Tackling COVID-19 from below: civic participation among online neighbourhood network users during the COVID-19 pandemic
ISSN: 1468-4527
Article publication date: 18 March 2021
Issue publication date: 24 August 2021
Abstract
Purpose
Following the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), many forms of bottom-up civic action emerged as ways to collectively “flatten the curve” and tackle the crisis. In this paper, the authors examine to what extent local online and offline social integration contributes to civic participation, above and beyond typical predictors such as news consumption and civic talk.
Design/methodology/approach
An online survey was administered among 7,137 users of the online neighbourhood network (ONN) Hoplr in Flanders (i.e. the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium) from 8 May to 18 May 2020. Regression analyses were used to examine how local social integration, in addition to news consumption, civic talk and political antecedents, predict different types of civic participation.
Findings
The results show consistent positive associations between news consumption, civic talk and civic participation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the role of political antecedents varied across different forms of civic participation. Further, the results point to the importance of both offline and online local social integration in explaining civic participation.
Originality/value
This study provides much-needed insight in the societal and democratic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. The results confirm the importance of local social integration in explaining civic participation, while also advancing theoretical understanding of more established predictors of civic participation, such as news consumption and interpersonal communication.
Peer review
The peer review history for this article is available at https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-08-2020-0379.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This work was funded by the Research Fund of Ghent University (Grantscode BOF.STG.2018.0002.01). The interpretation of the data, the writing of the article and the decision to submit the article were the sole responsibility of the authors and were not influenced by the funding institution.
Citation
Waeterloos, C., De Meulenaere, J., Walrave, M. and Ponnet, K. (2021), "Tackling COVID-19 from below: civic participation among online neighbourhood network users during the COVID-19 pandemic", Online Information Review, Vol. 45 No. 4, pp. 777-794. https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-08-2020-0379
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited