Talking about voting like we talk about obesity
I lied! Got the scheduler working, and no break in our weekly updates … yet.
As we shared last week, we’d seen some recent research around how we model the likelihood to vote. TL/DR: it’s quite hard, and broadly speaking, the political polling establishment hasn’t quite figured it out. Partly it’s a reporting issue, but it’s also an issue of our own discourse of voter/non-voter.
here is the post again: The Problem of “Likely” Voters
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One of the most common ways to think about electorates is as voters and non voters. Most famously with the 2016 election was the litany of “non voters cost the presidency” style headlines. But as we’ve said a few different times in a few different ways, maybe that’s not the best way to understand them.
One large area of research we’ve done is in analogous fields. For the personal responsibility aspect of voting we spent some time looking at exercise and obesity. And we have a much more sophisticated cultural and media understanding of this than of civic participation.
Imagine, in the face of any number of lifestyle related health crises we were to say “non-exercisers are making America obese”. Our reactions could include the rightful observations that this is certainly fat-shaming, that this probably misses underlying causes of obesity, and begs the question of what exactly constitutes exercising?
Pushed further, imagine this headline “non-runners are making America obese”. Why running!? Why only running!? Surely there are other valuable and viable forms that are better suited.
Yet this is exactly how we talk about civic engagement. It’s about the social and moral rot of “non-voters” and involves a really narrow view of what healthy civic involvement could entail.
An immediate implication. We know that fat-shaming is deeply problematic and certainly unhelpful when trying to motivate lifestyle and behaviour change. The hectoring use of shame might change a small number of people, but for the most part it is often just counter-productive.
And yet, our publicity approach to voting is grounded in shame and moral upbraiding. Who are we convincing with ‘tut-tut’ style celebrity montage videos promoting voting and what are we both losing and reinforcing in the process? What amount of the joy of civic engagement is lost, and what amount of guilt are we introducing into our political freedom?
This study from July 2018 links both obesity and community engagement, finding that increased obesity led to decreased neighborhood engagement by women, but not men.
This analysis of the need for wider community health initiatives in addressing Type 2 juvenile diabetes and their multi-dimensional approaches, begs the same question for how we think about and approach civic education.
And if you’re more interested in how the American public thinks about obesity and its relation to policy, this Pew study from 2013 is a good place to look.
An early draft working paper explores how we might understand the impact of the Women’s March, and the political value of protests.
Research on civic engagement by non-citizens - some lit review and some initial findings.
Some results and analysis from our design probes around local community and engagement.
Thank you to all those who have already dropped a line and shared your thoughts. And thanks in advance to sharing this with anyone else you think might be interested.
If you think of feedback, suggestions, or people we should meet, please get in touch! You can email us at: 1stpersonprojects@thedifferenceengine.co