scholarly journals Young Rebels Who Do Not Want a Revolution: The Non-participatory Preferences of Fridays for Future Activists in Finland

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janette Huttunen
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Representative Democracy ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
News Sources ◽  
Traditional Authorities ◽  
Representative System ◽  
Politically Active

Young people’s lack of participation in elections has been taken as a sign that the young are wary of representative democracy and reject traditional authorities. Instead of election participation, it is expected that the young want more possibilities for direct involvement in political decision-making. Fridays for Future (FFF) is a global, youth-led climate movement that has been able to mobilize millions of young people around the world into political action (de Moor et al., 2020; Wahlström et al., 2019) in times when youth participation is generally declining, especially in traditional forms of political participation. While many have taken this as evidence that young people dismiss representative democracy in favor of a more participatory democracy, in-depth studies of their motivations are still lacking. This article helps fill this lacuna by providing a case study on Finnish FFF participants. Through semi-structured interviews and theory-guided content analysis with 15- to 20-year-old climate activists, the Finnish FFF participants’ attitudes toward political participation are examined. The data consists of 11 one-on-one in-depth theme interviews with young people, who participated in the FFF movement by attending at least one protest in Finland in 2019. The interviews focused on the following themes: motivation for participation in the FFF movement, interviewee’s background, and the participant’s ideas regarding politics, democracy, and political participation. The interviews were combined with material from various news sources to contextualize the information in the analysis phase. Based on the empirical evidence, I argue that although these young citizens have become politically active in a climate protest movement, it does not necessarily mean that they want major reforms to the representative democracy toward a more participatory system. Instead of more participatory possibilities, the Finnish climate activists want a better-functioning representative system with politicians who listen to their demands.

The Internet, Political Participation and Election Turnout: A Case Study of Germany's www.abgeordnetenwatch.de

2010 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 156-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hartwig Pautz
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
East Germany ◽  
Representative Democracy ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Parliamentary Democracy ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Political Decision Making

Germany's parliamentary democracy appears to be in crisis. The major parties' membership is in decline and barely existing in East Germany, election turnout is decreasing at all levels, and the reputation of politicians has never been worse. At the same time, however, Germans are more interested in politics than in the 1990s, overwhelmingly support democracy, and are keen on participating particularly in local political decision making. Out of this situation emerged www.abgeordnetenwatch.de— a website that aims to re-establish the link between electors and elected by allowing voters and representatives to communicate via a publicly accessible question-andanswer structure. This article addresses the questions of whether such an instrument can revitalize representative democracy and whether it has done so in the context of the 2009 federal elections.

scholarly journals Women in Politics in Matrilineal Society: A Case Study of West Sumatra, Indonesia

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Selinaswati Selinaswati
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Local Politics ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Community Leaders ◽  
Women In Politics ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Female Politicians ◽  
West Sumatra ◽  
Women's Political Participation

Studies of women in politics have mostly been done within patriarchal socialstructures around the world. These studies show that women have many potentialopportunities to become involved in public life; as voters in elections, like politicalcandidates, and if successful as members of the administrative class or asMembers of Parliament (MPs). However, female politicians may be affected byseveral factors within the social, economic, political and cultural systems. Thisthesis examined whether the matrilineal social structure of the province of WestSumatra, Indonesia, influences women’s political participation in localparliaments. West Sumatra is dominated by the Minangkabau ethnic group,which has a matrilineal tradition that provides more opportunities for women interms of property ownership and non-household activities. It was assumed thatwomen who were involved in local politics would be affected by these culturalvalues.This research was a case study. Three categories of informants, femalepoliticians, community leaders, and voters, were interviewed to identify thestrategies and experiences of female politicians and the diversity of opinionregarding female politicians in this matrilineal society. Data was obtainedthrough fieldwork carried out from July to October 2012 in West Sumatra.During this period, in-depth, semi-structured interviews were carried out inlocations where female politicians had been elected to the local parliament.Additional information was obtained from 17 voting members of the publicthrough the use of a questionnaire. Secondary data were obtained fromgovernment documents and local parliaments, online resources, institutions, andorganizations.The study found that the matrilineal system in West Sumatra inspired femalepoliticians in their efforts to gain a seat in parliament. However, they alsoexperienced disadvantages in the matrilineal and Indonesian political system. Itwas found that the opinions of community leaders toward female politicianswere largely neutral and saw female politicians as compared to male ones. Thevoting public tends to have less knowledge about female politicians and viewedthem as not significantly better than male politicians. The study concludes thatthe matrilineal structure of West Sumatran society does not have much impacton women’s political participation and female politicians can benefit byimproving their capabilities in order to win a seat in parliament. Additionally,the Indonesian government might play a role in bridging the gap between lowand high-level political participation by women and develop ways to includeaspects of local culture such as the matrilineal system into its policies that relateto political autonomy at the regional level.

