Center provides forum for political research
Collaboration of various fields to generate research
By Tiffany McElroy
Daily Bruin Contributor
The Institute for Social Science Research is taking a
disciplinary approach to politics.
With the creation of the Center for the Study of Society and
Politics, the institute will provide a forum for faculty and
students from various fields studying mass politics.
In the past, lack of regular interaction among disciplines has
limited collaboration among faculty, organizers said.
"There are many faculty who teach different subjects and have
similar interests, but have had no forum to bring the different
research together," said John Petrocik, a political science
professor and the new center’s director. "The start of the center
will provide a place to bring together different ideas and
perspectives from the departments of political scientists,
psychologists, sociologists."
Programs will aim to utilize the skills and talents of its
diverse faculty. The first is a research program called the Los
Angeles County Social Survey (LACSS).
The survey has been active since 1984 and provides a database
for studying various effects such as increasing ethnic and racial
diversity of the population, the internationalization of the
economy, a declining sense of community and low participation in
politics.
With the creation of the California Civil Rights Initiative and
the passage of Proposition 187, the center will focus on the
attitudes, beliefs, and opinions on affirmative action and
immigration.
"We will examine the general public’s attitude by using surveys
and experiments," said David Sears, professor of psychology and
political science. "(We plan to examine) the impact of showing
negative campaign advertisements and researching the effects of
media on the public’s political attitude."
Organizers explained that they hope to "establish a graduate
level training program in survey research. In time, the center
expects this to develop into an undergraduate component that
integrates upper division courses in public opinion,voting, mass
communication, political psychology, race attitudes and survey data
analysis," Petrocik said.
Although the center relies on its members’ expertise, it has
also established a program of periodic conferences to bring
together UCLA faculty and scholars from different universities.
"These conferences will focus on ideas and research findings
covered in the annual LACSS," Petrocik said.
With this new center, daily contact and the sharing of ideas
among faculty can easily become research projects. They hoped that
with time, collaborative research projects will be developed from
the intellectual interaction of the faculty within the center.
"I think it is a great idea to bring faculty and graduate
students together using different methods to related issues," said
political science professor Shanto Iyengar.
Production is planned for a number of bound and covered
prepublication papers every year, which will report the results of
the analysis of the surveys conducted.
ANDREW SCHOLER/Daily Bruin
John Petrocik, a professor and the center’s director, hopes the
interdisciplinary project will develop an undergraduate
component.
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