(Memory, Youth, Political l Legacy y And Civic ic Engagement) ant agreement no: level. level. ional-level analysiss and typologisation.

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1 MYPLACE 31 May 2014 Mar riona Ferrer-Fons (UP PF), Roger Soler-i-M Marti (Youth Catalan Obs servatory/upf) V May 2014 WP6 6: Ma apping Activism (Typologies) D6.2 2: 14 national-lev level reports rts outlining the fit between local- -level (case-s study areas) analysis alys and d typologisation on and national- -level ana alysis andd typologisation PU: Public Airi- -Alina Allaste (TLU); Marionaa Ferrer-Fons (UP PF) 31 May Com mments Modified by First editionn MFF, RSM MY YPLACE (Memory, Youth, Political l Legacy y And Civic ic Engagement) gem Gra ant agreement no: FP WP P6: Mapping Activism Deliverable 6.2: 14 national-level reports outlining the fit between een local-level level analysis and typologisation and national-level l analysis and typologisation Spain (Vic and Cugat) Universitat Pompeu FabF bra (UPF, Barcelona) Editors Version Date Work Package Deliverable Dissemination level WP Leaders Deliverable Date Document hist tory Version Date V MYPLACE: FP ww ww.fp7-myplace..eu Deliverable 6.2: 14 national-level reports outliningg the fit between local-level (case-study areas) analysis and typologisation and nati ional-level analysiss and typologisation. Page 1 of 34

2 Contents 1. Introduction Main characteristics of the locations Empirical findings from typologising youth activism in MYPLACE locations Political attitudes Political activism Involvement in political and social groups Typology of youth activism General patterns of youth activism in Catalonia and Spain General overview Political attitudes Political activism Participation in political and social organisations Typology of youth activism Exploring the patterns and the fit between local and national levels of youth activism Conclusions...30 References...32 Page 2 of 34

3 1. Introduction In the last four decades, studies of political participation have gradually incorporated more and more diversity in the type of actions that citizens use to participate politically. If the first empirical studies into political behaviour where focused only on electoral participation and party membership, the focus certainly opened up during the 70s by incorporating not only other non-conventional forms of participation (Barnes and Kaase, 1979) but also more recently, actions relating to political consumerism or online activism (Stolle, Hoogle and Micheletti 2005). This is not only a phenomenon of academia. In fact, it is the consequence of a process of diversification in the activities that people use to participate politically and that are socially legitimated. Furthermore, it is young people who have played a leading role in this diversification of political activism, as they are not only the group that is abandoning the traditional forms of participation but also the first to incorporate new forms of activism. This process of change in participation patterns has led some scholars to interpret a disenchantment of young people from politics (Pirie and Worcester, 2000; Putnam, 2000) and others to talk about a reinvention of activism (Norris, 2004, Dalton 2007). MYPLACE has aims to meet the challenge of analysing youth activism through a comprehensive perspective, incorporating their views and meanings of politics and considering the influence of different contexts. To achieve this aim, the MYPLACE project incorporates a multi-method approach that enables a more complex understanding of the political activism of young people. The aim of deliverable D6.1 was to use the different sources of MYPLACE data to construct a typology of youth activism in Sant Cugat and Vic regarding this complexity. In the current report, we want to compare these findings with patterns of activism of young people in Catalonia and Spain. In so doing, we hope to have a better understanding of the particularities of Sant Cugat and Vic and the role of their local contexts. In the next section, we present some key results to understand the patterns of involvement and activism of youth in Sant Cugat and Vic. We mainly use the analysis conducted for the purposes of deliverable D6.1, using data from the MYPLACE survey. This part of the report presents the main results of the typology created in deliverable D6.1. Section 3 is devoted to explaining the patterns of youth participation in Catalonia and Spain as a whole by using similar indicators. However, in this part of the report, we also present a typology constructed with the same cluster-analysis method for a sample of young people in Catalonia. In Section 4, we compare the results in the previous sections in order to identify the particularities of youth political involvement and activism in Vic and Sant Cugat in relation to the Catalan and Spanish context. Finally, we present the most relevant conclusions. Page 3 of 34

