Do College Social Justice Activists Stop When They Graduate? Explaining Volunteer Activist Participation in a Life Course Transition

Abstract

Why does volunteer participation by college social justice activists decline dramatically following graduation? Using a new, multimethod longitudinal study that spans college and the early post-graduate years, I test existing theory about how changes in time constraints, social support, and organizational opportunities affect volunteer activist participation in social justice movements. Analyzing qualitative data from semi-structured interviews to further understand decreases in activism, I find no evidence showing that changes in time constraints or social support lead to changes in activist volunteering, but there is evidence to support the effects of organizational opportunities. Findings from the qualitative data further emphasize that activist opportunities are easier to access on college campuses, specifically because activism is physically convenient to the potential participant. Future research and practice should explicitly address the spatial proximity of potential activists to social movement opportunities, and should additionally remain sensitive to different needs of activists at different points in the life course.

Youth Attitudes and Participation in Climate Protest: An International Cities Comparison Frontiers in Political Science Special Issue: Youth Activism in Environmental Politics

“…Schussman and Soule ( 2005) suggest networks are important because "individuals rarely participate in social movement activities (such as protest) unless they are asked to do so'" (p.1086) and Walgrave and Wouters (2021) suggest social networks also play a role in validating participation. Existing research emphasizes the significance of organizational membership and civic skills for both developing networks and mobilizing activism (Horowitz, 2021). In addition, organizational membership may facilitate recruitment into protests because there is already a connection across some ideological dimensions, or in the way an issue is framed (De Vydt and Ketelaars, 2021).…”

Red Schools, Blue Schools? Republican and Democratic Student Groups at U.S. Colleges and Universities1

“…Third, we have not identified all conservative and liberal student organizations existing in the United States today. Many conservative college students are joining organizations such as Young Americans for Freedom, Young Americans for Liberty, Turning Point USA, and pro-life groups rather than College Republicans groups, and many liberal college students join left-wing activist groups devoted to specific social causes (Binder and Kidder 2022;Horowitz 2021;Ince et al 2018;Binder 2020, 2021;Munson 2010). Although other research has documented and explained the presence of other politicized groups-ranging from student shooting sports organizations (McElroy and Coley 2021) on the conservative end of the political spectrum to Students for a Democratic Society groups (Van Dyke 1998) and anti-sweatshop groups (Van Dyke et al 2007) on the liberal end of the political spectrum-future research could continue to examine the presence of other politicized student organizations and thus continue to address whether significant differences in the presence of conservative and liberal groups exist.…”

“…Third, we have not identified all conservative and liberal student organizations existing in the United States today. Many conservative college students are joining organizations such as Young Americans for Freedom, Young Americans for Liberty, Turning Point USA, and pro‐life groups rather than College Republicans groups, and many liberal college students join left‐wing activist groups devoted to specific social causes (Binder and Kidder 2022; Horowitz 2021; Ince et al. 2018; Kidder and Binder 2020, 2021; Munson 2010).…”

Cultivating responsible citizenship in a non-traditional degree program through a service-inclusive pedagogy

“…Universities, and class-based service-learning, play a key role in offering students for-credit (and community) opportunity to interface with these organizations. However, by the same tone, this university opportunity for engaging with volunteer efforts may be more important still given evidence that suggests the university is one of the only places within the wider U.S. context where activists and volunteers find support and convenient means to engage with volunteer efforts (Horowitz, 2021). The importance of service-learning and volunteer opportunity is similarly relevant to the building of social trust (i.e., the assumption that most people can be trusted) that is key to a functioning society.…”