Search

Sweden's COVID-19 policy was characterized by reliance on voluntary compliance. Citizens were expected to act responsibly. Previous research has not focused on the role of citizenship norms (duty-based, engaged, and critical) in the COVID-19 crisis. This is an important omission, since citizenship norms are expected to raise social responsibility and trigger prosocial behavior. This article asks how important citizenship norms are for explaining voluntary COVID-19 policy compliance. Additionally, it considers perceptions of how other people comply, individual background factors, and interpersonal and institutional trust. The study focuses on Swedish high school youth, a group reported to comply less with voluntary COVID-19 measures. Using survey data (N = 1823), we find higher reported voluntary compliance by high school youth who adhere more strongly to the duty-based citizenship norm. Importantly, believing that other people follow the COVID-19 recommendations is strongly associated with following them. Thus, next to citizenship norms, “descriptive norms” (i.e., what other people are doing) are central for individuals to decide how they will comply. We further find that differences in worry about the pandemic and socioeconomic background factors (migration background and economic situation of the household) explain variation in compliance. Institutional and interpersonal trust play a less important role. These findings challenge the strong focus on trust in previous research. Our findings have implications for research on policy compliance in the context of crisis, and for public policy., Social science education on trust for an active and critical citizenship

Sweden's COVID-19 policy was characterized by reliance on voluntary compliance. Citizens were expected to act responsibly. Previous research has not focused on the role of citizenship norms (duty-based, engaged, and critical) in the COVID-19 crisis. This is an important omission, since citizenship norms are expected to raise social responsibility and trigger prosocial behavior. This article asks how important citizenship norms are for explaining voluntary COVID-19 policy compliance. Additionally, it considers perceptions of how other people comply, individual background factors, and interpersonal and institutional trust. The study focuses on Swedish high school youth, a group reported to comply less with voluntary COVID-19 measures. Using survey data (N = 1823), we find higher reported voluntary compliance by high school youth who adhere more strongly to the duty-based citizenship norm. Importantly, believing that other people follow the COVID-19 recommendations is strongly associated with following them. Thus, next to citizenship norms, “descriptive norms” (i.e., what other people are doing) are central for individuals to decide how they will comply. We further find that differences in worry about the pandemic and socioeconomic background factors (migration background and economic situation of the household) explain variation in compliance. Institutional and interpersonal trust play a less important role. These findings challenge the strong focus on trust in previous research. Our findings have implications for research on policy compliance in the context of crisis, and for public policy., Social science education on trust for an active and critical citizenship

Sweden's COVID-19 policy was characterized by reliance on voluntary compliance. Citizens were expected to act responsibly. Previous research has not focused on the role of citizenship norms (duty-based, engaged, and critical) in the COVID-19 crisis. This is an important omission, since citizenship norms are expected to raise social responsibility and trigger prosocial behavior. This article asks how important citizenship norms are for explaining voluntary COVID-19 policy compliance. Additionally, it considers perceptions of how other people comply, individual background factors, and interpersonal and institutional trust. The study focuses on Swedish high school youth, a group reported to comply less with voluntary COVID-19 measures. Using survey data (N = 1823), we find higher reported voluntary compliance by high school youth who adhere more strongly to the duty-based citizenship norm. Importantly, believing that other people follow the COVID-19 recommendations is strongly associated with following them. Thus, next to citizenship norms, “descriptive norms” (i.e., what other people are doing) are central for individuals to decide how they will comply. We further find that differences in worry about the pandemic and socioeconomic background factors (migration background and economic situation of the household) explain variation in compliance. Institutional and interpersonal trust play a less important role. These findings challenge the strong focus on trust in previous research. Our findings have implications for research on policy compliance in the context of crisis, and for public policy., Social science education on trust for an active and critical citizenship

Sweden's COVID-19 policy was characterized by reliance on voluntary compliance. Citizens were expected to act responsibly. Previous research has not focused on the role of citizenship norms (duty-based, engaged, and critical) in the COVID-19 crisis. This is an important omission, since citizenship norms are expected to raise social responsibility and trigger prosocial behavior. This article asks how important citizenship norms are for explaining voluntary COVID-19 policy compliance. Additionally, it considers perceptions of how other people comply, individual background factors, and interpersonal and institutional trust. The study focuses on Swedish high school youth, a group reported to comply less with voluntary COVID-19 measures. Using survey data (N = 1823), we find higher reported voluntary compliance by high school youth who adhere more strongly to the duty-based citizenship norm. Importantly, believing that other people follow the COVID-19 recommendations is strongly associated with following them. Thus, next to citizenship norms, “descriptive norms” (i.e., what other people are doing) are central for individuals to decide how they will comply. We further find that differences in worry about the pandemic and socioeconomic background factors (migration background and economic situation of the household) explain variation in compliance. Institutional and interpersonal trust play a less important role. These findings challenge the strong focus on trust in previous research. Our findings have implications for research on policy compliance in the context of crisis, and for public policy., Social science education on trust for an active and critical citizenship