4 1.1 Main characteristics of the locations Sant Cugat and Vic are located in Catalonia, one of the 17 autonomous communities of Spain. Spain can be considered a multinational state, where Catalonia, Galicia and the Basque Country are historical regions that each have their own culture, language and sometimes own political institutions. Territorial tension between Catalonia and Spain has existed since the 18th century, when the Bourbon monarchs centralised the Catalan political institutions. With the establishment of Spanish democracy in the late 1970s, the possibility of re-establishing Catalan political institutions became possible, and demands for self-rule or even independence are still present today. Given this particular history in Catalonia, studying the youth of Catalonia is an appropriate case study to explore political and civic engagement, understand democracy and national identity, and to examine the importance of recent specific historical events. At the same time, including two Catalan cities allows the study to control for the contextual factors that may affect respondents answers. These two cities are selected for their contrasting characteristics: the overall economic wealth and development of the city; the prominence of immigration and conflict with minority groups; and the consequences of the economic crisis. While Vic is a more rural city, Sant Cugat is closer to Barcelona, and is more urban and more cosmopolitan. The proportion of immigrants in the population is also different and is higher in Vic (25 per cent) than Sant Cugat (14 per cent). This high proportion of immigrants has been related to conflicts between Vic s natives and immigrant and minority groups and the significant local electoral success of Plataforma per Catalunya (PxC). This political party focuses its discourse on immigration, and experts consider it to be a populist right-wing party. In Vic, PxC obtained a per cent vote share in the 2011 local elections and 2.62 per cent in the 2012 Catalan elections, while in Sant Cugat (and many other cities), there was no substantial support. Regarding the economic crisis, this has had graver consequences (e.g. youth unemployment) for Vic than San Cugat. This difference will help us understand how the economic crisis may affect young people s political and social attitudes. Both students and individuals hailing from a higher social class make up larger proportions of the sample in Sant Cugat than Vic. Page 4 of 34

5 2. Empirical findings from typologising youth activism in MYPLACE locations 2.1 Political attitudes As political participation is a voluntary activity, subjective and psychological factors can explain why individuals may or may not want to participate (Verba, Schlozman and Brady, 1995). These factors influence the reasons why a person will make the effort to participate in any kind of political activity. The relationship between the individual and the political system can be captured in terms of political attitudes such as feelings of self-efficacy, interest in politics, political identities, political trust and so forth. In abstract terms, those citizens presenting low levels of motivation may participate in politics to a lesser extent than highly motivated individuals. However, certain motivations may have different effects depending on the type of political activity. We will explore here the patterns among young people in Vic and Sant Cugat of the following political attitudes: interest in politics, satisfaction with democracy and trust in political institutions and organisations. Political interest is an important predictor of political behaviour, in particular for more institutionalised activities such as voting or party involvement (Campbell et al., 1960; Verba and Nie, 1972). This attitude fosters the intensity of political preferences and the level of attention towards the political sphere, normally increasing the motivation to participate in politics. As Graph 2.1 shows, most young people are very or quite interested in politics, with the youth of Sant Cugat showing higher interest than those in Vic. In any case, one-third of young people in both locations are not very interested in politics. Graph 2.1 Interest in politics Very interested Quite interested Not very interested Not at all interested Sant Cugat Vic Source: MYPLACE Survey, Page 5 of 34

6 However, it is difficult to know specifically the particular conception of politics that is understood behind the answers of young respondents. Also, whether they have a narrow concept of politics, usually related to party politics, or if there is a broad conception of politics that captures different issues or areas of interest, such as housing, immigration, gender issues and so forth. In this sense, young people tend to show less interest in politics if it is related to a restrictive understanding of politics, as young people tend to not only consider that they have fewer opportunities to engage in politics actively but also tend to distrust politicians. In this sense, studies have found (and MYPLACE too) that young people are concerned with, and involved in, a wide range of issues (O Toole, 2003; Manning 2010 and 2013). To illustrate the levels of political interest, Table 2.1 displays 10 items for which respondents indicate their level of interest on a 0-10 scale. The most important issue in both Sant Cugat and Vic is employment, which scored higher than 8 out of 10 on a scale of interest. This is consistent with Spain s and Catalonia s current economic crisis, in which there are high levels of unemployment, particularly for young people (50 per cent). The top 5 concerns are the same and similarly ranked in both Sant Cugat and Vic: women s rights, the economy, housing and the environment. The respondents have rated these issues between 7 and 8 in importance. Finally, local issues provide the lowest scores (5.85) in Sant Cugat, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights (5.09) in Vic. Table 2.1 Interest in contemporary issues Characteristics (comparison group) Sant Cugat N Mean Sd. N Mean Sd. Immigration 591 6,61 1, ,69 2,12 LGBT rights 590 6,11 2, ,09 2,89 The economy 591 7,67 1, ,28 2,11 National security 587 6,08 2, ,94 2,60 The environment 592 7,24 2, ,21 2,01 The European Union 591 6,48 2, ,34 2,26 General employment 592 8,35 1, ,38 1,71 Housing 591 7,48 2, ,22 2,16 Local issues 585 5,85 2, ,14 2,21 Women s rights 590 7,83 1, ,62 2,13 Source: MYPLACE Survey, Vic How satisfied people are with democracy is an important attitude in order to understand how young people perceive the functioning of the representative political system in Spain considering that it is democratic country only since late 1970s. Moreover, taking into Page 6 of 34

