Civic Engagement in Urban Neighborhoods: Does the Network of Civic Organizations Influence Participation in Neighborhood Projects?

ABSTRACT:

This article aims to explain variations in the participation of civic organizations in neighborhood projects. In particular, we inquire into the impact of the social networks of more than 400 local civic organizations on their participation in neighborhood projects in two Dutch cities. Two strands of literature constitute the basis for our arguments. First, there is much research on the determinants of individual participation showing that tenure, social-economic status, and being a member of the majority matter considerably. Second, network studies demonstrate that the structure and content of one’s relationships substantially influences successive actions. Our expectations are based on both bodies of knowledge. We survey the civic organizations in eight neighborhoods and analyze the impact of their social networks using multinomial logistic regression models. The results show that the actual number of relations in the network and the density of the networks are positively associated with participation in neighborhood projects. Furthermore, we show that organizations with high proportions of ethnic minorities provide less support, despite their networks. Finally, organizations with many professionals working for them participate more if their networks are taken into consideration.

Notes

1 An organization is located “in a neighborhood” if it has an address in the neighborhood as registered by the Chambers of Commerce or listed in the telephone directory, or because it is mentioned in the local newspapers, or by key informants (see also the section on data collection).

2 All organizations received a questionnaire; we did not draw a sample of the organizations in our database. We reminded the organizations up to three times to fill in the questionnaire if they had not done so yet. After three reminders we considered the organization as a nonresponse.

3 The new third category (“advice, codecide, or coproduce”) was created because each of these activities refers to participation in neighborhood projects as defined in the theoretical section.

4 The professional capacity of the organization is correlated with the financial resources available to the organization. Because such a correlation would be problematic in the analyses, we decided to include the number of professionals active in the organization as an indicator of financial and management capacity.

5 We compared the experience of the organizations to that of the residents in the neighborhoods because the same questions are presented biannually to a sample of residents. The outcome is highly comparable: the same problems were experienced by the organizations and by the residents. This does not prove that these problems exist. However, it does indicate that organizations can be regarded as representatives of residents. See Dekker and Lelieveldt (2006) for more details, or contact the authors if readers do not read Dutch.

6 To obtain the full models, please contact the authors.