Levels Of Civic Engagement Research Articles

Young people’s civic engagement in Italy: evidence on grade 8 students from the international civic and citizenship education study (ICCS) 2016

Civic engagement represents a key aspect of a democratic society and is itself a multidimensional construct. Research has shown that the promotion of civic engagement is an important component of civic and citizenship education intended in a broad sense, pertaining to formal, non-formal and informal learning situations. Within a national scenario characterised by increasing levels of general institutional disaffection and a lack of electoral and political involvement, the recent reform in the area of civic and citizenship education (Law 92/2019) has led to lively debates on the status of its implementation in Italian schools and recent research at the national level has highlighted the lack of activities to promote students’ engagement. This study further investigates the ICCS 2016 findings on civic engagement of Italian students with two objectives: to identify possible groups of Italian eighth-grade students on the basis of their level of civic engagement and to examine the associations among these groups and some key factors reflecting school contexts and students’ attitudes and behaviours. To reach these goals, the data analyses encompassed a latent profile analysis and a logistic regression model. The latent profile analysis allowed the identification of three groups of Italian students: disengaged, moderately engaged and engaged students. The results of the regression model showed that engaged students were characterised by a higher level of citizenship self-efficacy. These findings confirm those of previous research on the key role of internal self-efficacy in promoting students’ civic engagement.

Characteristics and urbanization of agricultural migrants in the Yangtze River Delta based on new-type urbanization perspective

ABSTRACT Investigating the characteristics of the agricultural floating population stands as a fundamental prerequisite for fostering human urbanization and constitutes a pivotal aspect within the framework of people-centered New-type urbanization. Drawing upon data from the 2017 China Migrants Dynamic Survey (CMDS), this study delves into the age distribution, educational attainment, and other mobility traits of the agricultural migrant populace residing in the urban agglomeration of the Yangtze River Delta, alongside examining the patterns concerning their places of origin and settlement convergence. Furthermore, utilizing questionnaire data sourced from the CMDS, this paper proceeds to evaluate the urbanization level of the agricultural floating population. The findings of this research are threefold: Firstly, the age composition of the agricultural migrant cohort predominantly comprises youthful and middle-aged laborers, characterized by limited educational attainment and chiefly inter-provincial mobility. Secondly, within urban agglomerations, the agricultural migrant influx predominantly originates from Anhui Province, while beyond these urban centers, migrants predominantly hail from provinces noted for substantial labor outflows. Thirdly, a notable proportion, one-third to be precise, of the surveyed agricultural migrants express a willingness to settle in urban locales, thereby underscoring the imperative to enhance their integration into urban societal fabric and elevate their level of civic engagement.

Cross-national evidence for political philosophers’ civic behavior

ABSTRACT The moral behavior of philosophers has gained notable attention in recent years as a robust means of exploring the relationship between moral reflection and behavior. These studies post that if philosophers, who are deeply engaged with moral reflection, do not act more ethically, we should not expect moral reflection to affect the behavior of lay people. Overall, these studies find no evidence that philosophers (including moral ones) behave in a more ethical way than others, except for evidence regarding vegetarianism. In this study, we utilize data on philosophers (N = 1,376) from eight European countries, the largest sample to date, to examine this relationship. In line with previous studies, we assume the moral worth of civic engagement but use a wider set of five civic behaviors. In contrast to previous studies, we find systematically higher levels of civic engagement (except in the case of voting) among political philosophers in all eight countries, even after controlling education level, gender, age, and immigration status. We further propose two explanations – the norm and the domain-specific propositions – that might reconcile our findings with those of prior studies. These findings can provide a refreshing direction for future research in this field.

The gendered costs of stigma: How experiences of conflict‐related sexual violence affect civic engagement for women and men

AbstractA common understanding emphasizes the destructive effects of conflict‐related sexual violence (CRSV) on social cohesion and community life. Stressing the agency of survivors, we present an alternative argument. Our theory predicts that survivors seek to counteract the stigma attached to CRSV by contributing to the community in the form of civic engagement. Drawing on three original surveys from Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Liberia, and Sri Lanka and relying on list experiments to reduce underreporting bias, we find that survivors of CRSV indeed show increased levels of civic engagement. This civic effect is consistent across the three contexts and very likely causal. We also rule out an alternative mechanism based on posttraumatic growth and dispel concerns that increased civic engagement comes at the expense of decreased intergroup relations. However, looking at sex differences, our results are more sobering. While in line with our prediction, they do not support the optimistic notion that survivors' mobilization results in female empowerment and the closing of existing gender gaps in civic behavior. Our findings have important implications for our understanding of CRSV, the legacy of violent conflict, and the gendered nature of politics.

