Results

Baggetta, M., & Bello-Gomez, R. (2023). “Can You Sing Your Way to Good Citizenship? Recreational Association Structures and Member Political Participation.”Social Problems.

To determine the relationship of recreational associations to the political engagement of their members, we modeled the relationships between recreational association structures and member political participation through member experiences, along with countervailing selection effects to find that selection dynamics are the primary driver of the relationship between recreational associations and member political activity, and impact political participation by altering how members think about civic life.

Fulton, B. R. (2021). “Engaging Differences: How Socially Diverse Organizations Can Mobilize Their Resources More Effectively.”Social Forces.

This study advances diversity performance research by examining the effect of engaging social differences using data from a national study of organizations and finds that teams whose members regularly participate in bridging cultural activities and discussing their social differences achieve greater output, suggesting that diverse organizations can improve their performance by ensuring that their members interact in ways that engage their social differences.

Fulton, B. R., & Wood, R. L. (2018). “Civil Society Organizations and the Enduring Role of Religion in Promoting Democratic Engagement.”Voluntas.

This study links organizational theory with research on the structural and cultural characteristics of civil society organizations (CSOs) to assess the current impact of religion on democracy and finds a positive relationship between organizations that incorporate structural and cultural forms of religion and their organizing capacity, political access, and mobilizing capacity, suggesting that religion mediated by congregations and religious culture retains sufficient civic vitality to help politically-oriented CSOs foster democratic engagement.

Braunstein, R., Fulton, B. R., & Wood, R. L. (2014). “The Role of Bridging Cultural Practices in Racially and Socioeconomically Diverse Civic Organizations.”American Sociological Review.

This article analyzes the dynamics of internal diversity within a field of politically-oriented civic organizations and finds that “bridging cultural practices” are vital to racially and socioeconomically diverse organizations navigating challenges generated by internal differences, and a coalition’s prayer practices are associated with its objective level of racial and socioeconomic diversity and its subjective perception of challenges arising from such diversity, suggesting that bridging cultural practices may play a similar role within other kinds of diverse organizations.

Baggetta, M. (2009). “Civic Opportunities in Associations: Interpersonal Interaction, Governance Experience, and Institutional Relationships.”Social Forces.

This article identifies the distribution of civic development opportunities across civic sectors (e.g., politics, service, recreation), focusing on understudied apolitical groups and finds that apolitical arts associations provide as many or more opportunities for individual civic development than their politically- and service-oriented counterparts, suggesting their potential for shrinking the political communication gap between naturally politically interested and disinterested citizens.