EUROPE ON THE EDGE Week 8: Some results from the data analysis: apathetic youth and social media impact? Bart van der Velden & Katharina Ploss

Voting There is a significant association between the believed importance for a citizen to vote and the actual voting behavior in a national election, Χ 2 (3 )= , p < % indicated that they voted in the last national election. – 14.2% did not vote in the last national election. – The remaining respondents indicated that they were eligible to vote (yet).

Caring and Acting! Caring! and Acting?

Caring and Acting! Caring! and Acting? Cont’ed

Community Engagement No or hardly any engagement in the community Frequent engagement in the community Finds it important for citizens to engage in the community 87.5%12.5% Finds it NOT important for citizens to engage in the community 94.5%5.5%

Engagement in politics No or hardly any engagement in protest and social change Frequent engagement in protest and social change Finds it important for citizens to engage in politics 80.8%19.2% Finds it NOT important for citizens to engage in politics 93.3%6.7%

Engagement in politics-cont’ed No or hardly any engagement in a political party Frequent engagement in a political party Finds it important for citizens to engage in politics 91.2%8.8% Finds it NOT important for citizens to engage in politics 96.8%3.2%

Discussion question Why don’t more young people engage? What motivates younge people to become active? Psychological lens – Self Determination Theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000; Drake, 2005) – Altruistic vs. egoistic reasons (Omoto & Snyder, 1995) Structural lens/ Political Opportunity Structure – Insurgent Consciousness – Organizational Strength – Political Opportunities

Offline vs. Online engagement Never or hardly using social media to create/promote political content Regularly using social media to create/promote political content No or hardly any engagement in protest and social change 90.3%9.7% Frequent engagement in protest and social change 64.1%35.9%

Social media - Discussion question How can social media influence political participation? Pro: Arabic revolutions in 2010 – Massive usage of social media to spread political messages. – Social media are easily accessible, makes it easier to engage and increases exposure to political news. (Howard et al. 2011) Con: Social media are just a tool and pre-dated by offline protest. – Socio-economic status is still decisive for engagement. (for example Schlozman et al. 2010) – Would those who engage online be politically active offline?