Perceived discrimination, political efficacy, and political participation in American Indian adults

IntroductionPsychological factors linked to political participation are largely understudied in American Indians. Prior work notes relatively low levels of participation compared to other racial and ethnic groups and suggests that identification with being American Indian is linked to overall levels of civic engagement in part through perceptions of group discrimination.MethodsIn the current work, in a sample of 727 American Indian adults, we created two groups: Group 1 (N = 398) reported perceived discrimination related to race, and Group 2 (N = 329) reported perceived discrimination not related to race or ethnicity. We investigated the relationships between individual experiences of everyday discrimination related to race, levels of political efficacy, and political participation (Group 1), and individual experiences of everyday discrimination not related to race or ethnicity, political efficacy, and political participation (Group 2).ResultsWe found that greater experiences of everyday discrimination related to race was associated with higher levels of political participation through increased levels of internal and collective efficacy. In contrast, greater experiences of everyday discrimination related to race was associated with higher levels of political participation through lower external political efficacy. For Group 2, we found that greater experiences of everyday discrimination not related to race or ethnicity was not directly associated with political participation, but mediation analyses revealed a relationship with lower levels of political participation through decreased internal and collective efficacy. The indirect effect through external political efficacy was not significant.DiscussionGiven low levels of American Indian political participation, political efficacy could be a target for interventions aiming to increase participation in the political system.

Parallel lives or active citizens? Examining the interplay between multicultural service provision and civic engagement in Australia

Over recent decades, there have been increased public debates about rising level of ethnic and religious diversity and their implications for social cohesion and intercultural relations. These contestations are often situated within a diversity governance continuum with two opposing and often extreme poles both in the policy arena as well as the academic literature. The first pole sees diversity as potentially contributing to social fissures and intercultural discord. The second pole highlights the benefits of an acceptance of diversity for cross-cultural awareness and social peace. Using empirical evidence from a multi-year project, this article assesses the key assumptions underlying these oppositional approaches through a study of the provision of social services to multicultural communities and its association with civic engagement and national belonging. Study findings show that access to multicultural services is significantly associated with higher levels of civic engagement among migrants, rather than social exclusion and urban segregation.

A person‐centred view of citizen participation in civic crowdfunding platforms: A mixed‐methods study of civic backers

AbstractCrowdfunding platforms have emerged as a promising contemporary means for mobilising collective civic actions to address local or social issues, improve community cohesion and develop the public good. This empirical study taps into the understudied civic crowdfunding platforms (CCP) developed to facilitate such actions, proposing, supporting and funding public‐interest projects through crowdsourcing and microfinancing. Previous studies have shown that individuals' characteristics affect their level of civic engagement with social issues. Considering the diversity of contributor motivations, we aim to shed light on the dynamics of emergent subpopulations of citizens who participate in CCPs. To this end, we use a sequential mixed‐methods approach to integrate our fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) findings with the results of an in‐depth qualitative study, to gain rich and robust inferences and meta‐inferences. In Study 1 (n = 316), we used fsQCA to explore five distinctive configural profiles that display the heterogeneity of civic backers' motivations, including civic champions, prosocial advocates, normative supporters, reward seekers and regret‐averse contributors. In Study 2, we corroborated and complemented our fsQCA inferences through an extreme‐case study and identified four boundary conditions. Taken together, our inferences and meta‐inferences address the heterogeneity of motivations for participating in CCPs, by understanding and theorising about diverse profiles of citizen backers. Finally, we offer practical implications for successful civic crowdfunding initiatives.

The Relation Between Perceived Racial Discrimination and Civic Engagement Among People of Asian Descent

Although people of Asian descent are the fastest-growing ethno-racial group in the United States, there has been limited research on how racialized experiences are related to their civic engagement behaviors. This study examines how perceived racial discrimination relates to political and community civic engagement among people of Asian descent living in California. Analyzing novel data from the 2021 California Health Interview Survey, we find that after the onset of COVID-19 people of Asian descent showed both the sharpest rise in perceived racial discrimination and the lowest level of civic engagement among all ethno-racial groups in California. Moreover, perceived racial discrimination was significantly associated with political engagement but not with community engagement among people of Asian descent. Finally, people of Asian descent showed some unique dynamics in comparison with other minoritized groups. We discuss the implications of these findings for nonprofit and voluntary sector research on the racialization of civic engagement.