7 account the huge impact of the economic crisis in Spain, to observe how satisfied young people are with democracy gives us an indicator of the robustness of the system. In Graph 2.2, we can see how respondents view how well democracy works in Spain. On a 0 to 10 scale where 0 signals extreme dissatisfaction and 10 signals extreme satisfaction, respondents believe that democracy works poorly in Spain. In both cities, the means are quite low: 3.83 for Sant Cugat and 3.74 in the case of Vic. This is in line with previous studies that show how the macro-economic situation clearly influences an individual s assessment of how well democracy works (Norris, 1999). In other words, during an economic crisis, people tend to rate the performance of the democratic regime poorly, and this improves once the economic situation does. In the current economic crisis in Spain, young people are one of the groups that are suffering most. According to the Spanish Labour Force survey, the unemployment rate for the young (16-25 years old) is more than double (57.4 per cent) the already devastating national average of per cent (October 2013). Given the current situation, the strong critique of democracy s performance in Spain by its young people can be expected. Graph 2.2 Satisfaction with democracy Sant Cugat 3,83 Vic 3, Source: MYPLACE Survey, Satisfaction with how democracy works is related to the functioning of institutions and political actors and we move to these aspects now. Trust in politics might have different effects depending on the type of institution we are referring to and the type of political activity. As Newton (2001: 205) argued, political or institutional trust indicates an evaluation of the political world and a reflection of how well the political system is performing in the eyes of its citizens. Low trust suggests that something in the political system politicians, institutions, or both is thought to be functioning poorly. However, when there is more support for the political system (Easton, 1975) and more institutional trust, citizens might perceive political organisations as more efficient and, consequently, they might be Page 7 of 34

8 motivated to engage in institutionalised activities. If there is a low level of political trust, with the combination of other factors such as higher internal political efficacy (Gamson, 1968), we could expect a tendency of young people towards being engaged more in noninstitutionalised activities. In general, the level of institutional trust is low (Table 2.2). However, substantive differences arise if we look at the specific nature of the institutions. Social and humanitarian institutions are the most highly rated. In Sant Cugat, the highest ranked organisations were (in order) Greenpeace, Amnesty International, and the United Nations. In Vic, Greenpeace is also the mostly highly rated, while Amnesty International and the United Nations are in third and fourth place respectively. The institutions in which young individuals have the least trust are the representative political institutions, particularly the head of government, who received the worst evaluation in both Sant Cugat (2.86) and Vic (2.66). The remainder of the leasttrusted institutions are made up of religious and economic institutions (banks) and are the second and third worst in both Sant Cugat (2.91; 3.35) and Vic (3.11; 3.47). Table 2.2 Trust in institutions, political actors and organisations Characteristics (comparison group) Sant Cugat Vic N Mean s.d. N Mean s.d The head of government (PM) Religious institutions Banks Political parties The army Parliament Regional Government The media (national press and TV) The courts The European Commission The police The United Nations Amnesty International Greenpeace Source: MYPLACE Survey Page 8 of 34

9 2.2 Political activism Political participation is a multidimensional and complex concept. Nowadays, the study of political participation implies a broad range of activities. In clear contrast with previous studies, which were very much focused on a narrow perspective of electoral and institutionally based activities, the present research can be characterised by a very broad conceptualisation of political participation. As one of the goals of MYPLACE has been to understand the different ways that young people can engage in politics and social life, we have measured activism by enlarging the concept of political activities. In our survey, we use a battery of 20 activities in order to measure different types of activism (but not including electoral participation, which was asked in other questions, and not including specific involvement in different sorts of groups, which is an aspect that will be analysed later in this section). Moreover, the questionnaire offers information about the frequency of participation in activities by an individual (if the respondent has done each action once, twice or three or more times). However, to present a clear overall picture of political participation in both Vic and Sant Cugat in Table 2.3, we display only the percentage of respondents who, in the last 12 months, have participated at least once in the given type of political action. Table 2.3 Participation in political activities Political action (%) Vic Sant Cugat X 2 Df. Sig. Volunteered in an election campaign Contacted a politician Attended a public meeting Signed a petition Collected signatures Given a political speech Distributed leaflets with a political content Boycotted or bought certain products Written political messages or graffiti on walls Worn a badge with a political message Participated in a demonstration Participated in a strike Donated money Written an article Written or forwarded a letter/an Participated in a violent political event Occupied buildings or blocked streets Participated in a flash mob Uploaded political material to the Internet Voted in student union elections Source: MYPLACE Survey, Page 9 of 34

