Participation In Voluntary Associations Research Articles

The Borders of Migrant and Refugee Activism in South Africa

Abstract This article examines the relationship between the activities of civil society organizations (CSOs) on migration and refugee issues with state-making processes and discourses in South Africa, based upon key informant interviews, discourse analysis, and ethnographic research. It argues that this relationship brings attention to the defining and reinforcement of national borders set against the backdrop of the ‘corporate pact’ between the South African government and CSOs that has necessitated public participation in social movements and voluntary associations involved in a range of different xenophobic activities that are legitimized by political parties seeking popularity, and the state. Financial resources operate as ‘material disciplines’ by influencing the kind of problems that are visible, and, in turn, categories that non-state actors like philanthropies, charities, and donors consider worthy of protection. Those affected by shifting categories and their influence on NGO support like Zimbabweans have taken matters into their own hands to counter this novel border from below.

Long-term effects of the 1923 mass refugee inflow on social cohesion in Greece

After the 1919–1922 Greco-Turkish conflict, 1.2 million Greek Orthodox were forcibly displaced from Turkey to Greece, increasing the host population by 20 percent within a few months. Refugees were provided with farmland, new houses and schools, and were granted the Greek citizenship. This paper analyses the social integration outcomes of refugees from the first and second generations, as well as the long-term effect of their resettlement on the social cohesion of receiving communities. Combining historical and modern population censuses and surveys, I find that, by the 2000s, refugees display a high rate of intermarriage with Greek natives, report levels of trust in others and in institutions similar to natives, vote for similar political parties, and exhibit higher political and civic engagement than natives. The integration of refugees was notably fostered by the construction of new schools which helped close the literacy gap with native children shortly after refugees’ arrival in Greece. At the local level, places with higher share of refugees in 1928 display greater participation in voluntary associations 80 years later. I find no evidence that refugees either reduced voter turnout, increased political fragmentation, or led to higher levels of crime in places of resettlement. These results may suggest that early investments in inclusion policies can be effective at fostering refugees’ assimilation, at least when newcomers and locals have similar cultural profiles.

Civic involvement in deprived communities: A longitudinal study of England.

This study aims to understand how community material deprivation is related to associational membership amongst neighbourhood residents. We posit that aside from personal characteristics and willingness to engage, experiences of neighbourhood deprivation are strongly correlated with how much people devote themselves to associational membership. We identify three mechanisms through which community deprivation can determine individual participation in political, civic, and work voluntary associations: social cohering, norms of obligation, and activated dissatisfaction. We link individual panel data from Understanding Society from 2010 to 2019 with the English Index of Multiple Deprivation at the neighbourhood level. This study finds that neighbourhood deprivation is associated with lower norms of civic obligation which, in turn, lowers a person's propensity for engagement. Individuals with low income and education are less likely to participate in voluntary associations in the first place, therefore the contextual role of neighbourhood deprivation exerts a further external negative pressure on civic participation. We find that membership in political organizations is an exception whereby it is positively associated with neighbourhood deprivation. The results imply that given the many economic and social capital benefits of associational involvement (Putnam, 2000), collective deprivation can produce an additive pattern of economic disadvantage which is reinforced through a lack of social participation.

Community and aftershock: New venture founding in the wake of deadly natural disasters

The entrepreneurship literature has advanced our understanding of how natural disasters affect new venture founding in their wake. However, despite providing valuable insights, most existing studies focus on theoretical mechanisms that, explicitly or implicitly, invoke material losses or do not hone in on the theoretical effect of human losses caused by these events. This is an important omission because the social psychology literature suggests that individual reactions to human death are not only stronger than (i.e., higher in scale), but qualitatively different (i.e., infinitely stronger) from, those involving other types of losses. The present study addresses this oversight by drawing from the social psychology literature on the emotive and cognitive heuristics (e.g., the incidental emotion and availability biases) induced by human death and developing and testing a theory of how the death toll caused by natural disasters decreases new venture founding by inducing irresolvable uncertainty. Moreover, the study draws from research on how strong pre-disaster local participation in voluntary associations—by increasing the social, symbolic, cultural and material resources in a community—protects against such negative effects. Contributions to both the post-disaster venturing and the broader resiliency literatures are discussed.Executive summaryNatural disasters are on the rise, and the United Nations predicts that these phenomena will pose the single most important threat to social, political and economic stability in the upcoming decades. Entrepreneurship holds great promise for helping regions recover from the havoc wreaked by these events. However, much of the existing entrepreneurship research has not focused sufficiently on how the human death toll caused by natural disasters affects subsequent new venture creation. This is an important question because the existing psychology literature suggests that human death elicits disproportionately high negative individual reactions, which may lead prospective entrepreneurs in afflicted regions to stop or delay their plans to start new ventures, precisely at the time when those ventures are needed the most to help with regional recovery. This study fills this gap by examining how the death toll caused by natural disasters affect new venture creation in counties in the United States between 1991 and 2018. The study finds that the death toll caused by natural disasters in a county has a negative effect on post-disaster venturing in that county, but that strong pre-disaster participation in voluntary associations (e.g., the Girl Scouts, parent teacher associations, etc.) protects against this effect because it allows communities to work together to overcome the challenges posed by these deadly events. This last result highlights the importance that policymakers at every government level and local communities realize the critical role that local participation in voluntary associations prior to deadly disasters can have in fostering entrepreneurship after such events, thereby accelerating regional recovery.

