Shape Civic Engagement Research Articles

Analysis of Dominant Factors Driving Civic Engagement on of the Bandung City Government’s Social Media

ABSTRACT Bandung as an urban area has a substantial population of social media users. However, civic engagement through the official social media platforms of the city government remains remarkably limited. The objective of this study was to scrutinize the core determinants influencing civic engagement on the social media platforms operated by the Bandung City Government. The research methodology employed a case study approach, complemented by a quantitative analysis of content sourced from their Instagram and Twitter (X) accounts. The findings elucidate three pivotal factors significantly shaping civic engagement on the Bandung City Government’s social media platforms that is particularly the presence of public service information; consistency of administrator responses to public interactions; and comprehension levels concerning the subject matter presented.

Tax morale and social capital: An empirical investigation among European citizens

AbstractDespite the extensive literature examining determinants of tax morale, little is still known about the relationship between the associational involvement of citizens and their willingness to pay taxes. Given the insights offered by the social capital literature regarding the role of voluntary organizations in shaping civic engagement, this study empirically investigates how membership of different types of associations could influence individual tax morale in Europe. With this in mind, we exploit the information available in the fifth wave of the European Values Study for citizens of 34 countries. Unlike previous studies on tax morale, we classify the types of voluntary associations depending on their potential to build out‐group “bridging” or in‐group “bonding” social ties. In this study, to carry out the classification, three alternative approaches are considered which are based on the sociodemographic heterogeneity within associations, the interconnections between them, and a combination of both. Our findings show that, after controlling for different individual characteristics and country‐specific unobserved heterogeneity, those survey respondents involved in bridging associations tend to exhibit higher levels of tax morale, while the opposite is found for bonding associations. The results are quite robust for the three approaches and different estimation strategies, including an instrumental‐variables methodology.

Crisis, Resilience, and Civic Engagement: Pandemic-Era Census Completion

How do economic shocks and financial resilience shape civic engagement, especially for the economically insecure? I turn to the early months of the coronavirus pandemic for insights. In April 2020, with more than 23 million adults unemployed, the US government asked residents to participate in the constitutionally mandated decennial census. I test how variations in income shocks from the shutdown and sources of financial resilience predict disparities in census completion, a civic act designed to minimize participation barriers. First, I use nationally representative survey data to demonstrate that policies that protect the economically vulnerable from the full impacts of economic shocks also predict higher census completion rates. Then, I use Google Trends data to show that high unemployment search volume interacted with low resilience to predict depressed census completion. Findings shed light on how economic crises can widen participation gaps—with representation and resource consequences—and how policies that lessen acute economic shocks may reduce participation disparities.

Religion and Support for Political Violence among Christians and Muslims in Africa

Researchers have found consistently that religion reduces criminal behavior. Yet rising levels of political violence are frequently attributed to a new wave of religious terrorism. Our study seeks to reconcile this apparent discrepancy by studying the attitudes of people living in 34 African nations. Using data from the Afrobarometer survey and mixed modeling, we examine the influence of individual and collective religiosity for shaping civic engagement and willingness to engage in political violence. While individual religiosity decreases support for violent political action, collective religiosity increases it. The effects of religiosity are the same for Muslims and Christians and the country religious context minimally affects residents’ civic engagement and interest in violent political behavior. Our study underscores the importance of the theoretical and empirical distinction between individual and collective religiosity and offers insight into how civic engagement can be a pathway through which religion shapes support for political violence.

Social Media as a Public Values Sphere

This article presents a schematic illustrating the role of social media in adjudicating public values. Such values reflect the expectations, entitlements, and civic relationships among as well as between citizens and public institutions. Such tools have become more influential in shaping civic engagement, civic identity, and political discourse—all of which reflect public values. The schematic illustrates that the advent of a current event with implicit public values will initiate several types of communication among social media users: antagonistic, critical, affirming, action-oriented, and indoctrinating. Subsequently, public values will either change, become further entrenched or new ones will emerge through coalescence, divergence, or emergence.

The Internet, Social Capital, and Civic Engagement in Asia

In this paper, we seek to explain (1) how the rise of Internet communication is related to the level of social capital and (2) the role of internet and social capital in shaping civic engagement in Asia. We use cross-national public opinion data of thirteen Asian countries from 2010 to 2012 to investigate these questions. Our results show that social capital is still measured best by traditional membership in social organizations. While the Internet increases social contacts, we could not find evidence that social capital is directly increased by the Internet. We also find that social capital developed through voluntary participation in social organizations most effectively promotes civic engagement activities, except for non-electoral actions that involve joining a demonstration or using violence. Internet usage turns out to be the most effective means of civic engagement for these cases.

Social media effects on fostering online civic engagement and building citizen trust and trust in institutions

This paper tests the extent to which social media is shaping civic engagement initiatives to build trust among people and increase trust in their institutions, particularly the government, police and justice systems. A survey of 502 citizens showed that using social media for civic engagement has a significant positive impact on trust propensity and that this trust had led to an increase in trust towards institutions. Interestingly, while group incentives encouraged citizens to engage online for civic matters, it is civic publications through postings on social media that intensify the urge of citizens for civic action to address social issues. Post-hoc analysis via ten interviews with social activists was conducted to further examine their perceptions on trust towards institutions. The overall findings suggest that institutions, in their effort to promote a meaningful and trusting citizen engagement, need to enhance trust among the public by fostering social capital via online civic engagement and closing the public–police disengagement gap.

Elaine B.Sharp2012: Does Local Government Matter? How Urban Policies Shape Civic Engagement. Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press.

The article reviews the book Does Local Government Matter? How Urban Policies Shape Civic Engagement, by Elaine B. Sharp.

Does local government matter?: how urban policies shape civic engagement

Does local government matter?: how urban policies shape civic engagement

Does Local Government Matter?: How Urban Policies Shape Civic Engagement. By Alaine B. Sharp. (University of Minnesota Press, 2012.)

<i>Does Local Government Matter?: How Urban Policies Shape Civic Engagement</i>. By Alaine B. Sharp. (University of Minnesota Press, 2012.)

Linking Dimensions of Internet Use and Civic Engagement

Given scholars' concerns with media influences on civic life, it is not surprising that researchers have begun to focus on how the Internet may enhance or erode levels of civic engagement. Collectively, however, these studies are rife with inconsistencies in the explication and operationalization of the predictor variable, Internet use. This study investigates the role of Internet use in shaping civic engagement, looking specifically at multiple conceptualizations and measurements. Results from a community study (N = 301) indicate nuanced relationships between dimensions of Internet use and forms of civic engagement. These relationships are discussed in light of citizens' use of more traditional media.