Jeppe Bay Lynggaard defends his PhD thesis
Jeppe Bay Lynggaard defends his PhD thesis "Civic Engagement as Conditioned Participation - Relational, Normative, and Institutional Conditions in Civil Society".
The defense is public, and everybody is welcome; the defense is scheduled for a maximum of three hours and will be held in English.
The Doctoral School at Department of Social Sciences and Business will host a small reception afterwards.
Supervisors and assessment
Assessment committee:
- Associate Professor, Silas Fehmerling Harrebye (chairperson)
- Professor, Lesley Hustinx
- Professor, Johan von Essen
PhD Supervisors:
- Associate Professor, Troels Schultz Larsen
- Professor, Thomas P. Boje
Leader of defense:
- Associate Professor Lone Riisgaard
Resumé
This PhD thesis examines the conditions for civic engagement in civil society across three articles and an encyclopedia entry, each of which contributes to an understanding of how civic engagement operates at different levels and is shaped by relational, normative, and institutional conditions. The study is based on qualitative ethnographic fieldwork, network mapping, and interviews with active citizens, and draws on theory from civil society studies and sociology. The study has been conducted in two local communities with populations of approximately 1,500 and 4,000, and also draws on qualitative interviews from a third, urban area. Both communities are characterized by a wide range of civic activities in which citizens can participate, as well as by different institutions that help make them
attractive communities and maintain a lively atmosphere. The thesis is situated within a welfare-state context in which volunteering and engagement are celebrated as important for democracy, for sustaining life in local communities, and for creating activities. However, I take a critical perspective on this, by asking whom these activities are for, who has access to them, and who has the resources to participate. I do this by examining the conditions for civic engagement across the micro-, meso-, and macro-levels.
The thesis consists of an overall framework including an introduction, an overview of the field, a theoretical framework, methods, and conclusions. Together with the overall framework, the three articles and the entry answer my two research questions: How do institutional, normative, and relational conditions within civil society shape the forms and opportunities of civic engagement? And how do practices of civility and forms of civicness shape participation in formal and informal networks, and what mechanisms constrain and enable participation?
The first article reframes the understanding of civic engagement by connecting the concept to its core dimensions: citizenship, civicness, and civility. It discusses the relationships among the core concepts, both individually and collectively. The article provides a normative framework for investigating the inclusive and exclusive mechanisms of civic engagement by linking them to Nancy Fraser’s concept of parity of participation, thereby offering an approach to studying civic engagement that accounts for the relational, normative, and institutional conditions that shape participation.
The second article examines civic engagement at a micro-level by examining how practices of civility shape inclusion and exclusion. In the analysis, I conceptualize civility as the norms and practices that structure everyday interactions, and distinguish between two interrelated forms of civility: everyday civility and common good civility. Everyday civility, which fosters trust and familiarity, may enable engagement while reinforcing closed networks; while common good civility, which involves negotiating disagreements and collective concerns, can support deliberation without ensuring equal involvement. This illustrates that neither form is inherently inclusive – rather, inclusive civic engagement may depend on the dynamic interplay between the two forms of civility, and on the conditions that shape collective action. The article is based on interviews with citizens from the two communities who actively participate in their communities to varying degrees.
The third article combines the concept of civicness with a figurational approach, inspired by Norbert Elias. It concludes that a relatively small group of established citizens dominates civic life, and also illustrates the importance of informal networks and the alternative arenas they offer for civic engagement. Such arenas and networks are especially important for marginalized groups and citizens on the periphery, as they foster acceptance and a sense of belonging. At the meso-level, civic engagement is shaped by figurations and institutional contexts in which negotiations regarding norms and belonging occur, and by how it operates at the formal-informal divide. The article is based on qualitative interviews and network mapping.
The encyclopedia entry on Civicness provides a conceptual and historical overview of civicness across disciplines, and highlights how the concept bridges individual practices, institutional frameworks, and normative expectations regarding the common good. Civicness is situated in relation to social capital, public sphere theory, and figurational sociology, which both gives it an analytical foundation and clarifies its relevance across contexts.
Overall, the thesis proposes that a relational, normative, and institutional approach is necessary to understand the multifaceted concept of civic engagement, as demonstrated. Ultimately, it concludes that the conditions under which civic engagement occurs are important for its capacity to contribute to local communities. To support inclusive participation, civic engagement must be understood and studied through relations, norms, and institutional arrangements.
The dissertation will be available for reading at the Roskilde University Library before the defense (on-site use). The dissertation will also be available at the defense.