Sweden's COVID-19 policy was characterized by reliance on voluntary compliance. Citizens were expected to act responsibly. Previous research has not focused on the role of citizenship norms (duty-based, engaged, and critical) in the COVID-19 crisis. This is an important omission, since citizenship norms are expected to raise social responsibility and trigger prosocial behavior. This article asks how important citizenship norms are for explaining voluntary COVID-19 policy compliance. Additionally, it considers perceptions of how other people comply, individual background factors, and interpersonal and institutional trust. The study focuses on Swedish high school youth, a group reported to comply less with voluntary COVID-19 measures. Using survey data (N = 1823), we find higher reported voluntary compliance by high school youth who adhere more strongly to the duty-based citizenship norm. Importantly, believing that other people follow the COVID-19 recommendations is strongly associated with following them. Thus, next to citizenship norms, “descriptive norms” (i.e., what other people are doing) are central for individuals to decide how they will comply. We further find that differences in worry about the pandemic and socioeconomic background factors (migration background and economic situation of the household) explain variation in compliance. Institutional and interpersonal trust play a less important role. These findings challenge the strong focus on trust in previous research. Our findings have implications for research on policy compliance in the context of crisis, and for public policy., Social science education on trust for an active and critical citizenship

This chapter looks at political consumerism in the toy sector, offering a brief history of consumer concerns and distinguishing among four strands of political consumerist research in this sector. A primary factor facilitating political consumerism of toys is that toy companies are extremely concerned about their reputation. Manufacturers cannot assume that parents and other carers do their usual risk-benefit analysis with the same level of risk acceptance concerning toys. Factors constraining political consumerism in this sector include long product chains and difficulties in discovering unethical practices and dangerous substances. Actors involved in the political consumerism of toys come from all societal spheres, including retailers. Regulators take action when risks have been discovered by civil society actors or scientists, but international divergence in regulation constitutes an obstacle to concerted action. Future research needs to examine synergies and trade-offs among various risks in toy products.

Sustainable Citizenship: Opportunities and Barriers for Citizen Involvement in Sustainable Development

How and why does urban planning challenge local governance? This article develops a theoretical model for studying the interplay among citizens, politicians and bureaucrats in urban planning processes. It incorporates insights from several research fields and addresses key issues in renewal controversy: citizen participation; government responsiveness, and planning’s political legitimacy. The model is applied in a preliminary study of the renewal of the Slussen area in Stockholm. This renewal controversy shows similarities with other planning controversies in Sweden and abroad. But an important difference is the dominant role played by expert citizens (former high level politicians, civil servants and other professionals) who have employed their work experience and networks to oppose the city’s plan; many continue to protest even after their ideas have been voted down in Stockholm City Council and rejected by courts. Preliminary results show weaknesses in the interplay between expert citizens, politicians and bureaucrats in this case of urban renewal., Ett stipendium från Rosanders donationsfond

Sustainable citizenship: Opportunities and barriers for citizen involvement in sustainable development

This chapter explores the democratic quality of different forms of political participation and invites readers to ponder if citizen engagement in politics always carries a democratic spirit. The terms participation 1.0 and participation 2.0 are coined and conceptualized as ideal types that characterize how participation has shifted over the years. Building on these conceptualisations, the chapter then poses some under-researched questions about whether different expectations or underlying values about good citizenship might underpin these two contrasting forms of participation. Rather than assuming that all participation is good for democracy, the chapter invites the reader to consider whether participation has a democratic downside and if there might be a value divide between participation 1.0 or 2.0., Sustainable Citizenship: Opportunities and Barriers for Citizen Involvement in Sustainable Development

Sustainable Citizenship: Opportunities and Barriers for Citizen Involvement in Sustainable Development

How and why do more social movements use consumer-oriented strategies to promote their causes? This chapter penetrates these questions by focussing on four consumer practices—boycotts, buycotts, discursive actions, and lifestyle commitments—included in social movement action repertoires and mobilizing campaigns. Illustrations come from the African–American civil rights movement, Nestlé boycott, gay rights’ movement, and the movement against the Israeli occupied territories. The chapter also examines how consumer strategies evolve over time in the examples of the organic food and anti-sweatshop movements. Two recent developments discussed are commercialization (targeting primarily emotions), and “triangle of change” solutions (reflecting partnerships based on the enhanced role of individual choice, looser governmental regulation, and general globalization processes). Consumer strategies are now a standard repertoire of social movements, but they also come with some criticism and limitations.

