Passive Membership Research Articles

Local and international prospective teachers’ perception on collaborative learning

Many EFL learners show higher achievement, feel more satisfied with their learning experiences, and display higher motivation to develop their English when they are engaged in collaborative learning. However, others display lack of contribution, low commitment, bad time management, and passive membership during the collaboration with other learners. In this case, teachers’ role is paramount to provide constructive feedback and supervise the learners to eliminate these potential issues. This research was conducted by involving both local and international EFL students in Indonesian context and addressed how local and international students of English Education at University of Muhammadiyah Malang (UMM) perceived group assignment. The research involved 7 international (Thai) students and 7 local (Indonesian) students, studying at English Education of UMM, academic year 2015. The instruments were questionnaires (likert scale and open-ended questions) and interview, which were anayzed using both quantitavie and qualitative method.This mixed method helped the researchers obtain comprehensive data and required information. The classified data was analyzed by calculating each item using descriptive statistic for close ended questions and descriptive interpretation for open ended questions and interview items. The investigation found that the students completely realized the positive effects of group work advancing their academic performance and developing their personal attitudes. Therefore, applying collaborative learning as a part of teaching activity in EFL context is highly encouraged to help learners perform better both academically and individually.

Newcomers as Potential Drivers of Union Revitalization: Survey Evidence from Belgium

Most people tend to join mainstream trade unions for instrumental motives and not so much for ideological reasons. This instrumentalism, together with the passivity of most union members, endangers members’ union loyalty and their willingness to act collectively. One possible way to de-emphasize the traditional model of service-oriented unionism and strengthen union commitment is to involve members in small union tasks. By partially assigning day-to-day union work to lay members, it is believed that over-stretched union representatives will be able to assign more time to implementing union policies of strategic importance. The article examines to what extent new union members are willing to voluntarily engage in union tasks inspired by organizing unionism. To test this empirically, an e-survey was conducted among first-time members of a Belgian union. Predominantly young, the respondents had been members of the union for maximum of seven years. Belgium is an interesting case for exploring how member-union ties can be boosted, as it is a quintessential example of a country with a high union density characterized by instrumental and passive membership. Following the deletion of cases with missing data, 518 observations are available for analysis. The dependent variable measures the organizing-oriented activism intent based on union tasks reflecting one-on-one organizing tactics for reaching out to potential members. A critical mass of 41.3% new members is (greatly) interested in at least one task. The regression results show that two variables derived from the planned behaviour theory significantly influence organizing-based union tasks: the pro-union context and behavioural self-control, with the latter in particular a very strong antecedent. Apart from the finding that a larger membership base is interested in performing organizing-oriented tasks, the results also, support a developmental view on union activism, i.e. a step-by-step approach to stimulating union activism via introducing various levels of union participation.

Enclave deliberation and common-pool resources: an attempt to apply Civic Preference Forum on community gardening in Hungary

By analysing experiences of a Civic Preference Forum organised for community gardeners in Hungary in 2017, our paper’s aim is twofold. We investigate if the Civic Preference Forum was an adequate format to enable discursive participation. Then we provide evidence on how this deliberative method can be applied on common-pool institution design gaining scientific knowledge about community gardening. Community gardeners, garden coordinators and experts were invited to the pilot Civic Preference Forum to share their experiences, problems, doubts, solutions, and opinions related to community gardening. First, the potential link between community gardening and deliberation is discussed and the method of Civic Preference Forum is introduced and placed among the deliberative and participative methods. Then by the lessons of the forum on community gardening it is demonstrated how the method can deliver insights for participants, decision-makers and academia. Participants’ preferences and wishes are analysed by applying and testing the criteria of discourse quality analysis. It is argued that the Civic Preference Forum fulfilled the criteria of equal and open discursive participation and the analytic dimensions of evaluating the discourse worked well in the case of a Civic Preference Forum. Enclave deliberations based on proximity may differ from collective identity-based ones in terms of composition and implications. The first may result intra-group discursive equality, while the second may provide inter-group equality. Beside the methodological findings, the explored positive and negative side effects and limitations of the methods, the forum delivered new scientific knowledge on community gardens as common-pool resources, which helps to better understand the mechanisms in community projects. We learned that community gardeners’ discourse was focused on such nodal themes as dependence and independence, monitoring and control, active and passive membership, equal and unequal participation, free riding and collective action, rules and norms of land cultivation and behaviour. Civic Preference Forum as a method enabled participants to clarify preferences, thematise problems and wishes as well as exchange ideas on possible solutions to them.