Young Immigrants’ Internet Political Participation in Germany

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Viktoria Spaiser
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Statistical Models ◽  
Internet Use ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
East European ◽  
Internet Users ◽  
Politically Active ◽  
Young Immigrants

This paper discusses the results of research on young immigrants’ political participation on the Internet in Germany. The research focuses on young people from Turkish and East European backgrounds. The interrelation between offline political activities and online political participation is explained and the differences between the two groups are examined. While young German Turks are particularly politically active Internet users, young German East Europeans are rather hesitant about using the Internet for political purposes. Statistical models show that young German Turks’ political Internet use is motivated by grievances, while young German East Europeans’ political Internet use is motivated by sentimental pessimism and world-weariness.

Online game playing as a political mobilizer: Gamers’ communication environment

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Chang Won Jung
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Community Involvement ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Democratic Citizenship ◽  
Game Playing ◽  
Analysis Model ◽  
News Sources ◽  
Community Belonging ◽  
Participatory Behavior

To illuminate gamers' political participation in democratic citizenship, I examined the prosocial role of online gaming and gamers' political action through the concept of gamers' communicative ecology, using an online survey of Korean adult gamers (N = 1,362) and a path analysis model. I found that gamers participated not only because of their personal interest in the gaming world, but also to engage in real politics. The results showed that (a) augmented reality game playing had a unique mobilization role; (b) exposure to game news via in-game news sources played an important role in political participation; (c) community involvement and, regardless of the subject matter, game discussion, were critical indicators of participatory behavior; and (d) culturally constructed shared understandings (affective ties), and sense of community belonging fostered participation. Political and theoretical implications are discussed.

scholarly journals Exploring how employment schemes for young offenders aid desistance from crime

2020 ◽  
pp. 026455051990023
Author(s):  
Rebecca Jayne Oswald
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Young People ◽  
Work Group ◽  
Young Offenders ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Criminal Justice Involvement ◽  
History Of ◽  
Desistance From Crime

Criminological literature investigating the association between employment and desistance presents largely mixed findings. This article uses the Skill Mill employment scheme for young offenders as a case study to advance our understanding of how participating in work programmes can influence youth reoffending. Participant observations and semi-structured interviews were conducted with young attendees of the scheme and their supervisors. The findings suggest that employment schemes that offer remuneration, that influence how attendees are perceived by others, that encourage friendships between individuals with a history of criminal justice involvement and that employ supervisors who manage the dynamics of the work group and support young people to change can aid desistance.

scholarly journals Politically Active Youth: Strategies of Political Participation in the Context of the Social Future Image

2019 ◽  
pp. 88-101
Author(s):  
Yana Didkovskaya ◽  
Dmitriy Trynov
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Young People ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Conflict Behavior ◽  
Important Indicator ◽  
Government Organizations ◽  
The Social ◽  
Politically Active

The research focuses on a certain aspect of political activity of young people – the image of the social future. The target sector is young people who actively manifest themselves in the social and political sphere: pro-government and opposition-minded groups of young people. The image of the social future is considered as one of the key components of the social well-being of young people reflecting their ideals and expectations. At the same time, the choice of the strategy of active political involvement of young people is analyzed through the prism of subjective states – mood, well-being, expectations. Two groups of respondents took part in the survey: activists of pro-government organizations, as well as regional youth parliaments, governments, youth public chambers (n = 300); representatives of modern youth protest, primarily volunteers of the "Progress party" and "Libertarian party" (n = 300). Ccomparing the images of the desired and expected future of politically active youth, a mismatch between their social ideals and the expected direction of events in the future was revealed. It mainly concerns the prospects for economic development and is much more pronounced among opposition activists. For opposition youth, the contradiction between the desired and expected future, in addition to the dissonance in economic development, affects the sphere of legal relations: an important landmark is a humanistic society tolerant of minorities, and the most likely expected event is the restriction of the rights and freedoms of citizens. The imbalance between social ideals and social expectations causes pessimistic attitudes among young people and dissatisfaction with the current situation in various spheres of life. Such circumstances of the choice of the strategy of political participation as orientation to the social ideal, ideological and political identification, readiness for conflict behavior are revealed. All of them simultaneously act as watershed lines between groups of pro-government and opposition activists. The image of the social future determines the choice of the strategy of political participation implemented by young people. "Active adaptation", more typical for a group of pro-government youth, involves the use of the mechanisms proposed by the authorities to engage them in politics. The "activist-protest" strategy is implemented by opposition-minded youth, its important indicator is the willingness to go to conflict in various life situations. As a forecast, the authors put forward the following thesis: with the declining level of social well-being, among politically active youth, the number of transitions from state-approved forms of political participation to protest ones will increase.

scholarly journals The Impact of Uncertainty Money Growth on the Economic Growth of South Asian Countries during 2004-2016

2019 ◽  
pp. 29-42
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Political Action ◽  
The Political ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Government ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Impact

