general concept is that funds from survey-users are pooled together and used to defray the expenses for a continuing series of social surveys.
To maintain its credibility as an independent and unbiased source of primary survey data, SWS inhibits itself from conducting proprietary or confidential surveys. Thus, no research sponsor can suppress the use of data generated by the surveys which it has helped to finance. In cases of surveys commissioned on highly sensitive topics, the sponsors may obtain a strictly temporary period of embargo of the data and of research findings.
Thus as a matter of institutional policy, all SWS surveys are ultimately accessible to research without need for prior permission from sponsors. SWS materials, including raw data diskettes, can be made available to all interested parties, without discrimination, at reasonable charges reflecting the cost of production.
