The Willingness to State an Opinion: Inequality,Don't Know Responses,and Political Participation

Most explanations of inequality in political participation focus on costs or other barriers for those with fewer economic, educational, and “cognitive” resources. I argue, drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's work on “political competence,” that social position in the form of income also structures political participation through differences in the sense that one is a legitimate producer of political opinions. I test whether income differences in participation persist net of costs by examining nonparticipation in a setting in which barriers to participation are low: answering political survey questions. Lower‐income people are more likely than others to withhold political opinions by saying “don't know” net of differences in education, “cognitive ability,” or engagement with the survey exercise. Further, political “don't know” rates predict voting rates, net of other predictors. Efforts to democratize participation in American politics must attend not only to the costs of involvement but also to class‐based differences in individuals' relationship to political expression itself.     

Age group differences in political activism in Malaysia

ABSTRACT

There is a dearth of studies on age-related patterns of political activism in Malaysia, specifically on young people’s patterns of political participation relative to their elders, and in relation to the rich literature that has developed in Western democracies. By analysing survey data from Wave 6 (2010–2014) of the World Values Surveys (WVS), this study aims to investigate the differences in political engagement between younger and older people in Malaysia, including new repertoires outside the mainstream politics, by addressing the question of whether young Malaysians are more active in political activities compared to older groups. The findings conform to the expected patterns in the literature that young people are less likely to participate in conventional political activities than their respective elders. However, we find no significant differences for unconventional political participation. The study further shows that demographic indicators such as the levels of education, gender and ethnic group belonging do not appear to be linked to the age gap between youth and their elders in political activism. As such, the study provides evidence that young people in Malaysia are less likely to be politically active than their elders and that this is not clearly attributable to the socio-demographic factors analysed.     

‘Them that runs the country don't know what they're doing’: political dissatisfaction amongst members of the white working class

There are signs that a significant number of British people do not feel that their concerns are being addressed by the mainstream parties or the political system. This paper attends to the quality of that political dissatisfaction amongst members of ‘the white working classes’. There is a need to extend typical concerns about youth disengagement to adults and to consider the role that class plays. Lower participation in formal democratic processes may not mean disengagement from all forms of politics, but could have considerable consequences for who gains power and for the tone and focus of political debates and policies. Our project contributes to exploring political dissatisfaction by engaging with low wage workers in Yorkshire and the North West, where high support for the far‐right BNP and low voter turnout are signs that mainstream politics and politicians are failing to impress. We asked people about their feelings in relation to mainstream politics and their concerns. These participants feel distanced from governing elites, formal political processes and old ideologies. They are searching for ways to make sense of their struggles to live a decent life, and in doing so must contend with the dominance of racist discourses.     

Changing Facebook profile pictures as part of a campaign: who does it and why?

People changing their Facebook profile picture in support of social and political campaigns has recently become relatively common, particularly among young people. The current study presents an analysis of young people who change their profile picture and their motivations to do so. Using original data collected among less than 35 years old Facebook users (N?=?267), we find that besides the intensity of Facebook use, offline engagement in protest and boycotts has a significant and positive effect on the likelihood to change one's profile picture as part of a campaign. Hence, the opportunity for Facebook users to engage in politics by changing a profile picture to support a campaign seems to be seized more often by young people who are politically engaged offline than by those who are not. Among those who change their profile picture, raising awareness seems to be the primary motivation to do so. Identity formation is also a crucial motivation, in particular for profile pictures changes to support a political party and the marriage equality campaign.     

Higher education and civic engagement

This paper focuses on the relationship between social engagement, particularly civic engagement, and education. It is well known that more highly educated people are more likely to engage in voluntary work in formalized settings. It has been difficult to disentangle the effect of higher education from that of family origin and occupational socialization. This paper examines the effects of tertiary education on the social and civic engagement of young people, using the British Household Panel Study. The social and civic activity of young people is observed in their late teens, before entering the labour market or tertiary education, and compared with that of the same young people in their early 20s, after completing tertiary education courses or gaining labour market experience. It was found that the social and civic engagement of young people who would enter higher education was higher in their late teens than that of their peers who did not enter. However, higher education had a small additional effect on civic engagement, for both young and mature students. The children of professionals were the social grouping most likely to be involved in civic activities. The relationship of higher education, professional occupations and family socialization is discussed.     

Neutralizing the political threat of the marginal woman: Lesbians’ beliefs about bisexual women

One might expect lesbian and bisexual women to form a strong alliance because of their common marginalization in a heterosexist and sexist society. But previous research has shown that tension exists between lesbian and bisexual women and that some segments of the lesbian community consider bisexuality a threat to lesbian politics. In this article I report data on beliefs about bisexual women gathered from 346 self‐identified lesbians via self‐administered questionnaires and discuss the relationship between lesbian and bisexual women as a special case of intergroup relations. Most lesbian respondents believed that bisexual identity is more likely than lesbian identity to be a phase or a way of denying one's true sexuality and that bisexual women are less personally and politically loyal and more willing and able to pass as heterosexual than are lesbians. Lesbians’ beliefs about bisexual women were uncorrelated with demographics, but lesbians who reported having some heterosexual feelings were less inclined to hold derogatory beliefs about bisexual women than were lesbians whose feelings were exclusively homosexual. On the basis of intergroup relations theory, I argue that lesbian‐bisexual relations are in the “amicable consensus” stage of political development (Jackman & Senter, 1983) and that lesbians’ attitudes are likely to change as the nascent bisexual political movement grows in strength. Methodological issues pertaining to the measurement of lesbians’ attitudes toward sexuality, including the reactivity of these attitudes to various measurement strategies, are discussed.     

