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WAPOR 75^th Annual Conference and WAPOR Asia Pacific 5^th Conference

10-15 November 2022 ● Dubai, United Arab Emirates

The World Association for Public Opinion Research (WAPOR) held its 75^th Annual Conference together with the WAPOR Asia Pacific 5^th Annual Conference on 10-15 November 2022 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The WAPOR conference convened before and overlapped with the 5^th WAPOR Asia Pacific regional conference.

A total of 245 individuals from 57 countries participated in the 75th Anniversary conference, WAPOR’s first ever conference in the Middle East. There were numerous highlights, including the formation of our Sub-Saharan Africa Chapter, special panels that considered WAPOR’s past and future, two noteworthy keynote speakers, and the institution of WAPOR’s new Alexis de Tocqueville Award. Preliminary findings from the recently completed 2022 Freedom to Publish study were also presented. Two impressive keynote addresses were held. Early in the conference, Dr. Pippa Norris from Harvard University spoke about public trust and its essential role in collective action across social, economic and governmental spheres. During the final day of our conference, Dr. Amaney Jamal from Princeton University spoke about public opinion research in the Middle East using the most recent Arab Barometer data from that region. WAPOR especially thanks Dr. Tatiana Karabchuk, who served for four years as conference chair (2019-2022) and organized once more an excellent conference. 

CONFERENCE PROGRAM

Conference Theme: 75 Years of Worldwide Public Opinion Research

In 2022, WAPOR highlighted the role and application of survey research in monitoring public opinion across the world since the end of WWII. This period has witnessed continuous and ongoing innovations in the conduct, analysis and interpretation of public opinion research, and this information is routinely disseminated across the globe. This research has become an essential element of a connected world and is now used to inform citizens, governments, private businesses, and academic researchers on countless topics. At the same time, public opinion research is not without its limitations and its critics.

Conference venue

• November 10 & 14-15: Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government
• November 11-13: Grand Millennium Hotel Business Bay Dubai

Conference Program Details

• Two key-note lectures: 1) Pippa Norris (Harvard University); 2) Amaney A. Jamal (Princeton University)
• Pre-conference day with five training/methodological workshops on November 10
• Welcome safari adventure on November 10, starting at 4:00 pm from the hotel (incl. BBQ, camel riding, sandboarding, belly dancing, safari and more)
• Regular sessions are scheduled for November 11-13; joint sessions with WAPOR Asia Pacific on November 13
• WAPOR awards ceremony + banquette with Arabic cuisine on November 12
• Special featured panels from WAPOR on its 75th Anniversary, Public Opinion in the Middle East, Africa, and Central Asia, from ISSP, WVS, UAEU, MBRSG and NIELSEN IQ Middle East, Louvre Abu Dhabi, and more
• Dinner Cruise in Dubai Marina (optional) on November 13

Paper Awards

The 2022 Hellen H. Dinerman Award for career contributions to innovative research and methodology has been awarded to Dr. Christian Haerpfer. Dr. Haerpfer is a Research Professor of Political Science in Political Science at the University of Vienna and has served as President of the World Values Survey Association since 2013. Dr. Haerpfer is also Founding Director of the Eurasia Barometer, which has studied political and social transformations in post-Communist Europe and post-Soviet Eurasia since 1990. He has previously held academic appointments at the UAE National University (United Arab Emirates) and at other universities in the United Kingdom, Spain, Rwanda, Ukraine, Austria, and the Czech Republic. Dr. Haerpfer has also received Fellowships from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington D.C., the European University Institute in Florence (Italy), the University of Essex (United Kingdom), and the Glasgow Caledonian University (United Kingdom). Over the past 40 years, he has published an astonishing amount of professional research concerned with comparative public opinion, democracy, and social/political transformation. 

The esteemed Robert M. Worcester Prize, given annually to an outstanding paper published in the International Journal of Public Opinion Research was in 2022 awarded to Dr. Kristin Trujillo at the University of Minnesota and Dr. Matthew Motta at Oklahoma State University for their paper “How internet access drives global vaccine skepticism.” This article tests the proposition that internet access facilitates the spread of antivaccine information. Being very timely, it combines the use of multiple datasets to capture macro and micro level support for the authors’ hypotheses, merging country-level data with nationally representative survey data from 144 countries. 

This year, WAPOR is for the first time introducing a new award, known as the Alexis de Tocqueville Award.  De Tocqueville is best known for his book “On Democracy in America.” Although the book was based in part on his travels through the United States in the early 19th century, it is believed one of the main goals of the work was to help the people of France get a better understanding of their position between a fading aristocratic order and an emerging democratic order. He saw democracy as an equation that balanced liberty and equality, concern for the individual and as well as for the community. Given the ongoing relevance of his observations, this award was approved by WAPOR’s Council and beginning this year given annually to a paper presented at the WAPOR conference that is concerned with democracy and public opinion in the world, whether in consolidated or in emerging democracies. The 2022 Alexis de Tocqueville Award was given to Dr. Andrew Dawson and Isabel Krakoff at York University in Canada for their paper “Political Trust and Democracy: The Critical Citizens Hypothesis Re-Examined.” 

The 2022 Naomi C. Turner Prize for best graduate student paper presented at WAPOR’s annual conference was awarded to Evgenia Kapousouz from the University of Illinois at Chicago for her paper “Validity of Social Desirability Scales: A Cross-Cultural Analysis.”   

Finally, the 2022 Elizabeth H. Nelson Prize for best conference paper from a society in transition was awarded to Viyaleta Korsunava and Dr. Boris Sokolov from the National Research University Higher School of Economics, for their paper “Are online surveys a reliable data collection tool in non-Democratic contexts? Evidence from Russia.” 

Local Organizing Committee