Methodology

Abstract

Our methodological approach is strongly influenced by our critique of the existing literature. As we have argued, a key problem with much of the current research on political participation is its restricted conception of the ‘political’; where the focus has been on an arena definition of politics and political participation has been equated with a narrow range of activities, centred on contacting public officials, voting and membership of parties and/or interest groups and so on — the inclusion of ‘micro-political’ activities by Pattie et al. (2004) notwithstanding. As we noted, few studies explore how respondents themselves conceive of the political, or when they do, these conceptions are not applied to the analysis of how people participate. Furthermore, failure to participate in the repertoires specified by researchers has often been equated with political apathy. Yet, as we argued, political participation has many others, not just apathy.