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Baggetta, M., Fulton, B., de la Riva Aguero, R., & Richardson, D. (2025). "The Diversity Layer: The Role of Coalitions Among Civil Society Organizations." Nonprofit & Voluntary Sector Quarterly.

This article shows that coalitions (civil society organizations whose members are organizations) have more demographic diversity than clubs (organizations whose members are individuals) and non-member organizations due to coalitions' unique strategic efficiencies to members and a membership stickiness that reduces homophilic membership churn, suggesting that coalitions form the diversity layer of civil society and could help bridge societal divides.

Baggetta, M., & Fulton, B. R. (2021). “Observing Civic Engagement: Using Systematic Social Observation to Study Civil Society Organization Convenings.”Voluntas.

This article describes systematic social observation (SSO), explains how we adapted this method to civil society organizations (CSOs) for collecting data on multiple convenings from several organizations, demonstrates the method’s viability, and illustrates the value of SSO for studying CSOs by presenting distributions of interaction styles and cross-demographic interactions across organizations.

Baggetta, M., Fulton, B. R., & Caplan, Z. (2022). “Space and Interaction in Civil Society Organizations: An Exploratory Study in a US City.”Social Inclusion.

This article discusses the introduction and viability of systematic social observation, which assembles comparable, quantitative data from many civil society organization (CSO) convenings (e.g., meetings, events, activities) and highlights two spatial variations—footprint and permeability—in CSO convenings, which suggest that when controlling for participant numbers and other characteristics, medium-sized spaces foster more interaction than small or large ones.

Baggetta, M., & Bredenkamp, D. (2019). “Systematic Social Observation in the Study of Civil Society Organizations.”Sociological Methods & Research.

To determine dynamics' variation across civil society organizations' (CSOs) convenings (i.e., meetings, events, and activities), we adapted systematic social observation (SSO) to the study of CSO convenings to capture beyond conventional quantitative approaches, which led us to argue that SSO data can improve on prior quantitative findings about CSOs and extend research in new directions.

Related Work

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.

Content source

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.

Content source

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.

Presentations

Academic

O'Neill School Faculty Research Kickoff Event, Indiana University (Bloomington, IN): “What Happens When Americans Convene?” (August 2026)

Civic Leaders Center, Evening Program, Indiana University (Bloomington, IN): “What Happens When Americans Convene?” (August 2026)

American Sociological Association (ASA) Annual Meeting (New York, NY): “Who Leads When Civil Society Organizations Meet?: Gender and Leadership Practice Across Organizational Types” (August 2026)

International Society for Third-Sector Research (ISTR) Conference (Lisbon, Portugal): “Who Leads When Civil Society Organizations Meet? Gender and Leadership Practice Across Organizational Types” (July 2026)

International Society for Third-Sector Research (ISTR) Conference (Lisbon, Portugal): “Civic (Dis)engagement?: The Role of Technology in Civil Society Organizations” (July 2026)

Midwest Political Science Association Conference (Chicago, IL): “Technology in Civil Society Organizations” (March 2026)

O'Neill School of Public & Environmental Affairs UPO Preview Day, Indiana University (Bloomington, IN): “Can Your Extracurriculars Save Democracy?” (February 2026)

The Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) Annual Conference (Indianapolis, IN): “A Nation of Organizers, Mobilizers, or Assemblers? The Collective Action Practices of Civil Society Organizations” (November 2025)

American Sociological Association (ASA) Annual Meeting (Chicago, IL): “Decision Making at Civil Society Organizations” (August 2025)

Mini-conference of the Collective Behavior and Social Movements (CBSM) Section of the American Sociological Association (ASA) (Chicago, IL): “A Nation of Organizers or Mobilizers—or Neither? The Collective Action Practices of Civil Society Organizations” (August 2025)

West Coast Nonprofit Data Conference (San Diego, CA): “Civic (Dis)engagement?: Technology’s Role in Civic Infrastructure” (April 2025)

Civic Leaders Center Evening Program, Indiana University (Bloomington, IN): “Can Civil Society Save American Democracy?” (December 2024)

Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) Annual Conference (Washington, DC): “Convening Spaces: Mapping the Sites of Collective Civic Engagement (Revised)” (November 2024)

American Sociological Association (ASA) Annual Meeting (Montreal, Canada): “Convening Spaces: Mapping the Sites of Collective Civic Engagement” (August 2024)

Americorps Seniors National Convening (Baltimore, MD): “How Engaging is Civil Engagement? Interaction at Civil Society Organization Convenings (Revised)” (April 2024)

West Coast Nonporofit Data Conference (Phoenix, AZ): “How Engaging is Civil Engagement? Interaction at Civil Society Organization Convenings” (April 2024)

O'Neill School of Public & Environmental Affairs MPO Experience Day, Indiana University (Bloomington, IN): “Can Civil Society Save American Democracy?” (April 2024)

Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) Annual Conference (Orlando, FL): “How Engaging is Civic Engagement?: Interaction at Civil Society Organization Convenings” (November 2023)

American Sociological Association (ASA) Annual Meeting (Philadelphia, PA): “How Engaging is Civic Engagement?: Interaction at Civil Society Organization Convenings” (August 2023)

Methodological Pluralism in Public Management Conference (Bloomington, IN): “Observing Civic Engagement: Using Systematic Social Observation to Study Civil Society Organization Convenings” (May 2023)

O’Neill School of Public & Environmental Affairs, Indiana University (Bloomington, IN): “Civil Society and American Democracy” (October 2022)

Civic Leaders Center, Indiana University (Bloomington, IN): “Can Your Extracurriculars Save Democracy? (And Other Questions about Civil Society)” (October 2022)

McMaster University, Spark: A Centre for Social Research Innovation (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada): “Systematic Social Observation of Civil Society” (November 2019)

West Coast Nonprofit Data Conference (Salt Lake City, UT): “Observing Civic Engagement: Systematic Social Observation of Civil Society Organizations” (April 2018)

Department of Information and Library Science, Indiana University (Bloomington, IN): “Systematic Social Observation in the Study of Associations and Civic Engagement” (April 2016)

Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) Annual Conference (Chicago, IL): “Systematic Social Observation in the Study of Associations and Civic Engagement” (November 2015)

American Sociological Association (ASA) Annual Meeting (Chicago, IL): “Systematic Social Observation in the Study of Associations and Civic Engagement” (August 2015)

Public Management Research Conference (Minneapolis, MN): “Systematic Social Observation in the Study of Associations and Civic Engagement” (June 2015)

Practitioner

Kiwanis Club of Bloomington, IN (May 2026)

Rotary Club of Saranac Lake, NY ( April 2026)

Rotary Club of Bloomington, IN (February 2026)

Newcomers and Neighbors Club, Bloomington, IN (November 2025)

Center for Sustainable Living, Bloomington, IN (February 2025)