10 In Table 2.3, we see that there is great diversity in the level of participation, depending on the different kind of action. As expected, the activity with the lowest participation was violent political events. These are actions with high costs, and only very politicized people, who usually belong to a radical group, participate in this kind of action. However, and unexpectedly, there was very low participation in electoral campaigns. This was second only to violent political events in terms of low participation in Sant Cugat and the third lowest in Vic (4 per cent in both locations). This is particularly surprising since the elections for the parliament of Catalonia took place just before the period of the fieldwork. Due to the active debate surrounding Catalan independence, these regional elections mobilized extremely high levels of interest and action, among the highest ever in the recent history of Catalonia. For that reason, the low participation in electoral campaigns is particularly meaningful and appears to document the growing distance between young people and political parties. The fact that very few respondents had contacted a politician, just 10 per cent in Vic and 13 per cent in Sant Cugat, also supports this position. In contrast, other political activities are widespread among young people. Two-thirds of young people in Vic and Sant Cugat reported that they had participated in at least one demonstration in the previous 12 months. There were also high levels of participation in other common non-institutional activities: strikes (54 per cent in Vic and 56 per cent in Sant Cugat), signing petitions (24 per cent and 29 per cent, respectively), and boycotting certain products (23 per cent and 28 per cent, respectively). Furthermore, more than a third of young people reported using the Internet to upload political material (34 per cent in Vic and 40 per cent in Sant Cugat). The propensity of young people to turn towards less institutional forms of political participation and the distance between them and traditional political actors, like parties or politicians, is evident in our analysis and in previous scholarship. These findings are supported by international studies on youth political participation (Norris 2004; Zukin et al., 2006; Dalton, 2008), as well as studies in Catalonia and Spain (Benedicto and Moran, 2003; Ferrer-Fons, 2006; Gonzalez et. al. 2007; Soler-i-Martí, 2013). In the next section, we provide an in-depth analysis of the cases of Vic and Sant Cugat. Table 2.3 also presents statistically significant differences in young people s political participation between Vic and Sant Cugat. Young people in Sant Cugat are more prone to signing petitions, giving a political speech, boycotting products, writing political messages on walls, donating money, participating in violent political actions, occupying buildings, uploading political materials to the Internet and voting in student elections. By contrast, young people in Vic were only more likely to attend public meetings. 2.3 Involvement in political and social groups Page 10 of 34

11 Since the work of Almond and Verba (1963), the relationship between social and political participation has been an important issue in the study of political behaviour. Young people can be involved in different types of political and social groups, but what matters for participation is not only what happens in these social and political organisations in terms of the acquisition of social skills and resources that are useful for political action (Verba, Schlozman and Brady, 1995), but also being located near networks of mobilisation and recruitment for other political activities such as protest, political consumerism, Internet activism and so forth. Associational participation has repeatedly been found to relate quite strongly to political participation in many Western societies (Olsen, 1982; Van Deth, 1997). Although it is true, as Verba and Nie (1972: 295) argued, that association participation increases the mobilisation of those from higher-status groups more than those from lowerstatus groups because of the greater propensity of those from a higher-status group to join organisations, organisational involvement can overcome the handicaps to political participation imposed on people by low status (Olsen, 1982: 108). Verba, Nie and Kim (1978) made a distinction between individual-based inequalities and group-based inequalities. Group-based mobilisation enables less resourceful groups to participate as much as groups with more resources. To be involved in non-political groups and in social networks is conceptualised as having group resources that feed political involvement Table 2.4 shows information relating to young people s participation in organisations in Vic and Sant Cugat. In this case, we concentrate specifically on overall participation, despite having more precise information in the survey (being a member of an organisation, participating in activities or doing voluntary work). Table 2.4 Participation in organisations Participation in organisations (%) Vic Sant Cugat X 2 Df. Sig. Political party Religious or church organisation Trade Union National or local Youth Parliament Environmental organisation Animal welfare group Peace organisation Human rights organisation Immigrants organisation Women s organisation Anti-globalisation organisation or movement Sports club Student union Neighbourhood association Militarised youth organisation Popular culture association Leisure-time education organisation Page 11 of 34