Religious symbols in the public sphere and development of the third sector: Some evidence from rural Poland

In this paper we examine to what extent civic engagement might emerge from a deep and organic link, which exists between religion and culture. We rely on a novel approach which approximates the deep embodiment of religious institutions in culture by the presence of religious symbols in the public sphere. Drawing on data for rural Poland, we show that municipalities in which we observe a growing number of street names associated with the Catholic Church display a higher level of civic engagement (measured by the number of NGOs) than municipalities in which, over the last years, such streets were not created.

Measuring Civic Engagement in Young Children

There is a dearth of studies exploring how younger children engage in civic life, what may be expected of them given their age, and what instruments may be used to capture their levels of civic engagement. Addressing these questions, this article presents key findings from a pilot study that aimed to create a validated instrument designed to measure the civic engagement of primary school children. Based on a survey administered to 655 primary school children aged 9–11 across England, this article focuses on the new measure that was specifically designed, and then tested and validated through both exploratory and confirmatory analyses. The findings validate a tripartite measure of civic engagement that assesses the civic attitudes, actions and awareness of 9–11-year-olds. This measure was found to be both practical and efficient in its administration, and it has been shown to be easily comprehensible by this age group. This new measure addresses an important gap in the literature on civic engagement in children, providing researchers with a validated tool to effectively measure civic engagement in 9–11-year-olds. The findings have implications for both researchers and educators interested in designing and evaluating interventions aimed at promoting civic engagement among younger children.

Civic engagement during times of crisis: Personal motivations of Romanian adults at the onset of the war in Ukraine

Crisis situations, such as the still ongoing war in Ukraine, make civic engagement extremely important, especially in Eastern Europe. Eastern European countries not only have extensive borders with Ukraine, but also share a common history as members of the former communist bloc. This part of the world is characterized by low levels of civic engagement, though the proximity of war and the refugee crisis make humanitarian efforts imperative. Therefore, more research is needed to understand personal motivations for civic engagement in Eastern Europe. Employing a mixed-method approach, we tackled the following research questions: (1) What motivated Romanians’ civic engagement in the context of the war in Ukraine? and (2) Are different personal motivations related to online civic engagement differences? The sample included 118 Romanian respondents (Mage = 27.93, SDage = 9.63) who filled in an online survey shortly after the start of the war (March 2022). For the first research question, thematic analysis revealed 2 main themes: Perceived Similarity and General Concern for People. For the second research question, one way-ANOVA results showed that those motivated by perceived similarity with Ukrainians had higher levels of online civic engagement, in comparison with those motivated by general concern for people.

Vulnerable Neighbourhoods, Disaffiliated Populations? A Comprehensive Index of Social Capital and Social Infrastructure in Barcelona

This article aims to understand the probable links between social capital and social infrastructure. The inclusion of these two dimensions into urban analysis may help to better understand the nature and characteristics of the relationships between the built environment and the level of organisation of the residents, and whether these have an impact on the vulnerability of the territories. Through use of statistical techniques (visual grouping and cluster analysis, among others), this article seeks to construct a comprehensive measure of social capital, as well as a comprehensive index of social infrastructure. These two in combination show, as the main results, that the characteristics of the built environment may promote higher levels of social interaction, also leading to higher levels of civic engagement and participation. However, the results also suggest that this relationship may be bidirectional. Finally, the mapping of the two indices applied in the city of Barcelona is presented and these results are compared with a previously constructed index of vulnerability for the same territory, allowing an overall better understanding of Barcelona’s socio-urban behaviour.

LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT IN KAZAKHSTAN: ISSUES OF INVOLVING THE POPULATION OF RURAL DISTRICTS

In modern developed countries, special attention is paid to the issues of power decentralization. In the Republic of Kazakhstan, the formation of local self-government as a social institution is also underway. The involvement of citizens in this process contributes to a better solution of problems at the local level in accordance with the interests of the citizens themselves. The article substantiates the need for the participation of the rural population in local self-government. The main forms of participation of the inhabitants of rural districts in local self-government are described. The authors, based on the data of a sociological survey conducted in rural areas of the Karaganda region, analyzed the level of civic engagement in solving issues of local importance. In addition, the main results achieved so far in the issues of involving the rural population in participation in local self-government in Kazakhstan are identified. The main problems existing in this direction are revealed. The prospects for their solution are outlined.