Sustainable citizenship: opportunities and barriers for citizen involvement in sustainable development (VR)

This edited volume is the result of a series of workshops, organized within the framework of the Swedish Research Links Programme (MENA). It includes chapters by scholars with expertise in fields related to democratization, citizenship, and good governance.

Political Consumerism captures the creative ways in which citizens, consumers, and political activists use the market as their arena for politics. This book theorizes, describes, analyzes, compares, and evaluates the phenomenon of political consumerism and how it attempts to use market choice to solve complex globalized problems. It investigates theoretically and empirically how and why consumers practice citizenship and have become important political actors. Dietlind Stolle and Michele Micheletti describe consumers' engagement as an example of individualized responsibility taking, examining how political consumerism nudges and pressures corporations to change their production practices, and how consumers emerge as a force in global affairs. Unlike other studies, it also evaluates if and how consumer actions become effective mechanisms of global change. Stolle and Micheletti offer a candid discussion of the limitations of political consumerism as a form of participation and as a problem-solving mechanism. Provides a comprehensive comparative analysis of political consumerism Uses multiple unique empirical materials to study political consumerism theoretically and empirically at the individual, group and cross-national levels Introduces the concept of individualized responsibility-taking, Different projects financed by the Swedish Council of Research

This article develops the notion of sustainable citizenship, investigates the kinds of citizenship practices that emerge from and in the market and theorizes how the roles of citizen and consumer are increasingly forged together. It uses survey data to investigate the importance of everyday “ordinary consumption” of common commodities for understanding citizenship and maps the practice and rise of political consumerism, across different age groups in different nations as an inkling of how sustainable citizenship is unfolding in Western society. Sweden is given special emphasis. Important findings are high levels of “buycotting” political consumerism and the fact that political consumers stand out on all identified citizenship expectations but particularly on solidarity citizenship. The concluding section discusses more generally the consumer turn in citizenship and how and why it can be seen as evolving into a more stable or regular practice or habit., Political Consumption: Politics in a New Era and Arena, Sustainable Citizenship: Opportunities and Barriers for Citizen Involvement in Sustainable Development

Sustainable Citizenship

This article develops the notion of sustainable citizenship and distinguishes it from more conventional forms of citizenship. The authors formulate indicators of the presence of sustainable citizenship among individuals, in corporations, and in nongovernmental organizations and apply those indicators in two empirical studies. The first study is of institutions (Fairtrade International, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and The Walt Disney Company), and the second is of individuals, particularly those who practice political consumerism and vegetarianism. The studies show that citizenship is expanding in three significant ways: by addressing concerns about past and current injustices and their effects on the future (broadened temporal dimension); by addressing responsibilities worldwide, not just within one's country (broadened spatial dimension); and by adding a material dimension that emphasizes responsibility to nature and animals. The studies find that the development of sustainable citizenship is taking detours. In particular, self-interest often dominates its nonreciprocal or other-regarding concerns., AuthorCount:2

Sustainable citizenship, Swedish Council of Research

Sustainable Citizenship: Opportunities and Barriers for Citizen Involvement in Sustainable Development

Hållbart medborgarskap: Möjligheter och barriärer

Swedish Council of Research funded Projects Political Consumption: Politics in a New Era and Arena and Sustainable Citizenship: Opportunities and Barriers for Citizen Involvement in Sustainable Development

Swedish Council of Research funded project Sustainable Citizenship: Opportunities and Barriers for Citizen Involvement in Sustainable Development

Swedish Council of Research funded project Sustainable Citizenship: Opportunities and Barriers for Citizen Involvement in Sustainable Development

The Consumer Turn in Political Responsibility and Citizenship - This article investigates how and why a growing number of civil society actors increasingly turn to the market as a complement to, or replacement of, traditional tools of political participation. After a discussion about its historical antecedents, the paper focuses on the present features of political consumerism. A section dedicated to theoretical issues introduces the concept of individualized responsibilitytaking to explain why societal roles as consumers should be considered as political agents with responsibilities for others. Two more sections aree also devoted to an investigation of political consumerism. The first section distinguishes eight broad issue areas where political consumerism is to be found, and identifies the role played by civic groups in prompting consumer action. The second section reports on a number of research findings on how civic groups inform and sensitize consumers about the public orientation of their consumption practices. The article ends with a few evaluative comments on the significance of the consumer turn in politics., Council of Swedish Research funded project "Political Consumption: Politics in a New Era and Arena"

Council of Swedish Research funded project "Political Consumption: Politics in a New Era and Arena"

Council of Swedish Research funded project "Political Consumption: Politics in a New Era and Arena"

Debattartikel i Universitetsläraren 2007, nr 16, sid 15.