12 Other organisations Source: MYPLACE Survey, Compared to the previous analysis, there is less variation in involvement in organisations between Vic and Sant Cugat. There is only one case of high participation sports clubs which involves 38 per cent of young people in Vic and 45 per cent in Sant Cugat. However, participation in sports organisations is different by nature. This category can include gyms or other organisations that tend to be for-profit. In general, sports clubs do not always fit the definition of a civic association with a collective, public and non-profit purpose. The organisations that have a higher level of participation are two kinds of associations that are popular in Catalonia: popular culture associations (18 per cent in Vic and 16 per cent in Sant Cugat) and leisure-time education organisations (20 per cent and 26 per cent, respectively). It is usually young people who constitute those in leisure-time education organisations. Popular-culture associations tend to be more intergenerational but with a high participation of youth. Indeed, the associations with a higher level of participation tend to have a clear focus on youth and young people, as is the case for student unions or youth parliaments. When analysing participation in different associations, we see that participation in Vic and Sant Cugat is similar. Young people in Vic participate significantly more in three types of organisations: political parties, youth parliaments and neighbourhood associations. Young people in Sant Cugat are more likely to participate in religious associations, peace organisations, sports clubs and leisure-time education organisations. As we found for participation in individual political actions, we would expect that young people in Sant Cugat, due to their better socio-economic position, would participate more than young people in Vic. However, this is not the case. These surprising results may be due to differences in how young people identify with their town: Sant Cugat is a commuter town located very close to Barcelona and it is likely to have weaker feelings of belonging than Vic, which is the capital of the rural county of Osona, where there are strong feelings of belonging and identity. We have found evidence for this in the research as the most popular associations in Vic were those with strong bonds to the community (e.g. youth parliament and neighbourhood associations). 2.4 Typology of youth activism In the deliverable D6.1 of WP6, we developed a typology of young people regarding their participation patterns to allow us to map their activism. We did this in order to attain a better idea of the interaction between different dimensions of participation and involvement in organisations, which we analysed earlier. In order to do this, we ran a cluster analysis that gathered together those individuals who displayed similarities in groups. The logic of the analysis was to create the most internally homogeneous groups that were Page 12 of 34

13 MYPLACE 31 May 2014 MYPLACE: FP ww ww.fp7-myplace..eu Deliverable 6.2: 14 national-level reports outliningg the fit between local-level (case-study areas) analysis and typologisation and nati ional-level analysiss and typologisation. Page 13 of 34 distinct from other groups.. The ana alysis used a two-step cluster ana alysis, with nine variables (8 dummies and 1 categorical) bein ng used to opeo erationalise the nine dime ensions ofo activism considered for the cluster anaa alysis. The variables introduced in the anal lysis were dimd mensions constructed using the one es presented above: formal political par rticipation, voting, expressive activities, protest actions, politp tical consumption, non-legal activities, participation in non-political organisations, political organisation representation and issu uewe oriented orga anisations or mov vements. 1 After anaa alysing the results of the cluster analysis, opted for a groupingg of respondents into fivee groups. To better illustrate the five types of activism and appreciate the soc cial representations of civic and poli itical participation amongst the respondents, we employed the ana alysis of qualitative data a, linking quantitative and qualitative approaches. The results of the clus ster analysis are shown IIn Table 2.5 and Graph 2.3: Table 2.5 Clu ustered groupss of participants N The inactive 130 Sporadic formf mal participants 311 Multi-activists protesters 298 Mono- protesters 318 Formal participants 111 Total combined 1,168 Excluded cases 21 Total 1,189 Source: MYP PLACE Survey,, % combined 11.1% 26.6% 25.5% 27.2% 9.5% 100.0% % total % % % % 9.3% % 1.8% % Graph 2.3 Typology of participants 1 S See Deliverable 6..1 for more information onn the elaboration of these dimensi ions.

14 Source: MYPLACE Survey, Table 2.5 shows only the frequencies of the resulting groups and the name that we have given to them. Table 2.6 gathers together all the descriptive data for each group. Table 2.6 Characteristics of the groups of the typology Characteristics of the groups Inactives (N 130; 11.1%) N % variable % group ratio group/average Sig Protest / non-institutionalised actions 0 0.0% * Expressive activities 0 0.0% * Formal political participation 0 0.0% * Political consumption 0 0.0% * Political representation organisation 0 0.0% * Voting Abstention % * No right to vote % Voted % Social movement / issue-oriented org 0 0.0% * Non-political organisation (excluding 0 0.0% sports org) * Non-legal protest 0 0.0% * Sporadic formal participants (N 311; 26.6%) N % variable % group ratio group/average Sig Protest / non-institutionalised actions % * Voting Abstention % * No right to vote % * Voted % * Formal political participation % * Expressive activities % * Non-legal protest 7 6.4% * Non-political organisation (excluding % sports org) * Political consumption % * Social movement / issue-oriented org % Political representation organisation % Page 14 of 34

15 Multiactivists protesters (N 298; 25.5%) N % variable % group ratio group/average Sig Social movement / issue-oriented org % * Non-legal protest % * Expressive activities % * Political representation organisation % * Political consumption % * Non-political organisation (excluding * % sports org) Protest / non-institutionalised actions % * Formal political participation % * Voting Abstention % * No right to vote % Voted % Mono-protesters (N 318; 27.2%) N % variable % group ratio group/average Sig Formal political participation 0 0.0% * Political representation organisation 0 0.0% * Protest / non-institutionalised actions % * Social movement / issue-oriented org 0 0.0% * Non-political organisation (excluding sports 0 0.0% org) * Non-legal protest 0 0.0% * Political consumption % * Expressive activities % * Voting Abstention % No right to vote % Voted % Formal participants (N 111; 9.5%) N % variable % group ratio group/average Sig Formal political participation % * Voting Abstention 0 0.0% * Page 15 of 34