To sign or not to sign? Union strategies towards provincial metal sector agreements in the Catalan and Basque automotive industries

I compare collective bargaining in the Basque and Catalan automotive industries to show that since the early 2000s, two contrasting bargaining frameworks have emerged. The two largest Spanish unions have followed ‘top-down’ strategies in Catalonia, in which organizing the rank and file was secondary to signing the provincial agreement. This has created a relatively passive membership with little capacity to confront management. By contrast, the main Basque union refused to give priority to signing a provincial agreement and adopted a devolved strategy, resulting in higher unionization rates and more frequent strikes. I conclude, first, that union (renewal) strategies do in fact matter in the regulation of global industries and, second, that when unions modify their strategies, the organizational and bargaining dynamics also change, producing institutional configurations that embody new contradictions and dilemmas.

The Payoffs of Organizational Membership for Political Activism in Established Democracies

This article contributes to long-standing debates about the influence of voluntary association membership on political participation by drawing on recent advances in counterfactual analysis. Propensity score matching methods are used to assess the effects of different forms of membership (active and passive) in distinct organizational forms (civic and political) on political activism, taking selection bias into account. Results demonstrate that organizational membership increases levels of nonconventional political action—for active and passive members in both political and civic groups. The “participatory dividend” is highest for members of political organizations, but there is also support for the argument that membership in civic organizations enhances political activism, net of selection. Focusing only on the subset of joiners, however, suggests that the distinction between active and passive membership is less pronounced than skeptics of such symbolic affiliation have argued.

Peters’ Concept of ‘Education as Initiation’: Communitarian or individualist?

A central element of Richard Peters’ philosophy of education has been his analysis of ‘education as initiation’. Understanding initiation is internally related to concepts of community and what it may mean to be a member. The concept of initiation assumes a mutually interdependent, dynamic relationship between the individual and community that claims to be justified on cognitive, moral and practical grounds. Although Peters’ analysis is embedded in a different discourse, his insights are relevant to current discourse on the individual in community. A fruitful conversation can be developed between Peters’ account of the learner’s ‘initiation’ into ‘bodies of knowledge and awareness’ and Alasdair MacIntyre’s concept of ‘practices’; and how both assume a notion of ‘tradition’ within partly overlapping accounts of ‘community’. Secondly, I will consider how ‘initiation’ touches the concept of ‘social justice as membership’ developed by current philosophers, Michael Sandel and Michael Walzer, and what import Peters’ analysis has for different degrees of active and passive membership and participation. Thirdly, I will consider Charles Taylor’s ‘social imaginary’ as a contextual framework for processes surrounding ‘education as initiation’. This article does not argue that Peters’ concept of initiation cannot be contested at some points but rather that it can inform, and be informed by, the conversation with those who contend that community is itself a good essential for human flourishing.

Money Makes the World Go Round

In the current debate on social capital, a key issue relates to the growing popularity of more passive forms of involvement at the expense of active participation in voluntary associations. While some authors claim that this trend leads to a decline in social capital, others call for a reevaluation of the role of passive involvement. This article aims to contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between passive involvement and social capital. Using data from a representative survey of the Dutch-speaking population in Belgium, we assess the relationship between passive membership, financial support, and social capital. We find that financial support is a distinct form of participation that generates the strongest link with social capital. This indicates that voluntary associations, in addition to their socialization function, also perform an important representation function. This conclusion supports the institutional approach to social capital.

Criminal Prohibitions on Membership in Terrorist Organizations

The article analyzes prohibitions on membership in terrorist organizations and examines their justifiability. It begins by providing a definition of a terrorist organization. It then describes the far-reaching modern prohibitions on membership in terrorist organizations in various jurisdictions. The article goes on to provide a doctrinal analysis of membership offenses. Based on similarities with conspiracy doctrine, membership offenses are analyzed as expansions of attempt law or, in some cases, of complicity doctrines. The justifiability of this expansion is examined. The article introduces a distinction between exclusively terrorist organizations, passive membership of which can be legitimately prohibited under certain conditions, and ancillary and dual-purpose organizations, passive membership of which cannot be legitimately prohibited. Next, the justifiability of prohibiting more active forms of membership in each of these types of organizations is discussed. Last, guidelines for the legislation of appropriate prohibitions are proposed.