Flattening the curve: voluntary association participation and the 2013-16 West Africa Ebola epidemic.

To what extent does voluntary association participation correlate with reduced Ebola duration in districts of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone during the epidemic in West Africa in 2013-16? This study, the first cross-national quantitative analysis of Ebola outcomes across these countries, answers this question by investigating how social capital influences epidemic outcomes. Ebola virus disease struck along the borders of three countries with similar levels of human development as well as cultural practices, yet resulted in different outcomes. This study examines the role of social trust, political trust, voluntary association participation, religious organisation membership, and community meeting attendance in explaining international policy failure to reduce Ebola outcomes. Overall, in districts with a culture of raising issues and participating in voluntary and religious organisations, Ebola duration rates were lower. These findings have implications not only for health crisis response, but also for disaster response and the provision of international aid to civil society.

Who Stays Involved? A Longitudinal Study on Adolescents’ Participation in Voluntary Associations in Germany

AbstractThe extent to which people are active in voluntary associations varies with age. While previous research provides clear evidence for an inverse u-shaped pattern across an adult’s life, much less is known about the formative period of adolescence and young adulthood. In this article, we examine changes in voluntary participation starting at age 14 and assess the impact of adolescents’ educational transitions and their socioeconomic status. Our analyses rely on longitudinal survey data following a representative sample of adolescents in Germany (N = 5,013) over 6 years. Using fixed effects regression and moderated mediation analyses, we examine how adolescents’ educational transitions and their socioeconomic status drive changes in participation. Results indicate a substantive decline in participation as individuals grow older. Transitions into higher tertiary education partly account for this decline. Finally, we find that adolescents from higher socioeconomic status are especially likely to reduce their participation, in part because they are more likely to undergo transitions into higher tertiary education. These findings suggest that the socioeconomic gap in participation decreases as adolescents grow older.

Voluntary Association Participation and White Ethnic Diversity in Rural Iowa Communities

Membership in voluntary associations is of core importance to civil society. In this study, I build on the large literature that focuses on how community racial/ethnic diversity affects individuals’ joining of—and participation within—voluntary associations. The central focus is on White ethnicity or European ancestry, which I analyze using the 2004 Iowa Community Survey and 2000 U.S. Census data. I find that White ethnic diversity is associated with fewer overall memberships and less frequent participation, with differing effects for various large groupings of voluntary organizations. I close our study by discussing the implications of my findings for organizations and the broader community.

Voluntary Association Involvement and Political Participation in South Korea

Abstract While studies suggest that voluntary association involvement leads to more political participation in the U.S. and European countries, the relationship remains debatable in new democracies. Using the Current Social Integration Survey from 2015 to 2018 in South Korea, this study examines the relationship between voluntary association engagement and participation in political activities based on the social capital theory and explores whether the results vary by the types of voluntary associations and multiple memberships in the associations. The results suggest that memberships in voluntary associations are positively associated with voting and engagement in political activities. Additionally, only memberships in certain types of associations are related to voting and engagement in political activities.

