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What Is Informal Participation?: Introduction to the Special Issue: Quietly Standing Out: Understanding Informal
Laurence Bherer1, Pascale Dufour1, Françoise Montambeault1
1Université de Montréal, C.P. 6128, succursale Centre-Ville, Montréal, QC H3C 3J7 Canada.
International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society
|January 23, 2023
Summary
Citizen participation extends beyond formal activism to everyday actions like responsible consumption and urban initiatives. These informal modes of participation are increasingly recognized by social scientists across various disciplines.
Area of Science:
- Social Sciences, Urban Studies, Political Sociology, Critical Geography
Background:
- Citizen participation traditionally focuses on formal activism and public demonstrations.
- A gap exists in understanding participation through everyday practices and daily activities in the public sphere.
- Recent scholarly attention is emerging from diverse fields like urban studies and political sociology.
Purpose of the Study:
- To define and operationalize the concept of informal modes of participation.
- To establish a common analytical framework for studying these activities.
- To bridge existing literature and foster dialogue among scholars.
Main Methods:
- Literature review on citizen participation and related social science scholarship.
- Conceptualization and operationalization of informal participation.
- Development of an analytical framework for empirical contributions.
Main Results:
- Identified informal participation through everyday practices (e.g., responsible consumption, urban actions).
- Demonstrated that these actions are not geographically or temporally exclusive.
- Highlighted the growing academic interest in this under-researched area.
Conclusions:
- Informal participation represents a significant, yet often overlooked, dimension of citizen engagement.
- A unified framework is needed to advance research on these everyday acts of participation.
- This special issue provides a foundation for future interdisciplinary dialogue and research.
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