Promoting civic engagement among students in the preservation of local culture during a time of disruption

Citizenship education aims to cultivate intelligent and responsible citizens. One essential characteristic of a responsible citizen is their active engagement in civic duties, as demonstrated through their attitudes and behavior. This study examines the level of civic engagement among high school students in preserving local culture during the era of disruption. The research adopts a quantitative descriptive approach and collects data from high school students in Cianjur Regency, Indonesia, using a survey questionnaire. The findings reveal that: (1) the level of civic attitude among students in cultural preservation is sufficient, with a score of 55.12%; and (2) the level of civic behavior, specifically real action taken to preserve local culture, is very low, with a score of 9.22%. This suggests that student involvement in cultural preservation needs to be further developed to safeguard local culture. Therefore, future researchers are advised to devise a Citizenship education learning model that can foster civic engagement among high school students in preserving local culture.

Civic Engagement in a Citizen-Led Living Lab for Smart Cities: Evidence From South Korea

Smart cities have emerged in the hope of solving growing urban problems. In addition, unlike past citizen participation in tokenism, new technologies in smart cities have shed light on creating cities with high levels of civic engagement. However, contrary to expectations, technology-centric smart city development has resulted in a lack of opportunities for citizen participation. Consequently, smart cities are increasingly adopting a citizen-centric living lab methodology. Previous research on living labs has emphasized the significance of civic engagement and the potential as a collaborative platform for governments, businesses, and citizens. However, keeping individuals engaged and motivated during the living lab process might be challenging. This study examined the significance of citizens’ active participation and determined the elements that influence the level of participation in a living lab. In this study, the first citizen-led living laboratory in South Korea was selected as the subject of a case study. An empirical analytic approach was adopted and a survey was conducted among living lab participants regarding their level of participation and the sociocultural elements that may impact it. Our findings revealed that living lab activities were associated with enhanced civic self-esteem and positive attitudes toward smart cities. Moreover, they display the socioeconomic elements that influence the degree of participation. This study offers evidence that living lab activities encourage citizen engagement by giving participants a sense of empowerment during the co-creation process with multiple stakeholders, boosting civic competency through learning activities, and improving a sense of community ownership.

Civic Engagement and Its Relationship with Parental Civic Socialization of Adolescents in Addis Ababa

Background: This study examined the levels of civic engagement of adolescents and its relationship with parental civic socialization. Methods: The research employed both quantitative research design and qualitative method. Participants were 960 school adolescents aged 15 to 19 years (Mean age was 17.7, 53.5% female) drawn from secondary schools in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Results: The findings suggested that the majority of adolescents tended to fall within moderate to high levels of civic engagement and a quarter falling in the bottom quartile. Mobilizing adolescents and other young people to help the most deprived, promoting awareness on their rights, volunteering, monitoring delivery of social services, and participating in public discussion on community matters were found to be the most common types of civic engagements of adolescents. While significant positive relationship was found between parental civic socialization and adolescents’ civic engagements, sex differences were noted in civic engagements, in favor of males. ANOVA also revealed significant main (across levels of civic socialization and sex) and interaction effects. High parental civic socialization had higher effect on male adolescents than female. Interviewed adolescents also confirmed that civic socialization and support they went through in their life has contributed to their enhanced or low civic engagements at large. Conclusion: Implications for family, school and community interventions were drawn.

Urban democracy in post-Maidan Ukraine: conflict and cooperation between citizens and local governments in participatory budgeting

ABSTRACT Seeking to explain Ukraine's societal resilience in the context of the Russian invasion, scholars point to the unprecedented levels of civic engagement on the one hand and improvements in local self-governance on the other. However, little is known about how citizens have interacted with local authorities in recent years. This article studies modes of interaction between citizens and public servants in the co-production of participatory budgeting projects in Dnipro, Kyiv, and Lviv. I adopt a relational approach to democracy, focusing on the participants’ assessments of their cooperation with municipal authorities. The article draws on 51 semi-structured interviews and is informed by a digital ethnography. The results reveal that the participants’ oversight is crucial because public servants regularly attempt to block those proposals which do not have precedents. The degree of the participants’ influence varied in the three cases, yet in each case the participants’ greater understanding of local self-governance processes was essential for facilitating adequate responses by local authorities. These findings not only result in a better understanding of the development of urban democracy in Ukraine prior to 2022, but also highlight the significant role participatory processes can play in the prospective democratic governance in Ukraine.

