Broadening political participation: The impact of socialising practices on young people’s action repertoires

Abstract

This study builds on the well-known civic voluntarism model of political participation. By doing this, we contribute to a political sociology of participation by refining the role of socialization in political engagement. We suggest that the action repertoires of young people engaging in politics can be narrower or broader owing to their previous embeddedness in certain social settings, which act as spheres of socializing practices. We focus more specifically on three socializing spheres: educational (schools), recreational (social clubs), and civic (community organizations). Our analysis, covering nine European countries, largely confirms our expectations. We find that active engagement in these spheres of socializing practices leads to a broader range of political activities in young people’s action repertoires. This holds in particular for the civic sphere. The findings provide a fresh look at the role played by socializing spheres, shifting the focus from the dichotomy between participation versus non-participation to an analysis of the breadth of participation.

Youth doing politics in times of increasing inequalities

“…In the paper on 'Broadening political participation: The impact of socialising practices on young people's action repertoires', by Holecz et al (2021), in this Special Issue, the focus is on looking at some of the expectations of the civic voluntarism model proposed by Verba and his collaborators to refine our understanding of the role of socialisation for political engagement. They suggest that embeddedness in certain social spheres and socialising practices -the educational, the civic, and the leisure spheres, that is, in schools, community organisations and social clubs -lead to a broader range of political activities among young people and more so for the civic sphere.…”

Patterns of (de)politicization in times of crisis: Swiss residents' political engagement, 1999–2020

“…On the one hand, increasing education levels (along with technological development) have given rise and access to highly qualified occupations, and have fostered involvement in various (mostly non-political) organizations. In turn, according to the "civic voluntarism model" (e.g., Verba et al, 1995;Schlozman et al, 2012;Holecz et al, 2022), the skills that people acquire in educational, professional and organizational settings are transferable to the political domain. On the other hand, rising educational levels and facilitated access to political information may also trigger a process of "cognitive mobilization" (Inglehart, 1977;Dalton, 1984;Berglund et al, 2005).…”

Diferencias de género en participación política de la juventud de la Unión Europea

“…Así, según Cazorla, Trujillo y García (2019), dentro de la primera categorización encontraríamos todas aquellas acciones imbricadas con el proceso electoral, mientras que la participación no convencional incluiría los boicots, las firmas de peticiones, el consumo político, entre otros Más allá de la categorización de cada mecanismo, la participación es atravesada por muy diversos factores. Así, la cultura política del país en que vivimos o el ciclo vital de cada persona influyen en cómo participamos; además, otros factores también tienen una influencia, como la longevidad de la democracia en que operamos (Holecz, Fernández y Giugni, 2022). La cultura política del sistema en que operamos será parte de lo que con-forme la ventana de oportunidad, junto con la estructura institucional, que perciba la ciudadanía para participar (García-Albacete, 2020).…”

“…Del mismo modo, conviene mencionar el efecto que tiene la generación en que nacemos y nos socializamos, dado que cada generación adquiere una identidad colec-tiva diferenciada que moldea también su participación política (Holecz, Fernández y Giugni, 2022). En relación con este factor contextual se encuentra otro factor de la misma índole, la "edad" de la democracia en que se vive.…”

“…Conforma las características de la ciudadanía dentro del sistema político. El aprendizaje político tiene lugar desde etapas de desarrollo muy tempranas, si bien es cierto que la adolescencia y juventud se vienen considerando como las etapas clave en la definición de nuestras actitudes y comportamientos políticos posteriores (Jennings, 1979;Holecz, Fernández y Giugni, 2022).…”