The Social and Political Implications of Muslim Middle Eastern Women's Participation in Violent Political Conflict

Five cases from the twentieth centuty Islamic Middle East are investigated in terms of the role patterns of women's participation in violent political conflict and the post-conflict social and political consequences of their participation. The study finds extensive role segregation between male and female participants, and virtual absence of women from leadership roles. These conflicts are seen not to be a catalyst for permanent social and political change, and reason for this consequence are discussed.     

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.     

From Civic Participation to Political Participation

This study examines the long-held argument that civic participation transfers to political participation, as expressed by South Korean citizens. Compared to the majority of existing research that has focused primarily on Western developed countries, the present study examines South Korea, to which little scholarly attention has been devoted. Relying on the World Values Survey (2005–2006 wave), the present study finds that in South Korea, civic participation outside of the political sphere does push individuals to be more politically active. However, the results also demonstrate that there are more questions that need to be resolved. First, when the analysis unpacked the dependent variable—political participation—the relationship between civic engagement and attending demonstrations or signing petitions is robust. However, this is not the case for joining boycotts or taking part in voting. Moreover, when unpacking the independent variable—civic participation—this study finds that not every type of civic organization spawns political participation. There is a positive impact of non-political organizations, such as art, music, or charitable organizations, on political participation, while a negative impact exists for interest-based and political organizations, such as professional associations or environmental organizations.     

Economic Development and Sex Differences in Political Participation

This study investigates the hypothesis that certain processes associated with economic development (urbanization, industrialization, increasing affluence, and increasing education) promote smaller sex differences in political participation. Two underlying assumptions are also tested, namely, that economic development stimulates: (1) the more equitable distribution of resources for political participation and (2) more egalitarian attitudes concerning women's political role. The data are derived from national election surveys of seven nations: the United States, Great Britain, Norway, France, Italy, and Japan. Eight different facets of campaign activity constitute the measures of political participation. The results only partially support the hypothesis and the two corollaries.     

Migrating Gender Inequalities? Immigrant Women's Participation in Political Survey Research

This study examines the participation of immigrant women in political surveys in Canada as a form of political participation. Investigating immigrant women's participation in the various components of the Canadian Election Studies, this study highlights the structuring impact of pre‐migration experiences with gender inequalities from two different perspectives. The larger the gender inequalities in immigrant women's country of origin, the lower their retention rate to the post‐election surveys, and the greater their propensity to provide non‐responses to political survey‐items. This study contributes to a better understanding of immigrant political integration and the related impact of pre‐migration experiences.     

Misreporting and Vicarious Political Participation at the Local Level

The paper provides a method for examining the differences betweenpeople who actively participate in politics as contrasted withthose who are not participants, and those who misreport theirlevel of participation. Application of this method shows thatthe participants and the misreporters share numerous characteristicsthat set them apart from nonparticipants. The main distinguishingcharacteristic of the misreporters is their significantly higherexposure to television. The results lend support to the theorythat one effect of television is to depress routine forms ofpolitical participation, while simultaneously distorting people'sperception of their actual participation in political life.     

大学生网络政治参与:阻碍因素、形成机理与引导对策

网络技术的迅猛发展强烈地冲击着社会政治生活,对当代大学生产生重要影响。处于这个时代的大学生缘于网络呈现政治意识自觉拓展、群体效应的酝酿、实践场域与能力扩展以及诉求多元化与渠道缺失等特点,其形成过程表现为以热点追踪为信息源、话题讨论、观念内化、行为实践由外至内再外化的过程。针对大学生网络政治参与的现状及机理,应从完善法律法规,加强政府网络信息机制建设;优化网络政治环境,加强对大学生网络热点话题的管理;加强网络疏导,引导大学生网络群体活动有序开展;加强网络自律,树立网络名人、榜样示范效应这四个维度来建设,促进大学生网络政治参与和谐进行。     

A Little Encouragement Goes a (not so) Long Way: An Experiment to Increase Political Ambition

ABSTRACT

Although there is a significant gender gap in political ambition, the literature has shown that women are responsive to encouragement to run for office. As a result, both political parties and other organizations have adopted online campaigns to encourage women to seek political candidacy. The purpose of this study is to explore whether forms of online and impersonal encouragement can result in higher levels of political ambition among recipients. To test this possibility, we randomly assigned 341 participants into two conditions: control and encouragement. Despite receiving positive encouragement about their own political abilities, there were no significant differences between the two conditions.     

