The Internet and Civic Engagement

Based on a survey, analyzes how socioeconomic status and other demographics correlate with online and offline political and civic engagement. Explores suggestions that younger generations' political use of social media may alter such patterns

Unequal at the Starting Line: Creating Participatory Inequalities across Generations and among Groups

Governmen

Citizenship beyond politics:the importance of political, civil and social rights and responsibilities among women and men

Previous research has suggested that men are more engaged as citizens than are women.Yet, little is known about gender cleavages across a variety of citizenship norms. To what extent do men and women define citizenship differently? To address that question, this study examines the importance men and women assign various citizenship rights and responsibilities using 2004 ISSP data from 18 Western, industrialized nations. Using a disaggregated approach to understanding definitions of citizenship, we examine political, civil, and social rights and responsibilities. After controlling for a variety of demographic and attitudinal influences, we find that men and women are not different in their views regarding the importance of political responsibilities. However, women do view political rights as significantly more important than do men. Further, in comparison to men, women view both civil and social responsibilities and rights domains as significantly more important

Increasingly unequal turnout in Eastern European new democracies: Communist and transitional legacies versus new institutions

The thesis examines whether income inequality in post-Communist Eastern Europe depresses political engagement or increases the potential for conflict and instability. The thesis finds that while overall income inequality is correlated with lower political engagement and political engagement is stratified by income, income inequality does not appear to depress political engagement among the poor in post-Communist Eastern Europe. I use multilevel modeling to examine mass survey data from the survey done by Professors Whitefield and Evans as part of an ESCR-funded project as well the World Values Surveys

Bridging the enduring gender gap in political interest in Europe: the relevance of promoting gender equality

Notwithstanding the improvement in gender equality in political power and resources in European democracies, this study shows that on average declared interest in politics is 16% lower for women than for men in Europe. This gap remains even after controlling for differences in men’s and women’s educational attainment, material, and cognitive resources. Drawing on the newly developed European Institute for Gender Equality’s (EIGE) Gender Equality Index (GEI) and on the European Social Survey (ESS)-fifth wave, we show that promoting gender equality contributes towards narrowing the magnitude of the differences in political interest between men and women. However, this effect appears to be conditioned by the age of citizens. More specifically, findings show that in Europe gender-friendly policies contribute to bridging the gender gap in political engagement only during adulthood, suggesting that childhood socialisation is more strongly affected by traditional family values than by policies promoting gender equality. In contrast, feminising social citizenship does make a difference by reducing the situational disadvantages traditionally faced by women within the family and in society for middle-aged people and above