Closing the gap: gender parity in political engagement on social media

Historically, major gender differences exist in both political engagement and online content creation. Expanding on these literatures, this study considers the extent to which men and women engage in politics specifically in social media. Novel survey data are employed to test for any gendered differences in encountering and responding to political content via social media. Despite measuring a robust set of political behaviors within social media, few gender differences emerge. Where differences do emerge, they are most likely among the most visible political behaviors, suggesting that women may strategically engage in less visible or less-likely-to-offend political behaviors, as compared to men. This poses important questions regarding political participation, representation, and gender.     

Nichtregierungsorganisationen – die unbekannten Wesen?

First, the definition of NGOs in relation to the state, the oeconomics and the civil society will be worked out. Then also the difference between a Non-profit-organisation and a Non-governmental-organization is discussed. Central for NGOs is the requirement for political change. NGOs work mostly on multiple levels. The connexion and cooperation between the different territorial levels is the key for the comprehension, which advantage in the generation of know-ledge and transformation NGOs can reach. NGOs can be understand as a modern form of global care, where local and global problems, which are marginalized in the politics, can be linked, analysed and forced for change. At least, NGOs plays a central role in the politicial socialisation of people. Essential for the engagement is the experience, that people can effect something with their engagement. This experience is a bigger motivation for an engagement than information. NGOs can enable people to the experience, that they can effect something.     

The Political and Civic Lives of Public Sector Workers: Unions and “Public Service Motivation”*

Public sector employees are highly engaged in civic and political life, from voting to volunteering. Scholars have theorized that this political activity stems from “public service motivation,” or the selection of publicly oriented individuals into public work. We build on this work by analyzing the role of public sector unions in shaping participation. Unions are central mobilizing organizations in political life, and one in three public sector workers are unionized. Special supplements of the Current Population Survey provide data on various forms of participation, sector, union membership, and union coverage. Logistic regressions find that unionized public sector workers have much higher odds of engaging in a range of activities compared to non‐union public workers, including protest, electoral politics, and political communication. Union membership impacts service work to a lesser extent, suggesting that unions are more central to political lives. These findings have implications for the consequences of union decline, including the class, race, and gender composition of who participates in democratic life.     

One of a Kind,or All of One Kind? Groups of Political Participants and Their Distinctive Outlook on Society

Political participation can take shape in many types of participation, between which the overlap is low. However, the similarities and differences between various types of participants are surprisingly understudied. In this article, I propose to differentiate between four types of participants: institutional political participants, non-institutional political participants, civic participants, and political consumers. These types differ from each other on two dimensions: whether they are political or publicly oriented and whether they are formally or informally organized. Building on the matching hypothesis, I argue that we should differentiate those four types of participants by their outlook on society (societal pessimism, political trust, and social trust). Using data from the European Social Survey 2006, including participants from 19 countries, logistic regressions show that institutional political participants trust politics rather than people, non-institutional political participants are societal pessimists who trust other people, civic participants are societal optimists who trust other people, and political consumers are pessimists who do not trust politics.     

She Was Born in a Small Town: The Advantages and Disadvantages in Political Knowledge and Efficacy for Rural Girls

Recent work suggests that girls learn more about politics and are more efficacious in places with less conflict and greater homogeneity. Given that rural communities are often more homogeneous than metropolitan areas across several dimensions, this article asks whether young girls growing up in rural communities have higher levels of political knowledge and efficacy than those in more urban, diverse communities. It argues that the average girl benefits from the stronger social bonds between residents in smaller places, but young women who hold minority views about the importance of equality are likely to suffer in their levels of knowledge and efficacy. Being in the minority seems to be particularly difficult for girls in smaller places. This article raises questions about the ways in which gender gaps vary across different places and the varying effects of minority status.     

Young people,social media and connective action: from organisational maintenance to everyday political talk

Social media is pervasive in the lives of young people, and this paper critically analyses how politically engaged young people integrate social media use into their existing organisations and political communications. This qualitative research project studied how young people from a broad range of existing political and civic groups use social media for sharing information, mobilisation and, increasingly, as a means to redefine political action and political spaces. Twelve in-person focus groups were conducted in Australia, the USA and the UK with matched affinity groups based on university campuses. The groups were of four types: party political group, issue-based group, identity-based group and social group. Our focus group findings suggest that this in-depth approach to understanding young people's political engagement reveals important group-based differences emerging in young people's citizenship norms: between the dutiful allegiance to formal politics and a more personalised, self-actualising preference for online, discursive forms of political engagement and organising. The ways in which political information is broadcast, shared and talked about on social media by engaged young people demonstrate the importance of communicative forms of action for the future of political engagement and connective action.     