16 No right to vote 0 0.0% Voted % Expressive activities % * Protest / non-institutionalised actions % * Social movement / issue-oriented org 0 0.0% * Non-political organisation (excluding * 0 0.0% sports org) Political representation organisation % * Non-legal protest 0 0.0% * Political consumption % * The inactive is a very homogeneous group and represents 11 per cent of the sample. They are young people who declare having done no political activity in the past 12 months. The only variable where there is some participation is voting, with some 19 per cent of the inactive group reporting participating in the last general election. Sporadic formal participants (27 per cent of the sample) are less participatory in most variables than the average young person. However, they have significantly higher levels of formal political participation (52 per cent) and participation in non-political organisations. One in every four young people in the sample is in the multi-activist protester group and this group is above average on all the indicators for participation. Remarkably, nearly all report having participated in protest activities (98 per cent) and expressive actions (98 per cent). What most distinguishes this group is their high participation in both issue-oriented movements and in non-legal political activities (93 per cent report the latter). The mono-protesters are the biggest group of participants and represent 27 per cent of the total. They show very low levels of participation in all dimensions, except for protest. Nevertheless, every individual in this group reports having joined a protest in the last 12 months. The last group, the formal participants, is the smallest (10 per cent of the total sample). The two most distinguishing features of this group are that all the individuals participated in formal political actions and that they all voted in the last general election. In addition, all of them participated in expressive and protest activities, while not a single group member participated in issue-oriented movements. At the same time, 40 per cent of the group participated in traditional political representation organisations. Overall, protest and expressive activities appear to be the most transverse forms of participation. Protest is not reserved to multi-activist protesters or mono-protesters. With the exception of the inactive, all groups participated in protest activities. The broad nature of extra-institutional participation among such diverse profiles of young people confirms that protest has become well accepted in society (Ferrer and Fraile, 2007), and involves a more diverse range of people than in the past. Page 16 of 34

17 Now that the participation clusters have been well defined, we can proceed in comparing political participation by group in Vic and Sant Cugat. Table 2.7 presents the frequencies of the different clusters for Vic and Sant Cugat. There are no big differences and, in fact, the Chi-square test is not significant, which signals that the types of participants in both cities are similar even if the overall socio-economic contexts differ. Table 2.7 Participation groups per location Young people in the participation groups (%) Vic Sant Cugat Total X 2 Df. Sig. Groups of participants The Inactive Sporadic formal participants Multi-activitist protesters Mono-protesters Formal participants Source: MYPLACE Survey, Page 17 of 34

18 3. General patterns of youth activism in Catalonia and Spain 3.1 General overview In the previous section, we illustrated the types of activity that the youth of Vic and Sant Cugat took part in and, in this section, we take a look at some of the key indicators of political involvement and activism for young people at the Spanish and Catalan level. Both Vic and Sant Cugat are Catalan localities and for this reason, we have decided to include data for Catalonia and not only for Spain. Catalonia has its own peculiarities and idiosyncrasies regarding the political context that might affect political attitudes and behaviours. In particular, Catalonia is at present experiencing an intense political process and debate on its political future and possible self-determination. This situation clearly has an effect on the political involvement of young people. Hence, in order to compare local findings with the general context, including data on youth participation for Catalonia, we identify similarities and differences between the two locations selected in the MYPLACE survey. Therefore, in this section, we present data on political attitudes, political activism and organisational involvement of young people in Spain and Catalonia, and in particular, we give special attention to the differences between them. In the last part of this section, we also present the results of a cluster analysis from a representative survey of young people from the whole of Catalonia. This survey was carried out in a similar way to the one we highlighted earlier for Vic and Sant Cugat. 3.2 Political attitudes Historically, Spain has been one of the western European countries that has displayed low levels of interest in politics (Martin and Van Deth, 2007). This has been related to the influence of the Civil War and the Francoist dictatorship, which transmitted a negative image of politics to several generations of Spaniards. If we look at the interest in politics of young people, the literature has found in general terms that they tend to be less interested in politics than adults do. However, it has to be said that this is not the case for all the indicators of psychological political involvement and that this is probably related to the fact that young people feel more distant from formal politics (Garcia-Albacete, 2008). In Graph 3.1 we show the percentage of young people s responses to questions on their level of interest in politics. The data comes from a survey of the Centro de Investigaciones Page 18 of 34

