Investigating Social Values in the Local Community of Anogeia, Greece: A Mixed Methods Approach
Author: Papageorgiou, Napoleon M, papageorgiou31@hotmail.com
Department: Department of Sociology
University: University of Crete, Greece
Supervisor: Skevos Papaioannou
Year of completion: 2010
Language of dissertation: Greek
Keywords:
Mixed Methods
, Social Values
, communities
, sociology
Areas of Research:
Community Research
, Communication, Knowledge and Culture
, Social Transformations and Sociology of Development
Abstract
In this work, the social values that were studied in the local community of Anogeia (Greece) are referred to Inglehart's materialistic – post-materialistic classification. According to this classification, the values related to economic and physical security are defined as materialistic and the values associated with aesthetics and self-realization are defined as post-materialistic. This approach has been used to study developed modern societies and is based on quantitative scales of measurement of those classified values. A key objective of this research was the implementation of Mixed Methods to investigate this value system on the population of Anogeia. In particular, the Sequential Explanatory Design, one of the specific models used in Mixed Methods Research, was used. Using this model, we first conducted a large quantitative study that measured the social values with an official measurement scale. A statistical analysis was done on the findings of 320 questionnaires were collected. In addition, for a deeper analysis of the statistical results, a focus group was designed based on the main results of the quantitative study and the research hypotheses. This procedure revealed conclusions that regard upon a criticism on the classification of social elements and that the shaping of value systems is influenced by the social context and by multiple social components.
