As the portion of the foreign-born population continues to grow across the European Union, gaps in overall political participation between immigrants and natives persist. This is a cause for...Show moreAs the portion of the foreign-born population continues to grow across the European Union, gaps in overall political participation between immigrants and natives persist. This is a cause for concern to European democracies, specifically regarding their representativeness of the entirety of the population that constitutes them and that they are meant to serve. While scholars have focused on more conventional forms of political participation, this research aims to specifically focus on protests as a non-conventional form of political participation while taking both experienced and perceived discrimination as the main motivators and major determinants of this type of political behavior. Using data from the Survey on Minorities and Discrimination in EU conducted by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights in 2016, this paper argues that both the experience and perception of discrimination are positively related to participation in protest behaviors amongst citizens of immigrant origin. This paper uses a binary logistic regression with experienced and perceived discrimination as predictor variables, and participation in protest as the response variable, while controlling for six key factors: age, gender, income, generation of immigration, interest in politics, and education. Countries were also used as control variables to counter potential biases in the results from the clustering that often occurs with the use of survey data.Show less
Bachelor thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (BSc)
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During the 2011-revolutions in the MENA region called the Arab Spring, women and men collectively took to the streets to demand bread, freedom, social justice, and human dignity. After the...Show moreDuring the 2011-revolutions in the MENA region called the Arab Spring, women and men collectively took to the streets to demand bread, freedom, social justice, and human dignity. After the revolutionary momentum had passed, women were excluded from the political domain, including the policymaking process. Based on the cases of Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia, this thesis examines the structures that restrain women from participating in politics by looking at both formal and informal politics. Broadening the analytical field in the study of policymaking while adopting an anthropological approach, this thesis criticises modernisation theory by showing how development is not a linear process by considering the role of religion and patriarchalism. It explains why despite women striving for similar demands as men, one cannot adopt a gender-blindness approach to reflect upon women’s aspirations and demands in politics. Besides, it shows how women increasingly were able to problematise their aspirations and demands by participating in physical and digital activism. However, the exclusion of women from institutional decision-making processes and the patriarchalist model of social order prevent the institutionalisation of women’s aspirations and demands into policies.Show less
In the current demographic trends, the future health of the society is more dependent on the politics than ever. But are people with poor health conditions represented equally? The negative...Show moreIn the current demographic trends, the future health of the society is more dependent on the politics than ever. But are people with poor health conditions represented equally? The negative relationship between poor health and participation has been well established. It could lead to a representation inequality since the demands of the poor health group are not translated into votes. However, we do not know how health status influence the opinions and demands of the voters which are supposed to be represented at the elections. Are poor health individuals have distinctive policy preferences? By exploring these opinions, first, I will show the possible substantive consequences of the participation gaps between health groups. Second, I will investigate the inter-sectional nature of the health representation inequalities caused by the moderating role of income and education on opinions and participation. I conduct a multivariate analysis on a cross-European sample using the 2014 ESS data to test my hypotheses. I show an evidence for the unequal representation of the different opinions in the elections between the healthy and the poor health group, and within the poor health group, explained by the level of income. Based on the results, I revisit the policy discussion about the solutions for the health disparities in voting.Show less
In the last couple of years, scholars have been arguing a decline in political participation, especially among young people. The Fridays for Future movement with thousands of young climate strikers...Show moreIn the last couple of years, scholars have been arguing a decline in political participation, especially among young people. The Fridays for Future movement with thousands of young climate strikers counters these statements. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the facilitating role of social media on youth political participation. This thesis analyses how social media contributes to the formation of a collective group identity of social movements, which in turn could lead to collective political action. To answer this question, content analysis of comments on three Instagram posts by Fridays for Madrid have been used, looking at the four foundations of collective group identity: solidarity, emotional attachment, group cohesion and activist-based identification. The results demonstrate the facilitating function of social media in the formation of collective group identity, by enabling more easily and frequently interaction between participants and the social movement compared to offline social movement activities.Show less
The South African impoverished people have been largely unable to influence political decision-making during the Apartheid era and post-Apartheid. This research focuses on the influence of wealth,...Show moreThe South African impoverished people have been largely unable to influence political decision-making during the Apartheid era and post-Apartheid. This research focuses on the influence of wealth, information asymmetry and perceptions on the impoverished people’s participation with regard to the stadium building process in Cape Town and Nelspruit. The factors of wealth, information asymmetry and perceptions are identified through rigorous literature review, which placed the impoverished people’s participation through the perspective of civic political participation and democracy. The wealth factor displayed a layered power balance with FIFA and the national South African government at the top, local government and local affluent in the middle and local impoverished people at the bottom of the pyramid. The information asymmetry factor for the Cape Town and Nelspruit cases negatively affected the impoverished people’s participation, as they lacked key information that could have assisted them in their political participation. The perception factor showed that the impoverished people had little trust in the political system as the result of corruption and false promises made in the past, which negatively affected their political participation. The stylized nature of the research, by exclusively examining these factors, limited the research, as it did not fully consider a myriad of other factors and the influence of these factors on the decision-making process.Show less
This thesis investigates the relation between political disaffection and the rise of non-institutionalized political participation among the Mexican youth in the case of the #YoSoy132 movement....Show moreThis thesis investigates the relation between political disaffection and the rise of non-institutionalized political participation among the Mexican youth in the case of the #YoSoy132 movement. Theory on political disaffection, social capital and political participation together with the modern political history of Mexico and the #YoSoy132 movement are extensively analysed in order to examine the following hypothesis: in the case of the #YoSoy132 movement, political disaffection resulted in an increasing desire among the youth to participate in politics in order to oppose the Mexican regime. Since these youngsters badly distrust political parties and institutions, they are seeking unconventional ways to engage in politics. By producing new forms of social capital, the movement was able to grow and exert influence and power on politics while staying on the side lines to not become part of the “bad” practices of the Mexican government.Show less