Political culture, as a part of public culture and a group of beliefs, virtues, norms and approaches with views to the political area, is one of the basic issues which has been paid attention and the subject of many researches, especially since the second half of the 20th century. The topic of this article is studying Afghanistan political culture as well as answering the question of which impacts it has had on Afghanistan political participation during the after-2001 years. Also, in this research, by using an analytic-descriptive method, at first, the definition of political culture and its features in Afghanistan are presented and then, the occurred changes in the indexes of Afghanistan political coopetation in the recent decades are studied too. Political culture, as the system of empirical beliefs, symbols, virtues and the norms, which are regarded as the foundation of political action and the political behaviours of the public people, parties and the government officials is one of the basic issues which has been considered and studied by many experts of politucal area for the recent era. The continuity and strength of any any kinds of cooperations depends on the society political culture origin as it is a very important factor for defining the political social identity of the public members and determining their views, virtues and norms toward politics and authority. Moreover, in this study, at first,the level of changes in the last-two-decade political culture of Afghanistan society is discussed and then its impact on political participation is analysed through explaining the tie between beliefs and behaviours as well as a case study over the political cooperarion increase.

scholarly journals Social Media: A Breeding Ground for Energy or Apathy?

Perceptions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Liana King
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Political Activism ◽  
Effect Change ◽  
Social Media Networks ◽  
Political Tension ◽  
False Sense ◽  
Politically Active

Due to increased political tension this past year, social media networks have become common outlets for people to express their political ideals and call others to action. The narcotizing dysfunction theory, developed by Paul Lazarsfeld and Robert Merton in 1948, states that people can substitute knowledge for action as a result of being inundated by mass media about polarizing issues. It seems worth investigating whether social media parallels this theory and, at a point, stops serving as a means to effect change. Does posting about political and social issues create a false sense of political activism, contributing to decreased political participation? To explore this question, a survey administered to 160 participants examined their behavior on social media, political participation, and perceived political activeness. The results showed that those who considered themselves politically active read and posted about political/social issues on social media at a higher rate than which they took tangible political action. From this data, it was concluded that social media plays a role in narcotizing the participants of the survey by providing a passive alternative to active participation. The implications of this trend are detrimental to our democracy in a time when political participation is exceedingly low.

Non-electoral Participation

2020 ◽  
pp. 469-489
Author(s):  
Jan W. van Deth
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Representative Democracy ◽  
Electoral Participation ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Politically Active ◽  
Levels Of Support

Does the rise of non-electoral forms of participation affect the functioning of liberal democracies and institutionalized representation? Because every form of participation is biased against less privileged parts of the population the main aspects of unequal political participation are considered. Are participants the better democrats? The findings suggest that the rising levels and expanding repertoires of non-electoral participation do not provide a cure for biased representation. Yet the politically active parts of the population consistently show much higher levels of support for core principles of representative democracy than found among citizens who only cast a vote or do not participate at all.

scholarly journals Dalyvavimas internete: politiškai aktyvus jaunimas ir jo komunikacija socialinėse medijose

2012 ◽  
Vol 59 ◽  
pp. 105-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lina Auškalnienė
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Young People ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Online Communication ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Communication Practice ◽  
Democratic Engagement ◽  
Politically Active

Informacijos ir komunikacijos technologijų plėtra yra viena pagrindinių charakteristikų, apibūdinančių socialinius, kultūrinius, ekonominius XXI a. demokratijos procesus. Fundamentalūs kaitos procesai veikia ir politikos komunikacijos sritį – neišvengiama pokyčių, įsitraukia nauji veikėjai, naudojami nauji įrankiai, kinta komunikacijos įpročiai. Šio straipsnio tikslas – apžvelgti literatūrą, kurioje nagrinėjami iššūkiai bei galimybės, siejamos su piliečių įsitraukimo bei politinio dalyvavimo praktikomis socialiniais tinklais ir ryšiais grindžiamoje virtualiojoje erdvėje. Straipsnyje taip pat pristatomas bandomasis tyrimas, analizuojantis politiškai aktyvių jaunų žmonių demokratinio įsitraukimo praktikas socialinėse medijose. Keliami klausimai aktualūs ir ateities tyrimams bei diskusijoms: ar socialinės medijos galėtų tapti patraukliu kanalu, prisidedančiu aktyvinant jaunų auditorijų politinio bei pilietinio dalyvavimo praktikas?Assessing participation online: Youth and Their Involvement in Social MediaLina Auškalnienė SummaryThe role of political participation and civic engagement as the backbones of modern deliberative democracy is challenged by new opportunities for involvement online. Fundamental societal transformations, facilitated by new technologies, are changing the way we interact, communicate, produce and exchange knowledge. By nature being a bottom-up experiment, social media are more and more involved into the everyday communication practice and become one of the major political communication channels.The purpose of this paper is to review the literature analysing the democratic citizens’ engagement and political participation in the era of the Internet, particularly focusing on the involvement of young people in the decision-making process. Moreover, a pilot case study is presented, reflecting the practices of politically active young individuals in the online communicative space. The data available are analysed to shed some light on the debate and to focus attention on several aspects of youth participation. Looking further, the questions are raised: is the Internet an attractive channel to enhance political interest and discussion among the youngsters? What impact may online communication practice via social media have on civic and political participation of young people offline?Key words: social media, political participation, democratic engagement, political communication, Internet, youth

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