Parenthood and civic engagement

In this chapter, Esther Muddiman draws on qualitative data from interviews with 20 parents of teenagers to explore how parenthood disrupts, complements and triggers various types of civic engagement. The chapter describes how becoming a parent can limit an individual’s ability to maintain their commitment to existing voluntary activities/associational memberships, disrupting previous ties to civil society. However, it also finds that parenthood provides new opportunities for engagement, especially via educational institutions and parental networks; and that the transition to parenthood itself can lead individuals to reflect on their own relationship to society and the values that they would like to pass on to their children: the desire to role-model ‘good citizenship’ within the family home can act as a gateway for participation in civically-minded practices.

Civic participation over the lifecourse

In this chapter. Christ Taylor draws on longitudinal data from the British Birth Cohort Studies to chart the changing patterns of civic and political participation over the adult lifecourse within the UK. The analysis shows how different stages of the life course – family formation, child-rearing and employment – have implications for civic engagement as measured in terms of trade union membership, volunteering and voting. The analysis also reveals how important prior civic participation is on later civic participation. In this connection, social class background appears to have an important role in determining initial levels of civic participation over the lifecourse, particularly in terms of formal volunteering. The role of education and the intergenerational transmission of civic behaviours and attitudes, particularly during childhood, would seem to be an important component of this.

Graduating into civil society

In this chapter, Ceryn Evans, Esther Muddiman and Chris Taylor explore the relationship between participation in higher education and the formation of social and political attitudes and civic participation. Their interviews with graduates show that, in many cases, the university ‘experience’ simply confirms or reinforces prior attitudes. Nevertheless, for some students it is also clear that going to university triggers interest and participation in civil society. In particular, they find that studying arts, humanities and social science subjects, and the opportunity to participate in extra-curricular opportunities, appear to foster higher levels of social awareness and civic engagement.

Young people’s civic engagement and political participation

In this chapter, Sally Power looks at school students’ engagement in civil society – an issue about which very little is known. Drawing on survey data with 1000 14-year-olds in Wales, this chapter challenges the largely negative media portrayals of young people as being selfishly- rather than civically-minded. Levels of associational membership among these young people are high, and levels of charitable activity and volunteering are extraordinarily high – engaged in by the overwhelming majority of young people and far more frequently than by older people. However, the data also indicate that young people are very ambivalent about the value of these activities which must raise issues about future levels of civil and political participation.