Beyond Membership: A Sense of Community and Political Behavior

Abstract

Why does community matter for political participation? In this paper, I consider how community psychology, particularly ''sense of community'' can be used to address questions of political behavior. Individuals' perceptions about their significance in a given community can have meaningful effects on the way in which communities influence politics. Using a unique survey instrument designed to capture individual's perceptions of community connectedness and political behavior across five contexts (workplace, church, associations, neighborhood, and circle of friends (i.e., an informal network) I analyze data from 822 respondents and examine how sense of community influences two types of political behavior: voting in local elections and political discussion. The empirical analyses presented demonstrate that sense of community contributes to explaining voting and discussion, even after controlling for demographic, personality, and other political factors.Keywords Political psychology Á Sense of community Á Political behavior Á Contexts A long time ago I was in the ancient city of Prague and at the same time Joseph Alsop, the justly famous critic of places and events was there…Joe and I flew home to America in the same plane, and on the way he told me about Prague, and his Prague had no relation to the city I had seen and heard. It just wasn't the same place, and yet each of us was honest, neither one a liar, both pretty good observers by any standard, and we brought home two cities, two truths-John Steinbeck

Personality Traits and Political Participation: Evidence from South Korea

“…Another study in the United States (Gerber et al., ) confirmed these findings, and similar findings emerged in Uruguay and Venezuela (Mondak et al., ) and in Italy (Vecchione & Caprara, ). In spite of the seemingly consistent relationship between Extraversion and nonelectoral modes of political participation, Extraversion did not seem to predict voter turnout (Anderson, ; Gallego & Oberski, ; Mondak & Halperin, ; Mondak et al., ; Steinbrecher & Schoen, ). However, Mattila and his colleagues () observed a positive impact of Extraversion on self‐reported turnout, and furthermore, Gerber and his colleagues () reported Extraversion was, in fact, positively associated with validated, not self‐reported, turnout.…”

How ideological migration geographically segregates groups

“…This reduction in subjective well-being was mediated by the sense that they did not belong in that setting (Schmitt, Davies, Hung, & Wright, 2010). Lacking a sense of belonging appears also to impair academic and athletic performance, mental and physical health, and civic and political participation (Anderson, 2009;Leary, 2009;Major & O'Brien, 2005;Putnam, 2000;Sheldon & Bettencourt, 2010;Walton & Cohen, 2011). Some people have a means to resolve a lack of ideological fit between person and community; they can pack up and move.…”

Community organizations and sense of community: further development in theory and measurement

“…One early exception they noted was that of Hughey, Speer, and Peterson's (1999) study, which introduced a conceptual framework and measure, the Community Organization Sense of Community Scale (COSOC). The COSOC has since been frequently citied or applied by researchers in community psychology and other disciplines (e.g., Anderson, 2005;Black & Hughes, 2001;Blanchard & Markus 2004;Farrell, Aubry, & Coulombe, 2004;Halamova, 2001aHalamova, , 2001bHalamova, , 2002Herman, Onaga, Pernice-Duca, Oh, & Ferguson, 2005;Keough, 2003;Lizak, 2003;Maya Jariego, 2004;Nowacki, 2005;Ohmer, 2004;Omoto & Snyder, 2002;Perkins, Hughey & Speer, 2002;Peterson & Reid, 2003;Puddifoot, 2003;Wright, 2004;Yasuda, Hughey, Peterson, Saito & Kubo, 2007). For example, Keough (2003) applied the COSOC in a study of music bands in the United States, while Yasuda et al (2007) used the COSOC to study citizen participation in community organizations in Japan.…”