The Policy Institute at King’s College London, in partnership with the World Values Survey Association, UCL and the Behavioural Insights Team, are pleased to announce a one-day international conference on polarisation. Increasingly, there is real concern about cultural, political and social divides, and their potential implications for how we live well together, both within and across nations. How connected we feel to others, our faith in institutions, the health of democracy, and the personalisation of politics are just some of the issues being addressed by current research. In this conference, we aim to bring together international perspectives to explore how theories of polarisation and their applications in empirical work are evolving in a comparative perspective.

In 2022 the WVSA introduced The Ronald F. Inglehart Honorary Lecture to commemorate the memory and scientific legacy of the Founder of the World Values Survey Prof. Ronald F. Inglehart. The 2023 lecture will be read by Prof. Amaney Jamal who will talk on "The Global Segregation of the Poor": How economic segregation continues to increase despite the obvious potential threats to capital? Further, why is segregation growing in this historical period? And what are the underlying structural conditions that contribute to these rising levels of economic segregation? Using a variety of data, including night-light satellite-based segregation scores, census data from the US and UK, and public opinion data from the Middle East and the US, Amaney Jamal demonstrates that societies that have a racialized cleavage are more likely to be economically segregated. The lecture will take place on Friday, December 8, 2023 at 9.00 AM EST and will be conducted over Zoom. Attendance is free of charge. Video will be available after the event.

The World Values Survey Association and the European Values Study signed a cooperation agreement for the next joint survey wave in European countries. Both organizations will aim to carry out the joint EVS/WVS survey in Europe during 2026-2027. The joint EVS/WVS survey will take place as a part of the 8 th wave of the WVS scheduled to take place worldwide in 2024-2026, and the 6 th wave of the EVS scheduled to take place in Europe in 2026-2028.

An online session for the WVS PIs on the mixed-mode survey approach employed for the WVS-7 (2022) data collection in Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The World Values Survey Association is happy to present the next, updated version of the Inglehart-Welzel Cultural Map. The map is based on the latest joint survey round of the World Values Survey and European Values Study 2017-2022. For selected countries, not surveyed recently, data from earlier waves is used to calculate the map score. Overall 111 countries / societies are represented on the map.

The World Values Survey Association (WVSA) and the European Values Study (EVS) are happy to announce the release of the final version of the joint EVS-WVS 2017-2022 data-set. Fieldwork for this survey round was conducted from early 2017 to mid-2022. The joint data-set covers 90 countries and societies on all inhabited continents around the globe, ranging from Albania, Australia and Argentina to the United States, Vietnam and Zimbabwe. In total, 153 716 respondents were interviewed for this joint EVS-WVS wave.

In 2022 the WVSA introduced The Ronald F. Inglehart Honorary Lecture to commemorate the memory and scientific legacy of the Founder of the World Values Survey Prof. Ronald F. Inglehart. The 2022 lecture was read by Prof. Russell J. Dalton. The lecture took place on Thursday, December 8, 2022 and was conducted over Zoom. Video and ppt slides are available.

The reversal of reproductive rights in America is contrary to global trends. Why? Compared with similar Western democracies, Republican voters are exceptionally socially conservative, religious and authoritarian.

The Ronald F. Inglehart Best Book Award on Political Culture and Values is awarded for a book which makes a substantial and original contribution to theory and/or empirical studies in comparative cross-cultural research. This prize is awarded every second year and honors the best book published in the previous five years following the tradition established by Ronald F. Inglehart. Nominations acceptance for 2023 award is open till May 31, 2023.

Surveys conducted immediately before and after the outbreak of the Ukrainian invasion on 24 February report that the majority of ordinary Russians expressed support for the Ukrainian war and for President Putin. Overall, across the series of initial polls, a ‘silent majority’ – about 60% of Russian respondents – indicated that they endorsed the “special military operation” in Ukraine. History will ultimately decide how much of the blame for initiating the bloodshed rests on Vladimir Putin alone, as well as his Kremlin acolytes, and how much responsibility rests with the tacit acceptance of ordinary Russians. It is important to determine this issue morally, to assess culpability for the conflict, and legally, to prosecute potential war crimes. Understanding Putin’s soft power can also provide insights into the long-term consequences of the conflict for his leadership and for the future of both countries. State propaganda and fake news about Ukraine “shooting its own citizens in the Donbas region” started back in 2014 and since then has been increasing in its pace and volume. Even if many ordinary Russians are badly misinformed, however, the early polls may still capture authentic attitudes reflecting a silent majority at home supporting Putin’s actions, and thus represent the social construction of reality in modern Russia.