Voluntary Association Membership and Political Participation: an Exploration of the Mobilization Hypothesis*

Survey data from 390 respondents was analyzed to determine the relative effects of organizational involvement, socioeconomic status, and political attitudes on political participation. Two theoretical perspectives were investigated: mobilization theory and selection theory. Both the mobilization and selection perspectives were supported by the data; however, organizational involvement was shown to explain more of the variance in political participation than did social status and political attitudes. The mobilization perspective was further examined to determine if it worked equally well in all types of organizations. We found that the relationship between organizational involvement and political participation was stronger for “instrumental” than for “expressive” groups and for organizations characterized by high, as compared to low, levels of political discussion.     

Women in Political Life:

Data regarding the participation of women in elective and appointive office at local and national levels in 60 countries are analyzed. Included are data from both industrializing and industrialized countries. Overall, the data reveal that, globally, women's presence among political elites remains low, significant variations in the proportion of women elected to public office exists among the industrializing countries andthe industrialized centrally planned and market oriented economies. Regional differences are significant for women's appoinment to the diplomatic service in the industrializing countries.     

Female Labor Force Participation in Urban and Rural China1

Abstract The objective of this study is to examine female labor force participation and its determinants in rural and urban China. The sociological literature has demonstrated that participation tends to increase in urban and industrialized places where women have higher levels of education and fewer children, where more workers are engaged in service pursuits, and where family structure is less traditional. With the use of data on counties and cities (N = 2,377) from the I-percent sample of the 1982 census of the People's Republic of China, it was found that female labor force participation is likely to rise in areas with increased agricultural employment, educational levels, proportion of female-headed households, and higher male-to-female sex ratios. Both the size of the service sector and the fertility rate had negligible effects on female labor force participation. Although, on average, rural places have slightly higher levels of female labor force participation, when other variables are controlled, urban places have a higher rate of female participation. In addition, the findings suggest that market factors (i.e., education) are more likely to determine the rate of female labor force participation in urban areas; whereas demographic and social factors (i.e., sex ratio and household structure) play a more important role in explaining the female labor force participation in rural counties.     

Graffiti as a Form of Contentious Political Participation

Graffiti is a popular topic in the sociological, criminological, and linguistic literature with several book length treatments of various types of graffiti including tagging, gang graffiti, murals, and “bombings”. Yet, political sociologists have paid little attention to the role of graffiti as a form of contentious politics despite the often political nature of graffiti messages. As a result, most of the political research on graffiti is by non‐sociologists. We believe this is an oversight and that both political sociologists and social movement scholars need to seriously consider this form of micro‐level political participation. In this review we (1) demonstrate why some forms of graffiti should be considered a serious form of political participation; (2) compare and contrast graffiti to other forms of resistance including squatting and culture jamming; (3) review research findings on graffiti; and (4) discuss some of the conceptual and methodological challenges for doing graffiti research.     

Social Participation,Social Status and Extremist Political Attitudes*

Two measures of extremist political attitudes are used to test the relationship between social participation, social status, and extremist attitudes. The expected relationships are found only for a measure called “support for democratic institutions.” Another measure of political attitudes, vigilantism, was found not to relate to the independent variables. We conclude that people who may adhere to abstract democratic ideals, at the same time may not reject the use of extralegal force to further their political goals. The findings also suggest that the “mobilization function” of social participation will need to be further specified.     

The Effects of Parenthood on Workforce Participation and Income for Men and Women

This paper examined the effects of parenthood on workforce participation for men and women in the Christchurch Health and Development Study, a 30-year longitudinal study of a birth cohort of 1,265 individuals born in New Zealand in 1977. The findings suggested that the effects of parenthood on workforce participation were different for men and women. For women, parenthood was associated with decreasing participation in paid employment and fewer hours worked. For men, however, parenthood was not associated with decreased workforce participation and in some cases was associated with increased working hours. These findings had consequences for personal income, with 83–90 % of the total gender income gap in this cohort being attributed to gender differences in the effects of parenthood. These findings suggest that parenthood has markedly different effects on workforce participation and income for men and women.     