Voluntary Associations, Trust, and Civic Engagement: A Multilevel Approach

This article argues that the scope of the voluntary sector is more important than the activity level of members for the formation of social capital. The intensity and scope of 13 European voluntary sectors are analyzed on both the individual and aggregate levels. This reveals no additional effect of face-to-face contact (active participation) over passive membership. Thus, the primary mechanism of social capital formation in the voluntary sector cannot be socialization of individual members. Furthermore, effects at the aggregate level are much stronger than at the individual level. This indicates that social capital is constructed through institutional (macro), not social (micro) processes. It is not face-to-face encounters but awareness of strong and visible voluntary organizations in society that generate a belief in the utility and rationality of collective action. Thus, voluntary organizations institutionalize rather than generate social capital.

The CSCL community in its first decade: development, continuity, connectivity

Ten years of international CSCL conferences (1995–2005) provide an occasion to reflect on the formation of the CSCL community. Based on quantitative analysis of conference proceedings, lists of participants and program committee members, and on qualitative study of policies and motives, this paper offers insights into the growth of the CSCL community in its first decade. The analysis focuses on participation at different levels of the community. In particular, focus is on the continuity of active and passive membership, the geographical distribution, and the international connectivity of the community. Contrary to expectations, only a relatively small number of people have participated continuously in the community. Concerning the geographical distribution, we found that the community is increasingly international in conference participation, authors, and program committees. The international connectivity of the community is also increasing, which can be seen in a growing number of citations and co-authorships across different countries. In order to interpret the results of our quantitative study, we conducted a qualitative, e-mail-based survey. In this survey we wanted to elaborate the policy of the conference organization, the reasons for international co-authorships and the motivations for participation in CSCL conferences. We contacted 84 members of different target groups (organizers, members of international co-authorships, and randomly selected participants on different levels of participation). The findings are suggestive for the further development of the CSCL community.

Involvement in voluntary associations in North America and Western Europe: Trends and correlates 1981–2000

There is no lack of studies that point at discomforting trends in community life and citizens' social and political involvement in contemporary society. According to various indicators, Americans have become increasingly disconnected from their families, friends, neighbours and associations, leading to a decline of civic community and social trust and to more individual unhappiness. Similar developments are supposed to take place elsewhere. In this article we use data from the European and World Values Studies to address, for North America and Western Europe, (1) trends regarding voluntary associations, social trust, political involvement and happiness in the 1981–2000 period; (2) changing patterns and types of involvement in associations; and (3) macro and micro relationships between this involvement and political involvement, social trust and happiness. We find no general decline in these traits, no trend towards more passive membership, and only mixed evidence for positive connections between involvement, trust and happiness.

Individual Environmental Responsibility and its Role in Public Environmentalism

Individual environmental responsibility has been used by business and government in promoting public environmentalism through, for example, green consumerism, passive membership of environmental groups, and domestic recycling. Such responsibility has not yet been adequately addressed in academic work, although associated concepts of environmental concern, values, and behaviour have been studied in the last two decades. The author therefore looks at the role of environmental responsibility in public environmentalism and particularly at how this notion is articulated by individuals involved in a range of pro-environmental behaviours. Environmental responsibility is shown to be most significant where an individual believes in the efficacy of their pro-environmental behaviour and where the self is perceived to be a responsible agent compared with other social agents. The translation of this environmental responsibility into consistent behaviour proves to be complex and dependent upon the individual's social context as well as upon organised environmentalism.

Professional, Participative and Managerial Unionism: An Interpretation of Change in Trade Unions

This paper offers an interpretation of the changing servicing relationship between trade unions and their members in postwar Britain. Its central claim is that union servicing has passed through three main phases, to which the labels professional, participative and managerial unionism can be given. The professional servicing relationship was dominant from the 1940s to the mid‐1960s and was characterised by reliance on professional negotiators to service a largely passive membership. The participative relationship emerged in the 1960s and flourished in the 1970s and was marked by an activist conception of union membership and a supportive or facilitating role for union officialdom. The managerial servicing relationship emerged in the 1980s and is still coming clearly into view. At its core is a view of union members as reactive consumers whose needs must be continually tracked and responded to by trade unions drawing on the techniques and practices of strategic management.

Loneliness: Forms and Components

The article examines the forms and components of the sentiment of loneliness as experienced by widows living in an American metropolis. The forms include loneliness for the deceased husband as: an individual, an object of love, the person making the woman an object of love, a companion, someone whose presence organizes time and work, a partner in the division of labor, a source of status, and a source of life style. Loneliness is also experienced by widows because of strains in relations with married friends and of an inability to convert secondary relations into ones of greater depth. The very lonely are women socialized into passive membership in automatically encompassing groups, who now lack such relations. Other widows continue close relations or build new life styles solving many of the problems of loneliness.