19 Sociológicas (CIS) undertaken in 2011 and including young people from 15 to 26 years old. We show the results for both Spain and Catalonia. Graph 3.1 Interest in politics among young people (15-26 years old) in Spain and Catalonia, ,2 26,1 39,3 30,3 30,8 35, ,8 8,5 0 Very interested Quite interested Not very interested Not at all interested Spain Catalonia Source: Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas (CIS), Study 2919, As we can see, the number of young people who are very or quite interested in politics in Spain and Catalonia (30 per cent and 35 per cent respectively) is significantly lower than those young people who are not at all interested or not very interested in politics (70 per cent and 66 per cent). The difference between Spain and Catalonia is not very remarkable but it seems that young Catalans tend to be slightly more interested in politics than the Spanish average. The satisfaction with how democracy works in Spain has suffered a significant reduction in the last years of the economic crisis. Graph 3.2 shows the average for Spanish and Catalan youth on a 0-10 scale where 0 is not at all satisfied and 10 completely satisfied. Graph 3.2 Satisfaction with democracy among young people (15-26 years old) in Spain and Catalonia, Page 19 of 34

20 Spain 4,77 Catalonia 3, Source: Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas (CIS), Study 2919, In both cases, Spanish and Catalan youth are not impressed with their state s democratic performance (see Graph 3.2). But here the difference is very significant. While for Spanish young people, the average level of satisfaction with democracy shows a mean of 4.77 on a 0-10 point scale, for their Catalan counterparts, the mean is almost a point lower at 382. This lower evaluation on the performance of democracy in Spain given by Catalan young people may be due to the specific political context in Catalonia. The independentist debate has contributed to an increase in critical views towards the level of Catalan autonomy in Spain. Another way to view the youth evaluation of the political system is to look at the level of trust in key political institutions in the country (see Table 3.1). In the next table, we present the score that different political and social institutions received from young people in Spain and Catalonia. The interviewees were asked to score their level of trust in these institutions on a 0-10 point scale, where 0 means complete distrust and 10 complete trust. Table 3.1 Trust in institutions among young people (15-26 years old) in Spain and Catalonia, Spain Standard Average deviation Catalonia Standard Average deviation Sig.2 NGOs Political parties Trade Unions Spanish Parliament The monarchy The army Significance calculated with ANOVA test between the average for Catalonia and the rest of Spain. Page 20 of 34

21 Source: Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas, Study 2919, In general terms, the level of trust of young people in political and social institutions is very low. From the list of institutions available in the survey, only young Spanish people gave NGOs and the army a mean of 5 or more. The NGOs are the institutions that inspire more trust among young people but they are also the institutions in the list that are less related to the State and the formal political system. When we look at the key institutions of the formal representative system of democracy, the scores are very low: For Spanish youth, trust in the Spanish Parliament, the monarchy or the political parties and trade unions always scores a mean between 3 and 4. Yet, when comparing the answers of Catalan interviewees with the Spanish average, we note that they give lower scores in the majority of institutions. This greater distrust among Catalan youth is particularly high in the case of the monarchy and also in other institutions of the State like the Spanish Parliament or the army. 3.3 Political activism In the majority of Western countries there is a diversification of political actions. In particular, several studies have identified a growth in political protest not only in terms of quantity but also in terms of diversification of the profile of individuals who use protest as a means of expression and political participation (Norris, 2002; Dalton, 2002). This phenomenon is known as the normalization of protesters (Norris, Walgrave, and van Aelst, 2005). At the same time, conventional forms of participation (such as voting, being a member of a party and attending campaign activities) have tended to decrease. A common element in these transformations is the leading role of youth. The studies emphasising the decline in traditional participation, as well as the studies stressing the emergence of protests, explain this phenomenon by generational replacement (Norris, 2004; Putnam, 2000). Young generations are more likely than older ones to participate through protest actions and less through conventional, or institutionalised, ways of participation. Spain is one of the European countries where political protests, and most particularly demonstrations, are more widespread. In a recent longitudinal study, Jimenez (2011) detected this fact, demonstrating the proliferation and normalization of protests in Spain; the data in Table 3.2 confirm this argument with some 43 per cent of young Spaniards acknowledging that they have participated in a demonstration. Table 3.2 Political actions among young people (15-26 years old) in Spain and Catalonia, Spain Catalonia Sig. Participate in a demonstration Attend a political meeting Buy certain products for political. ethical or environmental reasons Page 21 of 34

