More Participation, Happier Society? A Comparative Study of Civil Society and the Quality of Life

Wallace, Claire; Pichler, Florian

doi:10.1007/s11205-008-9305-9

Cited by 68 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…In contrast, civic participation in rural areas appeared to be generally at a lower level in the smallest settlement size category and showed inconsistent tendencies with the increase of a municipality's population size depending on the form of participation. A negative relationship between urbanization and civic participation was confirmed by an analysis of the European Social Survey that included data from 19 European countries [57]. In this analysis, suburbs, and in particular large cities, appeared to be negative, and country villages, and in particular countryside, to be positive predictors of civic participation, which was measured by the degree of involvement in 12 types of voluntary associations.…”

Section: Urbanization and Civic Participationmentioning

confidence: 63%

“…Further relevant individual predictors appeared to be home ownership [54], fulltime employment (negative), and length of residence [58]. The European Social Survey data that Wallace and Pichler [57] used for their study confirmed the role of the national or cultural context in the level of civic participation They found substantial differences between countries with high civic participation, such as Sweden, the Netherlands, Norway, Austria, and Denmark, and countries with low civic participation such as Spain, Portugal, Hungary, Poland, and Greece, which Lewicka [18] interpreted as a consequence of the value orientation (tradition vs. post-materialism) in these countries.…”

Section: Urbanization and Civic Participationmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…These include the clear rural community structure that facilitates mobilization; higher density of social interaction that enables social action; stronger interest in tangible implications of electoral outcomes (rather than in abstract politics); closer contact to decision makers; lower social mobility that is associated with higher salience of community loyalty; less pronounced pessimism about political processes that are disseminated by media; and stronger norms favouring active participation. Other studies that have considered the relationship between urbanization and civic participation have only included socio demographic data and consistently highlighted the positive influence of the education level and age [54,[57][58][59]. Further relevant individual predictors appeared to be home ownership [54], fulltime employment (negative), and length of residence [58].…”

Section: Urbanization and Civic Participationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A small study in an American county found a significant association between place attachment and involvement in community problem solving [52]. The European Social Survey [57] also disclosed a significant relationship between satisfaction with quality of life, which is considered a good indicator for place attachment, and participation in voluntary associations. Lewicka [18], however, in a large survey study in Polish and Ukrainian cities, found that inhabitants' neighbourhood ties, rather than their (overall) place attachment, influenced their civic involvement.…”

Section: Urbanization and Civic Participationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Implications of Urbanization for Inhabitants’ Relationship to Their Residential Environment

Buchecker

Frick

2020

Sustainability

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In the last decades, prosperous regions in Europe have experienced a tremendous rate of urbanization. In spite of considerable research efforts in the last decades, the socio-psychological implications of urbanization are still poorly understood. This paper aims to systematically determine the influence of urbanization on the relationships between inhabitants and their residential environment including their place attachment, place-satisfaction, civic participation, and proximity behavior. To achieve these goals, standardized cross-sectional questionnaires were administered to random samples (N = 1200 each) of the residential population in four study areas in Switzerland, which represent rural, peri-urban, suburban, and urban stages of urbanization. Statistical analysis revealed that place attachment was mainly influenced by the inhabitants' good experiences in the place, their sense of local community, their local social contacts, and the level of urbanization. A structural equation model (SEM) further showed that the degree of urbanization of the setting had a direct negative influence on place attachment, while place attachment appeared to be a key moderator of, and a main driver for, place-satisfaction, civic participation, and proximity behavior.A key to reducing negative impacts of urbanization is therefore to offer optimal opportunities for access to appropriate public places

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Section: Urbanization and Civic Participationmentioning

confidence: 63%

Section: Urbanization and Civic Participationmentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Urbanization and Civic Participationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Urbanization and Civic Participationmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The Implications of Urbanization for Inhabitants’ Relationship to Their Residential Environment

