How Organizations Influence Participants

• In Event: 2451 - Section on Organizations, Occupations, and Work Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 13. Organizations at the micro/meso/macro interface

Abstract

Scholarship on civic organizations demonstrates that participants are more likely than non-participants to vote and engage in other forms of civic participation. Therefore, this research suggests that participation in civic organizations begets other forms of participant. Yet, these claims are based primarily on correlational relationships between organizational participation and civic outcomes like voting. This study goes beyond past work to empirically analyze what factors from organizations participants reproduce in non-organizational settings. Drawing on findings from focus groups in which participants solve hypothetical social and political issues, I identify two elements of observable organizational influence: practice (e.g., tactical and framing approaches) and interactional (e.g., deliberative approaches and collective identity). Using data on the three youth civic organizations included in the study, I argue that when organizations provide youth opportunities to practice decision-making and engage in deliberation, they are able to utilize the tactics, frames, and interactive styles of the organizations in other civic settings.

Author

• Sarah Gaby, Washington University in St. Louis