Purpose

Following the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), many forms of bottom-up civic action emerged as ways to collectively “flatten the curve” and tackle the crisis. In this paper, the authors examine to what extent local online and offline social integration contributes to civic participation, above and beyond typical predictors such as news consumption and civic talk.

Design/methodology/approach

An online survey was administered among 7,137 users of the online neighbourhood network (ONN) Hoplr in Flanders (i.e. the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium) from 8 May to 18 May 2020. Regression analyses were used to examine how local social integration, in addition to news consumption, civic talk and political antecedents, predict different types of civic participation.

Findings

The results show consistent positive associations between news consumption, civic talk and civic participation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the role of political antecedents varied across different forms of civic participation. Further, the results point to the importance of both offline and online local social integration in explaining civic participation.

Originality/value

This study provides much-needed insight in the societal and democratic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. The results confirm the importance of local social integration in explaining civic participation, while also advancing theoretical understanding of more established predictors of civic participation, such as news consumption and interpersonal communication.

Peer review

The peer review history for this article is available at https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-08-2020-0379.

中文翻译：

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从下面解决 COVID-19：COVID-19 大流行期间在线社区网络用户的公民参与

目的

2019 年冠状病毒病 (COVID-19) 爆发后，出现了多种形式的自下而上的公民行动，作为集体“拉平曲线”和应对危机的方式。在本文中，作者研究了本地在线和离线社会整合对公民参与的贡献程度，超出了新闻消费和公民谈话等典型预测因素。

设计/方法/方法

2020 年 5 月 8 日至 5 月 18 日，在法兰德斯（即比利时的荷兰语区）的在线社区网络 (ONN) Hoplr 的 7,137 名用户中进行了一项在线调查。到新闻消费、公民谈话和政治前因，预测不同类型的公民参与。

调查结果

结果显示，在 COVID-19 大流行期间，新闻消费、公民谈话和公民参与之间始终存在正相关关系。此外，政治前因的作用因公民参与的不同形式而异。此外，结果表明离线和在线本地社会整合在解释公民参与方面的重要性。

原创性/价值

这项研究为 COVID-19 大流行的社会和民主后果提供了急需的见解。结果证实了当地社会融合在解释公民参与方面的重要性，同时也促进了对更成熟的公民参与预测因素的理论理解，例如新闻消费和人际交往。

同行评审

本文的同行评审历史可在 https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-08-2020-0379 获得。