Why? 🤔
🔎 We examine this question with a causal mediation model.
⛔ It is not because people feel much riskier joining.
➡️ The demobilizing path runs mainly through lower perceived efficacy, especially identity-building/solidarity efficacy, and lower expected public support.

We find that more politicization 𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐬 the willingness to protest.
👉 In the “highly politicized” condition, 48.0% were above the participation midpoint vs 57.8% under moderate politicization (−9.8 pp).
So, ramping up party cues and conflict can demobilize. 

Who gets asked? Mostly the “usual suspects”: men, highly educated, better-off.

Even during a crisis, CSO outreach often reinforced inequalities rather than reducing them. Spontaneous, informal help grew, but formal volunteering stayed tied to social advantage.

Our findings: Outreach by CSOs matters a lot.

People who were contacted were far more likely to volunteer, both formally and informally. But only ~1/3 of the population was ever asked, highlighting missed opportunities to engage willing citizens.

🚨 New article out in Journal of Civil Society with Swen Hutter!

We explore how civil society organizations (CSOs) mobilized volunteers during the COVID-19 pandemic, a moment of both rising need and shrinking organizational capacity.

📖 Open access link: doi.org/10.1080/1744...

Off to Madrid for #EPSA2025

Assuming I survive the heat, I'll be presenting two papers and joining a roundtable on protests and social movements in Central and Eastern Europe.

Looking forward to catching up with many of you there!

These are the latest polls, aggregated by Mircea Comșa, presented here: doarungraficsatimaispun.wordpress.com/2024/11/22/a...

📢 I’m over the moon to share that my Emmy Noether project, The New Climate Divide will be supported by
@dfgpublic.bsky.social
!✨
It includes a 6-year postdoc position and two 4-year PhD positions, which I’ll be advertising soon. If ClimateDivide sounds intriguing, stay tuned! 👀
Short 🧵👇

3) The over-time analysis shows that resources are crucial for explaining the absolute number of environmental issues and their relative share in the protest arena. In contrast, political opportunities are associated with a higher protest turnout.

2) Compared to other protests, environmental events are better attended, more associated with NGOs (as opposed to parties and unions). They are both less contentious (e.g., petitions and symbolic forms ) and more confrontational (blockades and civil disobedience), but not violent.

1) 2019 represents a peak, particularly in terms of the number of protesters and the relative importance of environmental issues in the protest arena.

This is observed not only in Northwestern Europe but also in Central and Eastern Europe.

❓How widespread is the new wave of environmental protests, and how do the profile and drivers of these events differ from others?

🔥 New paper with Swen Hutter in the @jeppjournal.bsky.social on Environmental Protests in Europe

See the paper 👉 tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Three key findings 🧵

I am grateful to all my wonderful colleagues at @wzb.bsky.social and @socfub.bsky.social for making the last five years in Berlin such a great experience!

I am happy to remain a guest at @wzb.bsky.social and to continue our ongoing work with Swen Hutter.

Stay tuned! :)

I am happy to share that I will be joining the University of Heidelberg as Junior Professor for Political Participation Research from February. 👨‍🎓🧐

I am really looking forward to meeting my new colleagues, new students, and being in such a green city surrounded by mountains!

📣 If you are studying in Berlin at the MA level, come and join us as a student assistant at the FU Berlin! 📣

We are excited to work together with you! 👋

🔎 We expect interest in social movements & parties, quant skills (R and/or Stata), English (German is not a must)

👉 Link shorturl.at/sALQ1