Civic Engagement, Legal Status, and the Context of Reception: Participation in Voluntary Associations among Undocumented Immigrants in California

For undocumented immigrants, processes of integration are contingent on the qualities of their local context. A lack of legal status may require them to strategically manage their presence in order to avoid detection that could lead to deportation. The authors ask how the need to mask one’s legal status affects the civic integration of undocumented immigrants. Drawing primarily on data from the California Health Interview Survey, the authors estimate the probability of participation in voluntary associations for undocumented immigrants. They naturalized immigrants and find that undocumented immigrants exhibit a lower rate of participation but that this low rate of participation is unlikely the result of their legal status. The findings also show that undocumented immigrants are less likely to participate in voluntary associations if they live in counties where large shares of voters cast votes for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.

Erratum to “Civic Engagement, Legal Status, and the Context of Reception: Participation in Voluntary Associations among Undocumented Immigrants in California”

Erratum to “Civic Engagement, Legal Status, and the Context of Reception: Participation in Voluntary Associations among Undocumented Immigrants in California”

Associational Life and 'the Dark Side' of Social Capital in South Africa: A Quantitative Analysis of Anti-immigrant Behaviour

Non-institutionalised anti-immigrant activity is a growing problem in many parts of the world, including Africa, and sometimes this activity can turn violent. Strengthening and reinvigorating associational life can seem like a panacea for this particular problem. Despite the theoretical expectations of the neo-Tocquevillian approach, however, the empirical evidence for a statistical relationship between associational involvement and tolerance is contested. In this article, the author looks at the relationship between participation in voluntary associations and engagement in a range of different xenophobic activities in South Africa. In the last twenty years, there have been a series of anti-immigrant incidents in that country. Nationally representative public opinion data from the 2017 round of the South African Social Attitudes Survey (N= 3098) was used for this study. The author shows that the frequency of associational involvement has a positive effect on public participation in a range of anti-immigrant behaviours. These empirical results contribute to our understanding of the ‘dark side’ of social capital and challenge existing assumptions about the formation of societal tolerance in an African setting. The outcomes of this study provoke some serious questions about how we can build more tolerant societies and have significant implications for anti-xenophobia interventions.

Youth Political Participation in Russia: Influence of Voluntary Associations

Studying the reasons for youth political participation, and how young people get involved in political activities is an important issue for both developed and developing countries. Research in this area started from general tendencies and then moved to specific country factors. The purpose of this research is to determine the relationship, in Russia, between participation in voluntary associations during education and political participation during adulthood. Previously, there was no research in this field for Russia. In the research non-parametric tests for K independent samples, descriptive statistics, logistical regression, and factor analysis were applied. The main data source is the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey. The key result is that involvement in voluntary associations during education, especially in political ones, positively affects future youth political participation. Education and income also have positive effects. Russia is generally similar to other countries, including developed, developing, and post-soviet ones. In post-soviet countries, the key interdependencies are similar to Russia, but not so clearly expressed. In Russia, employed young people vote with less probability than unemployed ones, whereas in Belarus we see the opposite.

Democratic Participation in Voluntary Associations: A Multilevel Analysis of Sports Clubs in Europe

Non-profit associations are usually democratically organized, and this feature plays a legitimizing role for the public support to associations. This article examines which characteristics at country level, organizational level and individual level can explain variations with regard to member engagement in the association democracy in sports clubs in Europe. The statistical analyses use data on 12,755 members from 642 sports clubs in ten European countries. The findings show that the majority of the members in sports clubs participate in the association democracy, but the level and form of engagement varies considerably. At the country level, no link between the democratic strength and quality of the countries on the one hand and member engagement on the other could be identified. Instead, characteristics at the organizational and individual level were found to be relevant. More concretely, (1) the size of the sports club, (2) the socioeconomic background of the members (gender, age and education), and (3) the way in which the members are involved in and affiliated to the club (engaged in voluntary work, participating in social activities, etc.) were found to be significantly correlated with the engagement of members in the association democracy.

Branding the Social: Leisure, Consumption, and the Corvette Community

<div><!--block-->This study explores the social world of Corvette car clubs and their membership based on social ties formed through common interests centered on consumption and leisure practice. This study contributes to the limited literature on brand communities that provide social capital in a postindustrial economy of intensified individualism that has experienced a decline in participation in voluntary associations. I address these factors through the framework of Robert Putnam’s classification of ‘bridging’ social capital or weak social ties that can be good for getting ahead. The cultural significance of the Corvette as America’s sports car is used as a unit of analysis in this ethnographic study of the brand community and its role in creating social capital for its members. The broad implication of this research reveals how the meaning assigned to consumer objects facilitates strong social networks that are productive in constructing identity and cementing relationships among fellow consumers and their communities. Ethnographic research methods were employed to design this sociological research. The data for this study was taken from 30 structured interviews with Corvette enthusiasts and 18 months of participant observation research. This study will fill a gap in the research on brand communities as organized leisure structures that facilitate social capital and renewed civic engagement in the public sphere.&nbsp;</div>