Not Codgers in Cardigans! Female Workforce Participation and Ageing Public Services

There have been remarkable changes in female labour force participation in the past century. In Australia, the first wave of change included the introduction of equal pay and the softening of attitudes towards married women at work and the second wave of change introduced anti‐discrimination legislation and family‐friendly working conditions. Arguably a third wave of change is emerging, as labour market pressures — caused in part by an ageing workforce — require further efforts to increase the participation of underrepresented groups such as women. The existing literature considers how age affects female participation but not the reverse question of how increased female participation has affected the age of the workforce. This research begins to fill this gap. Using an indicative study of an Australian public service, it explores increases in female participation and the associated increases in age in the case study public service, with a particular focus on the first wave of reforms in the 1970s and the second wave of reforms in the 1990s. The research demonstrates an association between increased female participation and the increasing age of public workforces — in a period of 25 years, the case‐study public service was transformed from being predominantly young and male to being predominantly older and female. Policymakers need to reconsider whether the ageing public workforce is a problem or simply a side effect of worthwhile employment reforms that supported female participation.     

Microcomputers in Political Campaigns - Lessons from the Jackson Campaign in New York

Summary

Microcomputer information systems arc a popular and effective tool in political elections. The problems posed by elections to designers and developers are unique, due to their short duration and crisis-oriented atmosphere. Formal systems methodologies become more rather than less intense in such an environment. The Jesse Jackson campaign in the 1988 New York State Presidential primary is examined for lessons in systems design methodology. Voter targeting is identified as a key automation area, and particular targeting techniques are discussed.     

Sex,Endocrines, and Political Behavior

While political behavioral differences between men and women appear to have been exaggerated, some continue to be validly observed. Evidence from several diciplines suggests that such differences may be biological in origin, mediated through the endocrine system. Variance in concentrations of certain hormones may have behavioral consequences. Since an experimental test in which these concentrations would be directly manipulated is not feasible, a design was developed which relies on the naturally-occurring hormonal variance of the female menstrual cycle. Subjects responded to a survey instrument and also supplied physiological data including, for women, location in the menstrual sysle. Hylpothesized differences in the reponses of women experiencing diverse concentrations of key endocrines failed to appear.     

Evolving Learning: The Changing Effect of Internet Access on Political Knowledge and Engagement (1998–2012)

This study addresses the changing role of Internet usage on the political knowledge and participation gap between individuals of low and high socioeconomic status (SES). Analysis of data collected by the Pew Research Center's Biennial Media Consumption Studies (1998–2012) shows that the percentage of the population that accidentally encounters political information online has risen dramatically. Results show that accidental exposure and SES are positively related to political knowledge, and that accidental exposure reduces the SES knowledge gap. Moreover, accidental exposure appears to be mitigating the SES voting gap at an increasing rate over time.     

社交网络时代大学生政治参与及引导机制研究

社交网络时代,网络成为大学生政治参与的新载体,大学生通过社交网络参与政治社会生活积极性高,原因在于:通过网络参与的及时性;同辈交流自由化,长幼交流隐私化;接受信息私己性与自我满足性。因此,可构建大学生网络政治参与引导互动模型,包含动力机制、协调机制、导向机制、效能机制以及交互机制等内容。     

Civic and Political Participation of Children and Adolescents: A Lifestyle Analysis for Positive Youth Developmental Programs

Social participation plays a key role in predicting positive youth development (PYD). As a previous step of this link, this research examined how children and adolescents' relational lifestyles influenced their participation in political and civic activities. This research provides a multi‐dimensional approach to the study of children's social participation, based on six children's lifestyles factors (i.e. family dialogue, risky behaviours, cultural activities, civic values, family supervision and peer group relationships). Using data from an international survey that included 6130 participants (2198 Spanish, 3932 Italian, Mage = 13.8), this study's results show that relational lifestyles (especially family dialogue and out‐of‐school cultural activities) are positively related to political and civic participation among children and adolescents. On the contrary, some peer group relationships decreased their social participation in those key dimensions for PYD. Limitations of the current study, implications for future policy decisions and applications to children social programs are discussed.