22 Send political messages or participate in a political forum via a mobile phone or the Internet Source: Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas, Study 2919, ,013 The next highest indicator of political action refers to political consumerism, with some 28.6 per cent of the interviewees in Spain acknowledging that they have bought products for political, ethical or environmental reasons. Political consumerism is an emerging politicalparticipation action that has usually been used as an example of the widening of noninstitutionalised political repertoires. Consumption can be classed as political behaviour, albeit as a much wider vision of the very concept of the political, one beyond the forms and spheres of traditional and institutional participation. Table 3.2 also shows the results for attending political meetings (17.3 per cent in Spain) and highlights the relatively low levels (7.4 per cent in Spain) of political activity via new technology. 3 The data for Catalonia indicate that young Catalans tend to concentrate their political activity in political consumerism and demonstrations Participation in political and social organisations In Spain there has never been a high level of political membership in organisations, not even during the transition to democracy and the years thereafter, when there was a greater level of political mobilization. It has traditionally been the case that affiliation with political parties or trade unions has always been very low compared to other European countries. For these traditional political organisations (parties and unions) the participation of young people is even lower than the average population (Soler-i-Martí, 2013). Furthermore, there seems to be a growing gap between young people and political parties (García-Albacete, 2008). The results in Table 3.3 highlight the percentage of young people from 15 to 26 years old that are members of different kinds of organisations. In addition, the data confirm the low participation levels in political parties (3.8 per cent in Spain and 3 per cent in Catalonia) and in trade unions and entrepreneurial organisations (3.2 per cent and 4.3 per cent respectively). These low percentages are consistent with membership in other political organisations. In Spain, the levels of membership are under 10 per cent for human rights and social aid organisations, youth and student organisations and professional organisations. In Catalonia the participation in some of these associations is slightly higher; in student organisations (11.6 per cent), human rights and social aid organisations (9.8 per 3 Although we have to recall that the survey was done in 2011, before the Indignados movement. In recent years, it is likely that the level of Internet activism has increased among young people in Spain as technological use and access have proliferated. Page 22 of 34

23 cent) and professional organisations (6.8 per cent). The participation rates in both Catalonia and the whole of Spain are significantly higher in non-political organisations such as sports groups (22.3 per cent in Spain and 28.8 per cent in Catalonia) or cultural and leisure associations (13.2 per cent and 19 per cent respectively). Table 3.3 Organisational membership among young people (15-26 years old) in Spain and Catalonia, Spain Catalonia Sig. Political party 3,8 3,0 0,703 Trade union or entrepreneurial association 3,2 4,3 0,599 Professional organisation 3,0 6,8 0,042 Religious association 5,6 7,3 0,249 Sports group 22,3 28,8 0,151 Cultural or leisure association 13,2 19,0 0,013 Human rights or social aid organisation 5,0 9,8 0,009 Youth organisation 9,1 14,1 0,199 Student organisation 6,9 11,6 0,078 Other voluntary organisation 7,3 12,9 0,008 Source: Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas, Study 2818, Typology of youth activism Another way to have a more complex view of political involvement consists in creating a typology of participants by considering different dimensions of participation. In Section 2, the typology was created for the respondents of Sant Cugat and Vic with MYPLACE data through a cluster analysis and it was done in the first deliverable of this Work Package (D6.1). A recently published study (Soler-i-Martí, 2013) has conducted this same exercise with a very similar methodological approach for all Catalonia. We cannot do a systematic comparison with this two-cluster analysis because they come from different surveys and they use similar but not exactly equal indicators. However, it is a good exercise to have an overview of the different types of participants in Catalonia and contrast them with the results we have seen for Sant Cugat and Vic. We present here only the descriptive results of this typology of Catalan youth regarding their political participation. 4 The data come from the Politics and Participation Survey carried out by the Catalan Youth Observatory in 2011 and includes young people from 15 to 4 For a more complete description of the methodology and the globality of the results, please read Soler-i- Marti (2013: ) Page 23 of 34

24 29 years old. Cluster analysis gathers together individuals with similar behaviour in the variables we introduce, creating internally homogeneous groups that differ from the other groups. In this cluster analysis, the variables introduced are: to participate or collaborate in an organisation or group; to be a leader of an organisation or group; to vote in the 2010 elections; to contact politicians or institutional collaboration; to take part in political consumerism; to participate in political protests (including demonstrations and signing petitions); to participate in illegal protests (includes barricading streets, writing graffiti or occupying a building); to undertake expressive participation (wearing badges with political messages); to participate online; and finally, to take part in institutional participation processes. Graph 3.3 shows the 4 resulting groups that are named as follows: Multi-activists, Institutional actives, Extra-institutionals and Passives. Graph 3.3 Types of participants among young people (15-29 years old) in Catalonia, Passives; 26,50% Multi-activists; 10,50% Institutional actives ; 24% Extra Institutionals; 39% Source: Generalitat de Catalunya, Enquesta de participació i política, The Multi-activists group is not only the smallest group (10.5 per cent of the young population) but also the most active in almost all the participation variables included in the analysis. Nearly all the young people included in this group are leaders of organisations. Aside from being the group with people more involved in associations, it is also the one registering the highest levels of activism in almost all the other forms of participation. Multiactivists are very active in those forms of participation that are oriented towards institutions and political representatives (such as voting, contacting politicians or collaborating with institutions) but are also very active in extra-institutional forms of participation (such as protest, political consumerism or expressive participation). Page 24 of 34