© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The World Association for Public Opinion Research. All rights reserved.
Recent Books in the Field of Public Opinion Research
University of Amsterdam
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Andrew J. Perrin (2006). Citizen Speak. The Democratic Imagination in American Life. Chicago, Illinois: The University of Chicago Press, 214 pp., ISBN 0–226–66081–8.
Good citizenship has many aspects. It implies some form of political participation that may take the form of voting, letter writing, or paying attention to the news. Andrew Perrin argues that how you decide to act when you are challenged as a citizen is based on what you can imagine doing. This is what he calls democratic imagination. This democratic imagination is born in conversation with others and through media such as newspapers, television, movies, books, and the Internet. Using existing survey data, the author clarifies the relations between organizational memberships and citizenship. That provides the landscape necessary to decide where to zoom in on democratic imagination. Twenty targeted focus groups were used to explore issues of political involvement. The analyses of the focus group discussions shed light on the cognitive structure in the participants’ political decision making. The book shows a strong link between everyday life and democratic citizenship
Staffan I. Lindberg (2006). Democracy and Elections in Africa. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 227 pp., ISBN 0–8018–8333–4.
Oddbjørn Knutsen (2006). Class Voting in Western Europe. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 225 pp., ISBN 0–7391–1095–0.
Gabriel Weimann (2006). Terror on the Internet. The New Arena, the New Challenges. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, 309 pp., ISBN 1–929223–71–4.
Helmut Reitze & Christa-Maria Ridder (Eds.) (2006). Massenkommunikation VII. Eine Langzeitstudie zur Mediennutzung und Medienbewertung 1964–2005 [Mass Communication VII. A Long-Term Study about Media Use and Media Evaluation 1964–2005], Baden-Baden, Germany: Nomos, 272 pp., ISBN 3–8329–1928–7.
Susan Ohmer (2006). George Gallup in Hollywood. New York: Columbia University Press, 284 pp., ISBN 0–231–12133–4.
Omar Schwartz (Ed.) (2005). Social Justice and Communication Scholarship. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 263 pp., ISBN 0–8058–5483–5.
Jürgen W. Falter & Harald Schoen (Eds.) (2005). Handbuch Wahlforschung [Handbook Voting Research], Wiesbaden, Germany: VS-Verlag, 826 pp., ISBN 3–531–1322–2.
Richard L. Zweigenhaft & G. William Domhoff (2006). Diversity in the Power Elite. How it Happened, Why it Matters. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 365 pp., ISBN 0–7425–3699–8.
John C. Green, Mark J. Rozell & Clyde Wilcox (Eds.) (2006). The Values Campaign? The Christian Right and the 2004 Elections. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 273 pp., ISBN 1–58901–108–2.
G. Reginald Daniel (2006). Race and Multiraciality in Brazil and the United States. Converging Paths? University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 360 pp., ISBN 0–271–02883–1.
Ian O’Flynn (2006). Deliberative Democracy and Divided Societies. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press, 181 pp., ISBN 0–7486–2144-X.