ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a review of theoretical perspectives on civic and political participation based on the disciplines of social psychology and community psychology. Within social psychology there is a long history of interest in when and why individuals act prosocially, and in more recent times the attention has been devoted to the explanation of sustained prosocial action or volunteerism. It considers the two most well-known: the volunteer process model and the role identity model. The authors distinguish three interdependent dimensions or preconditions for participation: the presence of shared social representations among community members; a shared social identity; and sharing the conditions and constraints of access to power in terms of both material resources and symbolic recognition. The chapter discusses the relationships of sense of community, SoC with adolescent social and political participation. Actual/past participation should be considered a learning experience and its effects feed back dynamically into its precursors.