한국인의 상향적 관계 형성 전략이 자발적 결사체 참여에 미치는 영향

한국인의 상향적 관계 형성 전략이 자발적 결사체 참여에 미치는 영향

Do non-EU immigrants exhibit different patterns of participation in voluntary associations from those of natives and EU immigrants?

ABSTRACTThe paper analyses the level of participation in voluntary associations (measured by levels of joining and volunteering) of third-country nationals (TCN) in Luxembourg. We compare two groups of TCN (Cape Verdeans, and ex-Yugoslavians) with native residents and selected groups of EU immigrants. We use propensity score matching to estimate intergroup differences, while accounting for selection bias. The largest differences are found between TCN and their native Luxembourg counterparts. Specifically, TCN, on average, engage less in associations compared with native-born residents. These variations are greatest regarding membership of and volunteering in expressive associations. A similar situation is uncovered when comparing TCN with French immigrants. No substantial differences are found between TCN and immigrants of Portuguese origin.

Extracurricular Involvement in High School and Later-Life Participation in Voluntary Associations.

Scholars have identified participation in voluntary associations as a central component of civic engagement for younger and older people alike. However, there has been little longitudinal examination of how such participation potentially fluctuates across multiple periods of the life course, as well as the extent to which involvement in youth is associated with participation in later life. We used data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study-which is among the oldest and most comprehensive cohort studies in the United States to date. Respondents reported their voluntary association participation periodically between the ages of approximately 36 and 72 years. Data collected from high school yearbooks were used to examine whether histories of extracurricular involvement in adolescence were associated with patterns of voluntary association participation across adulthood. Results from growth curve models indicated that, on average, voluntary association participation peaked in midlife and declined into the 60s and early 70s. Nevertheless, levels of participation were consistently higher among individuals with greater extracurricular involvement in high school, and the rate of decline in participation from midlife to young-old age was also less steep for these individuals. Findings support conceptualizing voluntary association participation among older adults as part of life course trajectories of participation, with influences originating as early as adolescence.

Fostering Democracy? Associations and Local Politics in Nineteenth-Century The Hague

This case study of the Dutch residential capital of The Hague explores the relationship between nineteenth-century associational life and local politics, testing the well-known argument of scholars such as Robert Putnam, that high numbers and high levels of participation in local voluntary associations are often positively correlated with processes of local political democratization. A quantitative analysis of (double) membership in the city's most prominent social clubs and cultural associations, and a qualitative analysis of the political culture within these clubs, offer a better understanding regarding why the impact of a vibrant local associational culture on local democracy has not always been as positive as political scientists have often tended to assume.

Religious Service Attendance and Volunteering

Despite methodological advances in studying the relationship between religious attendance and volunteering, its dynamic nature still needs to be elucidated. We apply growth curve modeling to examine whether trajectories of religious attendance and volunteering are related to each other over a 15-year period in a nationally representative sample from the Americans’ Changing Lives data (1986-2002). Multivariate results showed that the rates of change in religious attendance and volunteering were positively related, and excluding religious volunteering did not alter the finding. It was also found that the initial level of religious attendance was positively associated with the rate of increase in volunteer hours over the period. Mediation analyses revealed that participation in voluntary associations explained the dynamic relationships between religious attendance and volunteering. These results provide evidence that involvement in organized religion and volunteering are dual activities that change together over the adult life course.

La partecipazione associativa in Italia: un confronto tra diverse surveys

Social participation is considered not only an important resource for society, but also an indicator of social capital. Thus, bearing in mind these features, this paper analyses the trend of the associative participation in Italy. The data used come from different international surveys, such as Eurobarometer, ESS and EVS, and also data from the Italian survey Istat (Aspects of daily life). Particular attention is paid to people who are more than 50 years old in the SHARE survey. The results confirm previous studies: a reduction of participation in trade union and political party membership, and a stable situation with regard to the participation in voluntary associations. The conclusions point out some possible pathways to follow in order to develop the analysis of the social participation.