Differences in participation

Social scientific research on participation is often concerned with differential patterns of participation – with describing who does and who doesn’t participate, and why, and suggesting appropriate measures to enhance participation in general, or among particular groups.

These differential patterns of participation can be divided into two broad areas:

• differences in the levels and types of participation undertaken by people who are from different backgrounds, who live in different areas or who have different levels of income
• changing patterns of involvement of people in different sorts of participation over time.

In this course you will learn how social scientists seek to describe and understand these related areas of participation. The focus will be on introducing the idea that social scientific investigation helps to enact social worlds. You will see that investigations of participation are always concerned with informing debates about the future of participation and shaping opportunities and initiatives to transform who participates and how.