Civic participation and social exclusion in rural and urban regions

Can widespread civic participation lead to social exclusion? I argue that this is possible, as high levels of regional civic participation can block specific social groups from social resources. When more actors participate in communal networks, the pool of social resources available to non-active individuals is diluted. This is especially true in rural regions. Using survey data from the German National Volunteer Survey (Freiwilligensurvey 1999-2014) and multi-level regressions, I examine the link between regional civic participation and the individual expectation of receiving support from people outside the own household. My findings reveal that civic participation rates on the macro level affect participants’ and non-participants’ expectations differently. While widespread participation is associated with a higher expectation of receiving support for participants, it is also associated with a lower expectation of receiving support for non-participants. Thus, high macro-level participation implies that non-participants are at risk of (subjective) social exclusion.