On-line Survey Launch

Center for Working-Class Studies at YSU

Launches On-line Survey Project

Dr. John Russo, Co-Director of the Center for Working Class Studies (CWCS) at Youngstown State University (YSU), announced today that the Center is launching an on-line survey research project that will continually measure and analyze public attitudes regarding a variety of issues that impact the Mahoning Valley and the nation.

 The initial survey, designed to assess public sentiment about President Obama's first 100 days in office, will be accessible through the CWCS website, http://cwcs.ysu.edu/survey beginning Thursday, May 1, 2009.  Those wishing to participate in the survey will have five days to do so. The Center will release results and analysis of the data collected seven to ten days later.

According to Dr. Russo the CWCS, the first academic program in the U.S. to focus on issues of work and class, is undertaking the survey project in order to expand its study of contemporary working-class issues.  "Since our founding in 1996 we've concentrated on the history, art, and culture of workers locally and across the nation," Dr. Russo said. "That work has provided invaluable insight into the evolution of working-class attitudes and behavior over the past century.  Essentially, we understand how the working class got to this point in history.  The survey research project will help us understand who they are and where they are headed in the future."

Dr. Russo noted that the new research project is extremely timely due to the fact that the politics of the working class has been the focus of hundreds of books and articles over the past 24 months.  "In the run-up to the presidential election Republicans, Democrats, liberals, conservatives, pundits, and academics spent considerable time and energy attempting to define the working class, suggesting ways to capture their votes, predicting their behavior, asserting that they would provide the decisive margin in 2008, and then,  after the election, either dismissing or emphasizing their impact on the outcome," he said.

"We believe that by constantly gathering and analyzing information about working-class attitudes in real time we can help ensure that the conversation about and study of this important segment of the population continues unabated."

Dr. Russo said that in order to gather responses from a broad cross section of Americans the CWCS has mounted an intense effort to encourage participation in the survey research project.  "We're reaching out to working-class studies programs at other universities, to labor unions, to business groups, community and political leaders and activists, and the public at large and encouraging them to visit our website and complete the survey. 

"We want to have the largest possible sample, not just so we can measure the attitudes of the working class, but so we can compare them to those of professionals, the business community, and other demographic groups.  As far as we're concerned it is impossible to have too much data to work with."

For more information about the survey research project or the Center for Working-Class Studies at YSU please contact Dr. John Russo at 330-941-2976, via e-mail at jbrusso@ysu.edu or visit the CWCS website http://cwcs.ysu.edu.