Social Capital,Interpersonal Trust,and Public Housing

Abstract

Addressing the relationship between housing tenure and social disadvantage, this research examines social capital among public tenants in Australia, concentrating on their level of interpersonal trust and confidence in a range of public institutions. Through multivariate analyses of national survey data it also profiles the social and political background of public housing tenants. As expected, public tenants tend to have lower incomes, lower levels of education, and working-class backgrounds, or do not identify with any class location at all. They are less likely to be married or in de facto relationships than people in other housing tenures, but are more likely to identify with the Australian Labor Party than with the Coalition parties. Although public housing tenants have access to secure and affordable housing, they appear to be generally less trusting than private renters or homeowners and exhibit less confidence in government institutions such as the Australian parliament. Public housing tenants express lower levels of interpersonal trust even controlling for a range of social background factors, suggesting that as a form of tenure, public housing in some ways exacerbates the disadvantage of tenants.     

Youth,activism, and social movements

There has been considerable debate over the extent and role of young people's political participation. Whether considering popular hand‐wringing over concerns about declines in young people's institutional political participation or dismissals of young people's use of online activism, many frame youth engagement through a “youth deficit” model that assumes that adults need to politically socialize young people. However, others argue that young people are politically active and actively involved in their own political socialization, which is evident when examining youth participation in protest, participatory politics, and other forms of noninstitutionalized political participation. Moreover, social movement scholars have long documented the importance of youth to major social movements. In this article, we bring far flung literatures about youth activism together to review work on campus activism; young people's political socialization, their involvement in social movement organizations, their choice of tactics; and the context in which youth activism takes place. This context includes the growth of movement societies, the rise of fan activism, and pervasive Internet use. We argue that social movement scholars have already created important concepts (e.g., biographical availability) and questions (e.g., biographical consequences of activism) from studying young people and urge additional future research.     

Professors and politics: Noam Chomsky’s contested reputation in the United States and Canada

There is an extensive literature comparing the politics, sociology and economics of the United States and Canada, but very little work comparing the role that public intellectuals play in the space of public opinion and how their ideas are received in both nations simultaneously. Noam Chomsky provides a theoretically useful example of an established academic and public intellectual whose reputation is deeply contested in both countries. Our comparative case study offers leverage to contribute to debates on the sociology of knowledge, reputations, intellectuals, and the politics of professors using data from six major Canadian and American newspapers from 1995–2009 and an innovative coding of media portrayal. Earlier work has demonstrated that Chomsky is discussed as a public intellectual more prominently in Canada than in the United States (McLaughlin and Townsley in Canadian Review of Sociology, 48(4):341–368, 2011). Here we examine the comparative construction of a “public intellectual” reputation in the context of significant political change. We document small differences between the Canadian and American receptions of Chomsky, show change in the patterns of portrayal and number of publications over time, and offer an analysis of differences between political attacks and consecrations. We demonstrate more engagement with Chomsky’s political view in Canada than in the United States, a rise in Chomsky’s fame post 9/11, and illustrate clear political patterns in attempts to marginalize him.     

Generations,Identities, and the Collective Memory of Che Guevara1

Has the image of Che Guevara lost its power to evoke radical politics in the face of pervasive commodification? The commercialization of this 1960s political icon has called into question the power of the market to shape collective memories. Meanwhile, antisystemic movements of the left continue to erect his image at protest events. In light of this contest over how Che Guevara is remembered, we investigate, using data from a survey of Spanish citizens, who is most likely to recall him. We find qualified support for the theory of generational imprinting—Che is more often recalled by those generations who saw him rise to prominence during their formative years, although prominent as a collective symbol rather than as a living person. Our results also corroborate the claim that historical figures or events are more salient for, and therefore more likely to be remembered by, some subgenerational units than others. Thus, although the younger generations are in general more likely than their elders to recall Che, he is most frequently remembered by the highly educated leftists who espouse postmaterialist and posttraditionalist values and identify more with their local regions than with the nation of Spain. These patterns suggest that, in contrast to the dire predictions of mass culture theorists, the memory of Che Guevara has become increasingly tied to markers of social, ethnic‐regional, and political identity.     

Value orientations and social attitudes in the holistic milieu

Based on a representative population survey for Germany this article investigates whether engagement in holistic activities is associated with privatized lifestyles and lack of social responsibility or with countercultural orientations and base‐democratic political commitment. To analyse this question, respondents who are engaged in holistic activities are divided into three groups that are compared with each other as well as with Christians and non‐religious people. The findings show that the three holistic groups are characterized by clearly different attitudinal patterns: Respondents engaged in body‐mind‐spirit activities have an affinity to self‐directed ways of life, post‐materialism and environmentalism. Holistic Christians try to combine the Christian ideal of altruism and post‐materialist orientations. Those who are attracted only to magical‐occult practices are primarily concerned with individualistic self‐improvement and correspond more to the image of the hedonist consumer at the esoteric marketplace.