Abstract:

We would like to divide up our paper into three sections. The first section will be devoted to specific technical questions which arise in the conducting of international surveys. In the second section, we would like to use an example to show that in international research we not only must concentrate on solutions to the technical problems of comparability, but we should also introduce new concepts, dimensions and perspectives, both in the interest of the individual project and also in the interest of progress in survey research in general. Finally, in the third section we would like to list a few basic principles for international research. It is open to debate whether these basic principles belong at the beginning or the end of such a pacer, and this depends on whether one prefers a deductive or an inductive way of thinking. We feel that putting the basic principles at the beginning makes them appear too much foregone conclusions, and that it is not until the end that their significance will be recognized.