Abstract:

Research used to describe or understand a situation is the general topic of this section. Government and other social research is embedded into a setting which includes market modelling, brand equity, media audience research, financial research, opinion polling and customer satisfaction. Governments, as well as academic and other social researchers, are actors in all these segments. Governments try to model and segment the market for policies, they seek to brand their policies and position them in the market of the electorate, they spend much effort in investigating media audiences and opinion polls are used continuously by government and other state agencies around the globe. It is the aim of this section to consider research issued, maintained and commissioned by governments, public agencies and academia.