Opportunities

In addition to the field studies which are at the heart of many sociology research projects, access to ‘official social book-keeping’ and other contextual data can be helpful. Since countries differ in their arrangements attention only to international sources is covered here. The availability of information fluid and dynamic so only more institutionalised sources are covered and only for the contemporary period.

Care is required in the use of sources since they vary in terms of coverage of countries, quality of data, time-depth, up-to-datedness, map (display) ability, visualisations, downloadability, ability to re-weight and other characteristics. Some of the data is presented as ‘league tables’ ranking countries on various criteria which may have built-in complexities which limit their more scientific use.

There is a ‘life-cycle’ of information processing and agencies can be variously involved as Producers, retailers, wholesalers, storage archivists etc., often in multiple roles. Accordingly the table below is organised from data producers to those more involved in holding socially-relevant information.

More socially pertinent data now becoming more prevalent compared to earlier concentrations on demographic, economic and political attributes, together with social bookkeeping (education, health etc.). Survey data becoming more available although some of this must be bought. Sources covering demographic, economic, environmental and political information are not particularly included.

In addition to country-level data there are more focused indices and some which focus on other units (e.g. regions, cities) and a small selection of these is provided towards the bottom of the table.

Prepared by Professor Charles Crothers