Understanding less-educated citizens’ (non-)participation in citizens’ initiatives: Feelings of entitlement and a taste for politics

Abstract

This article provides better understanding of less-educated citizens’ underrepresentation in citizens’ initiatives. Based on in-depth interviews with less-educated citizens in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, the study discerned that the concepts of ‘feelings of entitlement’ and a ‘taste for politics’ are crucial for understanding their (non-)participation. The study uncovered that sub-dimensions of these concepts occur in different combinations, yielding four ideal types of (non-)participation: retreating non-participation, rebellious participation, potentially cooperating participation and pragmatic non-participation. In addition to well-known explanations as lack of time, money, social capital and political knowledge, the findings underline the fruitfulness of an approach that enables to uncover citizens’ perspectives for understanding their (non-)participation in citizens’ initiatives. Contrary to conventional understanding, this research also shows that a lack of feelings of entitlement does not necessarily inspire a distaste for politics, and that distaste for politics stimulates non-participation for some, while it inspires others to become politically active.

An incongruous intervention: Exploring the role of anti‐institutionalism in less‐educated individual’s limited uptake of nutrition information

“…Such institutions "are infused with the implicit but distinctive assumptions, values and taken-for-granted knowledge of the middle class" (Ridgeway, 2014: 11), which especially breeds stigmatizing tendencies towards less-educated individuals and subsequently their anti-institutionalism (cf. Noordzij et al, 2021aNoordzij et al, , 2021cVisser et al, 2021).…”

“…in the fields of politics, science and health (Lamont, 2018;Noordzij et al, 2019;Noordzij et al, 2021a). This is illustrated most clearly in recent sociological studies on politics: compared with more-educated individuals, less-educated citizens are less likely to engage with politics (Laurison, 2016;Visser et al, 2021), and in case they do, they embrace its anti-establishment kind (Noordzij et al, 2021b). Either way, this proves largely informed by feelings of cultural distance from and perceived contempt by professionals in the political domain (Noordzij et al, 2021a(Noordzij et al, , 2021bVisser et al, 2021).…”

A revolt of the deplored? The role of perceived cultural distance in the educational gradient in anti‐establishment politics

“…Generally, we are convinced our explanation provides a valuable novel contribution to various debates on stratified patterns in political attitudes and behaviors, by being more sensitive to how lower-strata individuals perceive and relate to the (political) world themselves (cf. Laurison, 2015Laurison, , 2016Visser et al, 2021).…”

“…In addition to the impact it has on substantive representation, the diploma democracy likely also has extensive consequences for how citizens relate to the political domain (cf. Laurison, 2015Laurison, , 2016Visser et al, 2021). Compared to less-educated citizens, more-educated citizens are more likely to feel "like a fish in the water" (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1992, p. 127) in the political domain because their life-world is similar to those of many a politician.…”

Socioeconomic Status and Public Sector Worker Stereotypes: Results from a Representative Survey

“…At the same time, they may have less human capital and associated cognitive resources to deal with administrative burden (Christensen et al 2019), and in principle, the providers of those services can also deny them the services that they depend on. Additionally, qualitative research on citizen participation suggests that low‐status citizens perceive government officials to be haughty, and may feel that they are looked down upon by government officials (Visser, De Koster and Van der Waal 2021; see also Noordzij, De Koster and Van der Waal 2020). On top of that, scholars suggest that clients' status and class affect how they are evaluated and treated by public sector workers (Harrits 2018; Raaphorst and Groeneveld 2018).…”