Buchecker

Frick

2020

Sustainability

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“…This permits us to examine the domain between individual subjective well-being and societal or national quality of life (Noll 2002) and allows the inclusion of local public services and indicators of downtown vitality into amenity determination. The majority of research on amenities is at the national level (for example, Diener and Suh 1997;Veenhoven 2005;Wallace and Pichler 2009), county level (Beale and Johnson 1998;Deller et al 2001Deller et al , 2005McGranahan 1999;Nord and Cromartie 1997;Veenhoven 2005), or commuter zone level of analysis (Goe and Green 2005). This is understandable given the greater availability of secondary data at these levels.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Community Amenity Measurement for the Great Fly-Over Zones

2011

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The purpose of this paper is to provide an alternative operationalization of amenities that does not privilege certain kinds of natural resources and climatic conditions and that can be used for assessing the quality of life in small towns. The amenity inventory presented here extends previous literature by including a broad range of amenities (natural resource, indoor and outdoor built recreational facilities, public and private services, and downtown amenities). The community level of analysis and small town focus are also unique. The inventory uses both secondary data from public sources and primary data that can be gathered by researchers or community residents. Therefore, in addition to the scholarly contribution of the inventory, the process of defining and assessing community amenities may be a valuable tool for building interpersonal relationships within communities, generating community spirit, and developing strategies for enhancing the local quality of life.

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The Fairness of National Decision‐making Procedures: The Views of Adolescents in 18 European Countries

Ellenbroek

Verkuyten

Thijs

et al. 2014

Community & Applied Soc Psy

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This study examines adolescents' evaluation of the fairness of three forms of democratic decisionmaking procedures (direct democracy, representative democracy and group representation) and one non-democratic procedure (oligarchy). Social dominance orientation-Egalitarianism (SDO-E), religious group identification and the countries' level of democracy are examined as predictors. The 2008 Europroject dataset was used, which contained 4441 native majority adolescents (mean age = 16.1 years) in 18 European countries. Adolescents evaluated direct democracy as most fair, followed by group representation, representative democracy and oligarchy. This rank order was found independent of the issue under consideration (moral or social), and of SDO-E and religious identification, and across the countries. In addition, adolescents scoring higher on SDO-E and on religious identification found group representation and non-democratic oligarchy fairer.This study examines how native majority adolescents (12-21 years) evaluate the fairness of different forms of societal decision making and whether these evaluations depend on the issue under consideration and on concerns about group relations. The focus is on the perceived fairness of decision-making procedures for moral and social issues and in relation to individual differences in social dominance orientation (SDO) (Sidanius & Pratto, 1999) and religious group identification. The perceived fairness of different forms of decision making is examined in 18 European countries and in relation to their level of democracy. Perceived fairness of national decision makingIn democratic forms of social organization, individuals have a say in decisions that affect them. These forms allow individuals to express their viewpoints themselves or through their elected representatives and to have an impact on the decisions that are made. Most societies have a system of regular elections through representative democracy or direct democracy (e.g. referenda) in which decisions are based on the majority of the entire population, whereas other countries have forms of ethno-cultural group representation. Thus, different forms of (non-)democratic procedures can be defined and in this study a distinction is made between four forms of decision making. The most extensive democratic form is a direct democracy (a referendum), and the non-democratic form is an oligarchy in which, for example, the elite or the culturally or religiously largest group makes the decisions. In between these two extremes are two forms of staged democracy in which people choose (group) representatives to make decisions.Young people acquire conceptions of the fairness of democratic and non-democratic procedures through experiences with, for example, decision making in their peer group and in schools (Print, Ornstrom, & Nielsen, 2002;Torney-Purta, 2002). In these situations, children and adolescents are likely to become familiar with procedures such as majority rule, and they develop an understanding of what is fair. In a number of studie...

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More Participation, Happier Society? A Comparative Study of Civil Society and the Quality of Life

Abstract: Subjective well-being, Quality of life, Satisfaction, Happiness, Quality of society, Good society, Participation in society, Voluntary associations, Civil society, European Social Survey, Multilevel analysis, Cross-national survey research,

Cited by 68 publications

References 22 publications

The Implications of Urbanization for Inhabitants’ Relationship to Their Residential Environment

The Implications of Urbanization for Inhabitants’ Relationship to Their Residential Environment

Community Amenity Measurement for the Great Fly-Over Zones

The Fairness of National Decision‐making Procedures: The Views of Adolescents in 18 European Countries

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