Main trends of research in the social and human ... - unesdoc - Unesco

652 Stein Rokkan
Primary personal
characteristics
An attribute or variable
characterizing an individ-
ual qua individual
An attribute or variable
characterizing an individ-
ual qua member of some
group or social category
Relational
characteristics
An attribute or variable
characterizing a relation-
ship of one individual to
other individuals
Contextual
characteristics
An attribute or variable
characterizing an individ-
ual through the charac-
teristics of the unit he is
part of or is exposed to
Examples
Sex
Weight
Pigmentation
Incidence of
some disease
Level of educa-
tion reached,
occupation, or-
ganizational
role
Frequency of
communication
between A and
B, sociometric
choice
Unit datum: a
national politi-
cal community
highly depen-
dent on foreign
trade
Personal datum:
a citizen of such
a nation
Derived unit
characteristics
A rate, an average, a
parameter of some distri-
bution within the unit
(e.g., the national popu-
lation)
A rate, an average, a
parameter
A rate, an average, a
parameter or a derived
structural attribute of
the unit (e.g., ‘cohesion’)
Primary unit
characteristics
An attribute or variable
characteristic of the unit
qua unit, not derivable
from the characteristics
of its individual members
This scheme posits only two levels] of variation: the individual and the nextlevel
unit. In cross-societal and cross-national research it wil often prove necessary
to link up variations at three or more levels: at the level of the individual,
at the level of his immediate neighbourhood or workplace (e.g., the number of
employees), at the level of his local community (e.g., peripheral or near the
national centre) and at the level of the nation itself (e.g., neutral or committed in
the cold war). The potentialities of such multi-level reasoning are exemplified in
a paradigm for the analysis of cross-national variations in the extent of political
participation : see Fig. I. I3
Such schemes could be multiplied for variable after variable. Perhaps the
clearest illustration of a multi-level, cross-national research design is the one
presented in the report on the International Study of Achievement in Mathematics.
In this twelve-country study, the dependent micro-variations, scores on a
mathematics test, are analysed as functions of variables on at least five levels: at
the level of the pupil (B and R in Fig. I), of the family (parents’ occupation and
education : a C-type variable in Fig. I), of the school (also a C-type variable),
of the locality (urban-rural, size: L in Fig. I) and of the national educational
system (Nin Fig. I : global attributes such as the number of years of compulsory