DOHA: The overview of the way public opinion polls take place in Qatar, unique challenges faced by surveyors, and changing attitudes towards the importance of surveys, were discussed at a lecture recently.
Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar (GU-Q) hosted Justin Gengler, Research Programme Manager and Senior Researcher, Social and Economic Survey Research Institute (SESRI), Qatar University (QU), for a lecture on ‘Studying Public Opinion in Qatar.’
Apart from Qatar Statistical Authority, SESRI is the only organisation conducting household surveys, and was established in 2008 in association with University of Michigan’s Institute of Social Research, a long standing research centre that conducts world-recognised surveys.
“There are two primary modes of data collection in Qatar: household and phone surveys,” Gengler said, describing the process of acquiring data directly from people in Qatar and the region. For SESRI, about 85 percent of work is household surveys, with recently added cell phone surveys now comprising 15 percent of work. Our samples are nationally representative, so we have separate sub-samples for Qataris, expats and migrant labourers.”
He cited the size of samples of surveys as including anywhere from 800 to 4000 respondents.
“We are very busy despite being small. We have 10 household survey projects and three phone survey projects per year, which is a lot for a small centre,” he said.
SESRI surveys are mainly academic, with some commissioned work by state organisations, private industry, fellow researchers in QU and elsewhere.
Past surveys have included tracking Qataris’ and foreign residents’ perceptions of local, regional, and international issues. “It’s not the case that we only study ‘innocuous’ topics that are primarily political or social. There are a lot of interests covered,” added Gengler. The lecture was part of the Monthly Dialogue Series organised by GU-Q’s Centre for International and Regional Studies.The Peninsula
