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People’s participation in their own development is at the core of Communication forDevelopment. This study explores the potential and barriers for youth civic engagementespecially among the urban youth in Bhutan, a newly democratised country in theEastern Himalayas. Youth Initiative (YI), a project begun in the fall of 2013 by a groupof local youth and mentored by a local civil society organisation, the Bhutan Centre forMedia and Democracy, was chosen as the case study.The study analyses how and in which arenas youth enact their citizenship inBhutan; how young people themselves see their opportunities to participate indemocratic processes, analysing social, cultural and political factors influencing theirparticipation; whether their civic participation is critical or conforming to the existingsocial structures; how could Facebook foster democratic culture and youth civicengagement; and what is the link between youth civic engagement and social capital.Data were collected through three (3) focus group discussions with youth andnine (9) qualitative interviews with founders or steering committee members of the YI.The 19 young participants of the focus group discussions were between 17 to 28 yearsold, two of the groups consisting of YI representatives and one of unemployed youth.The interview data together with relevant textual sources were analysed through theconceptual framework of participatory democracy and social capital. Three distinctthemes could be identified through the qualitative thematic analysis: 1. Youth agency inthe public sphere; 2. Inequality and corruption; and 3. Cultural change. Particularlyinformal cultural barriers, such as respecting authorities and the lack of democraticculture to have an equal, critical dialogue in the public sphere were seen as mainobstacles for youth civic engagement in Bhutan.The findings indicate that youth civic engagement is a crucial component instrengthening social capital, particularly mutual trust across different groups andgenerations of people. The study argues that it is possible to create a space for intergenerational dialogue that encompasses and respects the diverse, but overlappingspheres of youth agency, democratic communication and social harmony.

Youth today are participating in political and civic life in new and emerging ways -- some positive and some negative -- but there is scant evidence that these new forms of engagement spawn enduring forms of participation to enhance democratization at all levels in society. How, then, do we educate for democracy and for what type of democracy, especially in a society that struggles with persistent inequality and injustice? Universities clearly have an important role—and, some insist, an obligation—in guiding the so-called millennial generation into civic pathways that can produce meaningful advancement of democracy. Adopting a participatory democratic theoretical framework, this work presents a case-history study of and survey data from a civic education program at Drexel University, in Philadelphia, PA, an institution that strives to be the “most civically engaged university” in the U.S, according to its President. In addition, and arguably equally important, this study examines the assumptions and conceptions students bring to the table when they are first exposed to civic education in college. How do students conceptualize democracy and civic and political engagement now and in the future? On what foundation are we building concepts of civic education for democracy when we design curricula? Do students view democracy in participatory democratic ways and does Drexel educate students for a participatory democracy, albeit implicitly? The study finds both the students and the program embrace participatory democratic norms, strengthening normative theoretical arguments that participatory democratic theory is increasingly relevant, useful and salient to understand and nourish democracy in the U.S. today. / Political Science

Politically interested individual citizens often use information and communication technology (ICT) to facilitate and augment their civic and political participation. At the local level, ICT plays an important role for communication and information sharing in order for local groups to create awareness and draw citizens into public deliberation about local issues and concerns. This research examines the interplay of individual and local group level factors in order to better understand the relationship between civic engagement and ICT, especially the internet, by using household survey data from the town of Blacksburg, Virginia and environs in 2005 and 2006. It seeks to reconcile those different levels of analysis relating to the use and impact of the internet on civic engagement in local governance. This study identifies the distinctive influences at both the individual citizen level and the group level by applying a multilevel statistical model (the Hierarchical Linear Model). First, this study found the effects of internal and external political efficacy and community collective efficacy as significant individual level influences on internet use for civic and political purposes. Second, group internet use—which includes new internet technologies—and group political discussion were revealed as key influences on citizens' perspectives on the helpfulness of the internet for civic and political purposes at the group level of analysis. Finally, in multilevel analysis, those recognized group level variables (group internet use and group political discussion and interests) led to positive agreement with the following statements: 1) the internet has helped me feel more connected with people like myself in the local area; 2) the internet has helped me feel more connected with a diversity of people in the local area; and 3) the internet has helped me become more involved in local issues that interest me when taking individual level variables into account. / Ph. D.

Civil society and social capital have become staples of political science and public administration since the publication of Robert Putnam's landmark book Making Democracy Work in 1993 and his bestseller Bowling Alone in 2000. The research presented here explores the role of social capital and trust in enhancing institutional performance. Specifically, this dissertation analyzes the dynamics of social capital and government performance in metropolitan county governments. The dissertation also explores alternative theoretical approaches that have recently or historically been proposed as predictors or determinants of government performance in public administration and political science scholarship. The results reported here indicate that many of the dimensions of social capital are significantly correlated with government performance. The results suggest that counties with citizens that are more open to taking risks, that are more open-minded and less averse to change, that have faith in major political and economic institutions, that are more optimistic and that are more trusting of people they perceive to be like themselves, tend to have higher performing governments. The results also indicate that the relationship between the various dimensions of social capital and government performance is more nuanced than portrayed by a simple bi-variate correlation analysis, suggesting that the relationship between government performance and social capital is strongest at the margins, that is, among both the highest and lowest performing county governments. / Ph. D.

Newspapers have been shown to have positive correlations with their readers, sense of community, political participation, and civic engagement. Using McMillan and Chavis, Sense of Community Theory and its accompanying SCI-2 as well as questions on demographics and media use, political participation, and civic engagement, this thesis conducts a survey study of two community newspaper readerships in differing locations within the continental United States. This study aims to discover and develop further understanding of the social, political, and community-building effects of community dailies and their mirrored-content news websites. First, it examines media consumption preferences and measure the sense of community (SOC) felt by readers of print-edition newspapers and their mirrored-content websites. Second, it examines the differences in SOC felt by print and website readers. Third, it examines the influence of SOC and print-news website-reading on political participation, and fourth, it examines the influence of SOC and print newspaper-website reading on civic engagement, both with the intent of discovering how SOC might mediate this relationship. This thesis will provide contextual information and build a case for the relevance of community dailies in an ever-increasingly fast-paced, technocentric society. Findings include a significant relationship between SOC and both print and online readers, and the question of whether readers of both print and online community news feel a stronger SOC than either on its own is answered. Further findings include newspaper website-reading shares a significant relationship with both political participation and civic engagement, and print does not. Implications and limitations are discussed. / Master of Arts

The curriculum emphasizes the importance of social science teachers to affect students to be active, democratic and participating citizens. At the same time the interest in politics among students has been on a steady decline since the beginning of the 21th century. Apart from the diminishing interest in politics, studies have shown that students are given different civic skills and competencies depending on their choice of educational path. This study takes an interest to understand what affects students' engagement in democracy and politics, and how it differs between last-year students from study preparatory and vocational education. This study also aims to understand how the programs differ in the experience of social science teaching and how it has affected their civic engagement. This study utilized qualitative group interviews with students from both educational paths, the results of this study illustrate that differences in political engagement, depending on educational path, do exist. The differences in education of social science has given different prerequisites to be politically engaged for study preparatory- and vocational students. / <p>Godkänd 2024-04-05</p>