Capital, Privilege and Political Participation.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Greenwood-Hau, Joe, author.

Series:

British Academy Monographs

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Privilege (Social psychology).

Privilege (Social psychology)--Political aspects.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (334 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

London : British Academy, 2025.

Summary:

This book will be available open access upon publication. Capital, Privilege, and Political Participation examines how privilege and people's perceptions of it relate to their involvement in politics. It treats people's stocks of economic, social and cultural capital as indicators of privilege as well as resources that help them engage with politics. It also argues that how people perceive privilege in society, their own lives and politics matters for their political participation. Using survey, interview and focus group evidence, the book shows that capital and perceptions of privilege do, indeed, relate to involvement in a host of political activities. Whilst political participation is a normal if not daily feature of many people's lives, having more economic and cultural capital is associated with being more politically active. Perceiving the role of privilege in society is also linked to higher levels of participation, whilst perceiving privilege in politics is unsurprisingly associated with being less politically active. Questions abound about how, if at all, capital and perceptions of privilege are causally related to political participation, but the book concludes that getting involved in politics is a distinguished activity. Efforts to tackle these inequalities in participation should, according to the people who participated in the research, centre on outreach activities by political institutions, more extensive and consistent citizenship education, and the active opening up of politics to the population.

Contents:

Cover

Half-title

Series information

Title page

Copyright information

Table of contents

List of figures

List of Tables

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Political Participation, Privilege, and Capital

Considering the Context

Overview of the Book

1 Unequal Political Participation

Commonplace for Some

What Is Political Participation?

What Drives Participation?

Unpacking Who Participates

Towards Structural and Perceived Privilege

2 Structural Privilege

Inequality and Privilege

Capital and Politics

Capital, Class, and Privilege

3 Perceptions of Privilege

The Importance of Perceptions

Perceptions, Inequality, and Politics

Perceptions of Groups and Status

Status, Explanations, and Political Participation

Accounting for Perceptions of Privilege

4 Political Participation and Non-Participation

Diversity in Participation and Non-Participation

A Note on How the Research Was Conducted

More and Less Explicitly Political Participation

Supporting Organisations

Undertaking Political Acts

Barriers to Participation

Personal Constraints on Participation

Systemic Disincentives to Participation

Negative Images of Politics

A Participatory Gap and a Perceptual Bridge

5 Economic, Social, and Cultural Capital

The Many Forms of Capital

Economic Capital

Social Capital

Cultural Capital

The Importance of Capital

6 Perceptions of Society, Self, and Politics

Perceiving Privilege in Different Contexts

Perceptions of Privilege in Society

Perceptions of Own Privilege

Perceptions of Privilege in Politics

Four Components of Perceptions of Privilege

7 Politics as a Distinguished Activity

The Many Factors in Political Participation

Economic Capital and Political Participation

Social Capital and Political Participation.

Cultural Capital and Political Participation

Perceptions and Political Participation

Politics as a Distinguished Activity

8 Is Participation a Consequence or a Component of Privilege?

A Causal Conundrum

The Mediating Role of Capital?

The Mediating Role of Perceptions of Privilege?

Politically Relevant Capital

A Conundrum Unanswered

Conclusion and Solutions

Capital, Perceptions of Privilege, and Political Participation

The Relationship between Privilege and Participation

Overcoming Barriers to Participation

Appendices

A Privilege and Participation Survey Representativeness

B Interview and Focus Group Details

C Index Variable Distributions

D Regression Results

References

Index.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

1-83624-946-2

1-83624-947-0

OCLC:

1521333043