Analysis of Survey Data from the Citizenship Survey
Project Description:
An analysis of survey data from the Citizenship Surveys, examining the determinants of civic behaviour and the impacts on outcomes
Progress to date
We have sought to test out different civic routes toward increased community participation. We set out categories of community-based citizen orientation, drawing on theories of interpersonal behaviour, which are trust in government institutions, moral reasoning, social norms, and affect/emotions. We investigate four types of participation: influencing institutions individually, collective civic, citizen governance, and community voluntarism. We argue that the links between civic attitudes should predict collective actions, such as new forms of community voluntarism, rather than individually based acts. We apply confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equations models (SEM) using the English 2005 Citizenship Survey.
Preliminary Findings
We find that neighbourhood social norms affect three types of civic behaviour whilst trust in government institutions negatively affects three types and that moral reasoning and affect/emotions do not have an impact.
Next steps
We will seek to find out whether different kinds of participation and social capital influence key outcomes.
Outputs
Paper to the annual meeting of the Political Studies Association, April 2008, Swansea, presentation to the Empowerment white paper team in CLG, and a presentation to the University of Manchester CCSR seminar series
Ed Fieldhouse, Peter John, and Hanhua Liu
The University of Manchester
October 2008
