Do Voluntary Associations Show Their Bright or Dark Side Under Adverse Societal Shocks? Evidence From 9/11

Abstract

In this article, we re-assess the relation between association membership and individuals' feelings about immigrants, thereby focusing on possible shifts in this relation in the wake of negative societal shocks (i.e. the 9/11 terrorist attacks). That is, do such events tighten or loosen the connection between association membership and immigrant-intolerance? Using repeated survey data from Flanders (Belgium), our results indicate that there is at best a weak overall connection between association membership and immigrant-intolerance. The exception lies with members of socially embedded (or 'connected') associations, which tend to be significantly more tolerant towards immigrants. Interestingly, we find no significant change in the relationship between voluntary association membership and immigrantintolerance in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. This suggests that negative societal shocks have little direct impact on the membership-attitudes relation. The analysis contributes to discussions on the potential 'bright' and 'dark' sides of civic engagement.

In the wake of a terrorist attack, do Americans’ attitudes toward Muslims decline?

“…For instance, fear of terrorism increased in the US following the 2005 London attacks (Sinclair and Antonius, 2012). Similarly, Geys (2017) shows that Belgians were affected by the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks in the US. Additionally, because the Paris and San Bernardino attacks occurred in short order, any effects they had on Americans’ attitudes are likely to be cumulative.…”

Engagement in Civil Society and Different Forms of Social Trust in the Aftermath of the European Refugee Crisis

“…Studies have also shown that those involved in certain civil society organizations are less ethnocentric (Hooghe, 2003; Laurence, 2020; Lundberg & Abdelzadeh, 2021). Other studies have indicated that sudden shocks such as the 9/11 terrorist attacks did not result in changed levels of tolerance among those involved (Geys, 2017). We therefore expect little change in attitudes among those involved in civil society in the face of a sudden influx of asylum seekers (Geys, 2017).…”

“…The purpose of this study is to investigate the extent to which engagement within civil society relates to various forms of social trust among residents in local communities that received varying shares of asylum seekers during the European refugee crisis of 2015 to 2017. Previous studies have investigated how those active within civil society organizations were affected by distant critical events, such as the 9/11 terror attacks in the United States (Geys, 2017). This study investigates the following two core research questions: Were those involved in civil society organizations, in communities that received asylum seekers, more likely to have high levels of trust than those not involved?…”

Attitudes Toward Migration and Associational Activity: Evidence From Germany

“…Clearly, knowing more about public opinion on migration has always been a crucial issue (for comprehensive overviews, see, Ceobanu and Escandell, 2010;Hainmueller and Hopkins, 2014), but the events in 2015 fueled this discussion. Europe is hardly a continent under "siege," and scholars (Herreros and Criado, 2009;Fitzgerald, 2012;Geys, 2017) and commentators recently argued that hostility to migration is not driven by the numbers of migrants per se, but by perceptions of social cohesion. 2 At the same time, Reuband (2015) suggests in his study of the German nationalist, anti-Islam, farright group "Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident" that participants of the movement's demonstrations comprise a significant number of "ordinary citizens" who are employed and not socially isolated, but frequently well-embedded in society.…”

“…See online at: https://tinyurl.com/ybzqmb72. 4 As discussed more thoroughly below, according to the distinction in Putnam (2000), bridging civic organizations are "outward-looking" and tend to comprise people across diverse social cleavages; bonding clubs are "inward-looking" and tend to be based on more homogeneous memberships, thus reinforcing exclusive identities (see also Coffé and Geys, 2007;Grießhaber and Geys, 2012;Geys, 2017Geys, , p.1204 that it may lead to a potentially normatively negative effect: more skeptical views on migration. Social capital as the general, underlying concept is commonly viewed as a potentially powerful element binding members of a society and, especially given the emphasis on "improved efficiency," comprises a built-in normatively positive impact (see Grießhaber and Geys, 2012;Coffé and Geys, 2007).…”