Tackling COVID-19 from below: civic participation among online neighbourhood network users during the COVID-19 pandemic

PurposeFollowing 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 par...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Online information review 2021-08, Vol.45 (4), p.777-794
Main Authors: Waeterloos, Cato, De Meulenaere, Jonas, Walrave, Michel, Ponnet, Koen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Citizen participation
Citizenship education
Collective action
Community
Community Relations
Computer platforms
Consumption
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Digital broadcasting
Government (Administrative Body)
Interpersonal communication
Literature Reviews
Neighborhoods
News
News media
Pandemics
Personal communication
Politics
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
Social integration
Social Media
Social networks
Social research
Viral diseases
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Summary:PurposeFollowing 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/approachAn 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.FindingsThe 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/valueThis 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 reviewThe peer review history for this article is available at https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-08-2020-0379.
ISSN:1468-4527
1468-4535
DOI:10.1108/OIR-08-2020-0379