Związek między członkostwem w organizacjach a przynależnością klasową w perspektywie międzynarodowej

Abstract

Currently, there is only a limited amount of research on the propensity of people in different classes to participate in civic organization. Using data from the European Social Survey 2002 the author explores the patterns and intensity of relations between civic participation and social class in 19 countries. He examines class differences in the recruitment to four basic types of the associational membership on the assumption that there may be various forms of social exclusion and inequality. This relationship is compared across various types of welfare regime, in line with the suggestion that there is significant variation in social involvement across welfare regimes. This analysis shows that, indeed, civic associations could be differentiated according to their class composition. In line with expectations class differences are ordered from the most to the least advantaged groups with respect to their socio-cultural position. In all countries, representatives of the service class are most likely to take part in civic organizations. They are followed by lower non-manual categories, and owners, and most disengaged from formal participation are working class people and agricultural categories. This suggests that civic organizations appear to be preservers of advantaged categories (i.e. higher professionals and managers) while categories located near the bottom of socio-economic ladder are deprived of access to them.