Fani Kountouri, Participatory types in Greece during the 2000s and the debt crisis. The significance of socio-demographic variables and media uses, Επιθεώρηση Κοινωνικών Ερευνών, 144|2015, 45-67

The aim of this article is to question two major political shifts occurring in Greece during the recent economic, political and social crisis. The first is related to the collapse of political commitment (declining levels of political trust, political interest and institutionalized forms of political engagement). The second is associated to the resurgence of civic and political engagement as indicated by the appearance of new forms of political participation. Two main issues are under investigation: the rise of new forms of political and civic engagement in a context of declining levels of important political variables and the specific role οf online media as one of the factors that influence patterns of engagement. More specifically, we question whether the debt crisis contributed to the emergence of a new political agent that acts in a more collective and participatory way, if there are some specific attributes to those participatory types and if the use of the net can generate political engagement. The above hypotheses are investigated utilizing empirical data from the European Social Survey (ESS) and from the National Centre for Social Research (EKKE).