This one-day session is aimed at anybody with an interest in learning more about civil society and how it has evolved over recent decades. Civil society issues such as social trust, associational membership, volunteering, etc. will be explored. It is aimed at members of civil society organisations, government officials and those with an interest in learning about how to use survey data. The course will consider various aspects of civil society, engagement and participation and its relationship with other social, economic or political characteristics.

The course will provide everything needed for a survey user to begin exploring and using the Understanding Society/BHPS in their research or policy, including an introduction to the data collected and how this is done, a guide for how the data can be accessed, and training in which the basic steps associated with accessing, manipulating and analysing the data will be detailed and practiced using the software package SPSS. No prior knowledge of BHPS is expected and no prior experience of analysing or working with survey data is needed. A basic introduction to SPSS will be provided, and then several techniques of data management and manipulation and basic analysis will be demonstrated and practiced. The course will provide the basis for further training in the use of statistics software in the analysis of survey data.