Detecting the socio-economic drivers of confidence in government with eXplainable Artificial Intelligence

The European Quality of Government Index (EQI) measures the perceived level of government quality by European Union citizens, combining surveys on corruption, impartiality and quality of provided services. It is, thus, an index based on individual subjective evaluations. Understanding the most relevant objective factors affecting the EQI outcomes is important for both evaluators and policy makers, especially in view of the fact that perception of government integrity contributes to determine the level of civic engagement. In our research, we employ methods of Artificial Intelligence and complex systems physics to measure the impact on the perceived government quality of multifaceted variables, describing territorial development and citizen well-being, from an economic, social and environmental viewpoint. Our study, focused on a set of regions in European Union at a subnational scale, leads to identifying the territorial and demographic drivers of citizens’ confidence in government institutions. In particular, we find that the 2021 EQI values are significantly related to two indicators: the first one is the difference between female and male labour participation rates, and the second one is a proxy of wealth and welfare such as the average number of rooms per inhabitant. This result corroborates the idea of a central role played by labour gender equity and housing policies in government confidence building. In particular, the relevance of the former indicator in EQI prediction results from a combination of positive conditions such as equal job opportunities, vital labour market, welfare and availability of income sources, while the role of the latter is possibly amplified by the lockdown policies related to the COVID-19 pandemics. The analysis is based on combining regression, to predict EQI from a set of publicly available indicators, with the eXplainable Artificial Intelligence approach, that quantifies the impact of each indicator on the prediction. Such a procedure does not require any ad-hoc hypotheses on the functional dependence of EQI on the indicators used to predict it. Finally, using network science methods concerning community detection, we investigate how the impact of relevant indicators on EQI prediction changes throughout European regions. Thus, the proposed approach enables to identify the objective factors at the basis of government quality perception by citizens in different territorial contexts, providing the methodological basis for the development of a quantitative tool for policy design.

Narratives of Volunteering and Social Change in Wartime Ukraine

Ukraine’s efforts to resist the Russian invasion have sparked unprecedented levels of civic engagement. While the more tangible efforts to alleviate immediate needs have been prominently featured in mass media and elsewhere, the norms and values that shaped this large-scale collective effort often remain behind the scenes. Approaching narratives of volunteering through a critical cultural sociology lens, we find that wartime involvement constitutes a shift from duty-based norms in which citizens are required or expected to engage in civic activities, to forms of engaged citizenship which contribute not just to the state, but also to the wellbeing of those in need. In this context, volunteering facilitates the emergence of civil society that often occupies the space outside of the currently defined institutional contexts and works through the collective shaping and contestation of social norms and values. Documenting these dynamics provides valuable new insights into the important role volunteerism plays in broader sociopolitical transformations, especially in non-Western and postcolonial contexts where the processes of civil society development take many forms and may be easily overlooked.

Communicative Resources of Public Chambers for the Formation of Public Opinion (on the example of a municipal territory)

The current situation in single-industry towns of the Ural Federal District has long suggested the need to build and implement a strategy for sociological support of work and search for public practices of Public Chambers in municipalities. Hence, the purpose of this study was to develop and substantiate a more advanced model of sociological support for the activities of the Public Chamber for the formation of public opinion in the municipal territory, understanding of the authorities of its usefulness, which, as a result, will significantly simplify the procedures for discussing projects for the formation of a comfortable urban environment and other projects to address issues of life support of the municipality by representatives of the socio-territorial community. The novelty of the material is characterized by the use of reflexive practices of the concept of “Good Governance” in building a model of “Effective Governance” for establishing communication processes, cooperation, and involving the population in the process of power management through the Public Chamber at the municipal level. Using the levels of civic engagement established by the citizen engagement standard, the institutional functions of the Public Chamber for the formation of public opinion, its institutional functions are specified as new formats for citizen engagement. An additional constructivist function is proposed: the formation, as a result of the manifestation of civil initiatives, of new social structures from public opinion leaders such as: public councils, city councils, possible communities, territorial self-government bodies subordinate to the Public Chambers of municipalities (as part of them), which is of interest in the study and clarification as another additional institutional function for the formation of public opinion and the involvement of citizens in resolving issues of local governments. On the basis of the experiment conducted on the territory of the municipality (Sverdlovsk region, 2021), the author formulates the new formats for the involvement of the citizens, and develops recommendations for local authorities that would contribute to the establishment of communication processes, cooperation, and further involvement of the citizens in the process of managing power by the population at the municipal level.