
Over five decades of research has made clear that social networks can have an important impact on our political behavior. Specifically, when we engage in political conversation within these networks we develop connections that increase the likelihood that we will become politically active. Yet, most studies of political behavior focus on individuals, rather than the effects of networks on political behavior. Furthermore, any studies of networks have, by and large, been based on White Americans. Given what we know about the ways in which neighborhood, cultural, friend, and family networks tend to segregate along ethnic and racial lines, the authors of this book argue that we can assume that political networks segregate in much the same way.This book draws on quantitative and qualitative analyses of 4000 White American, African American, Latino, and Asian American people to explore inter and intra-ethnoracial differences in social network composition, size, partisanship, policy attitudes, and homophily in political and civic engagement. The book thus makes three key contributions: 1) it provides, for the first time, detailed comparative analysis of how political networks vary across and within ethnoracial groups; 2) demonstrates how historical differences in partisanship, policy attitudes, and engagement are reflected within groups' social networks; and, 3) reveals the impact that networks can have on individuals' political and civic engagement.
This book investigates how social network composition and political discussion patterns vary across different ethnoracial groups in the United States and how these networks influence individual political behavior. The authors, Marisa Abrajano, Taylor N. Carlson, and Lisa García Bedolla, utilize a multi-methodological approach to challenge the traditional focus on individual-level political behavior. By examining the intersection of race, ethnicity, and social connectivity, they argue that political networks are deeply segregated and that these structures significantly shape partisanship and civic participation.
What You Will Find
Scope Limits
Experts recognize this work as a significant expansion of political behavior research by incorporating diverse racial and ethnic perspectives into network theory. Readers frequently note that the text provides a rigorous, data-driven framework for understanding how social segregation impacts modern political engagement.
Page Count:
252
Publication Date:
2020-05-11
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
0190082119
ISBN-13:
9780190082116
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