Date:
Location:
Speaker
Dorothy Manevich, "Topographies of Participation: How Social Compatibility Influences Activist Behavior"
Abstract
As activists go through a campaign, they are constantly making decisions about the scope of their participation. They choose how often to engage, who to engage with, and which activities to engage in. In this paper I argue that social compatibility, or the extent to which an activist perceives their social network to be in political alignment with them, influences how they participate. I present the results of an original survey study on abortion politics as well as interviews with pro-choice activists working on Ohio's 2023 reproductive rights amendment campaign. I find that those in low social compatibility environments are more likely to limit the scope of their participation than those in high social compatibility environments. However, even those in high social compatibility environments circumscribe their activity in the face of social risk. Moreover, I show that social compatibility and social risk are not static. Activists are engaged in a dynamic learning process in which each round of action yields new information about their social network. Successive rounds of participation can also shift the activist's social network, which changes their reference point for social compatibility. This paper makes two major contributions to the literature on political participation: exploring the dynamics of socially undesirable political activity and shedding light on how social context influences political behavior outside of a participatory binary.
The American Politics Research Workshop (Gov 3004) presents an opportunity for graduate students and Harvard faculty to present and receive feedback on their current research. The workshop highlights key theoretical and empirical findings from Harvard affiliates on topics related to American politics.
All interested Harvard affiliates are invited to attend.