Abstract

In this essay, an overview is presented of the research on civic participation that was conducted in Belgium from the early 1960s onward. During the 1960s, Belgian researchers paid attention mainly to traditional social movements, to the study of pillarisation and the study of political apathy. While in the international research community interest in new social movements started to rise early in the 1970s, in Belgium this was the case only in the late 1980s. This late start, however, allowed Belgian academies to incorporate various perspectives on new social movements. In recent years, attention has shifted toward the study of civic engagement in general, and new social movements are now the topic of historical research, rather than of sociological research, In the closing part of this essay, two main problems for survey research on civic participation in Belgium are identified: a) the specific language situation in the country, which renders it more difficult to obtain good national samples; b) the fact that a public data archive is not available in the country.

How to Cite:

Hooghe, M., (2004) “Het onderzoek naar participatie en collectieve actie”, Tijdschrift voor Sociologie 25(1), 159–169. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/sociologos.86602