Differences and Inequalities in Civic Participation among Bulgarian Youth

Abstract

This paper addresses the question: what explains the differences in young Bulgarians' involvement in informal volunteering, participation in associations and civic protests twenty-five years after the regime change. The explanation is based on the results of a representative social survey with 1030 young people aged 14-27 in the summer of 2014, funded by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. The data show that both attitudinal and behavioral measures of civic engagement are influenced, albeit in different degrees, by structural factors such as gender, education, family background, ethnicity, locality and socioeconomic status. A very important intervening variable is trust which in this survey is measured towards a variety of social groups. In general, young people in the country tend to express high trust in family and friends and low trust in people outside their immediate milieu. This kind of social capital mobilizing closed horizontal ties ensures support in uncertain times but does not enable more enriching, even if uncertain, contacts with members of wider communities. It also influences the types of voluntary actions young people engage in: more often informal personal assistance for people they know or see directly and much less often formal involvement in NGO activities. Having higher education, middle to high socioeconomic status, living in large cities or the country's capital provide opportunities for the young to recognize the benefits of membership in civic associations.

Bulgarian Civic and Citizenship Education in Transition

“…In 2014, the Bulgarian Youth Study was carried out as a part of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation's research project on youth in the Balkan countries (Kovacheva and Kabaivanov 2016;Kovacheva and Mitev 2014). The methodology of the study combined standard interviews with respondents aged 14-27 and in-depth interviews with young males and females in different social circumstances.…”

R&D PROJECTS AS INSTRUMENTS FOR ENHANCING GENDER EQUALITY IN UNIVERSITIES

“…Holman et al (2018) suggest that the existing work to date clearly highlights that the gender gap is smaller today than it was in the past and that there will be probably and quite soon men and women researchers in equal numbers. Although the number of female academics has been increasing over the years, the university continues to be considered elitist, masculine and patriarchal leading to a very small minority of women professors (Macarie and Moldovan, 2012;Seierstad and Healy, 2012;van den Brink andBenschop, 2012, Kovacheva andKabaivanov, 2016;Mutu, 2017 and others) and, in addition, there are very few women occupying senior management positions in universities (McTavish and Thomson 2007;Tomàs et al 2010). We believe that the balance tilted more than we think towards a better female representation in higher education and science (given various reasons that will be discusses later on), but much more work has to be done to even bring into discussion the gender balance concept.…”