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Nexus Politics

Conceptualizing How Everyday Political Engagement Matters

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2026

Matthew Flinders and
Matthew Wood
Matthew Flinders*
Affiliation:
Sheffield University; Sir Bernard Crick Centre for the Public Understanding of Politics
Matthew Wood*
Affiliation:
Sheffield University; Sir Bernard Crick Centre for the Public Understanding of Politics
*
E-mail: m.flinders@sheffield.ac.uk
E-mail: m.wood@sheffield.ac.uk
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Abstract

Existing research on alternative forms of political participation does not adequately account for why those forms of participation at an “everyday” level should be defined as political. In this article we aim to contribute new conceptual and theoretical depth to this research agenda by drawing on sociological theory to posit a framework for determining whether nontraditional forms of political engagement can be defined as genuinely distinctive from traditional participation. Existing “everyday politics” frameworks are analytically underdeveloped, and the article argues instead for drawing upon Michel Maffesoli’s theory of “neo-tribal” politics. Applying Maffesoli’s insights, we provide two questions for operationally defining “everyday” political participation, as expressing autonomy from formal political institutions, and building new political organizations from the bottom up. This creates a substantive research agenda of not only operationally defining political participation, but examining how traditional governmental institutions and social movements respond to a growth in everyday political participation: nexus politics.

Keywords

everyday politicsMichel Maffesolinexuspolitical engagementpolitical sociology

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Democratic Theory , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , December 2018, pp. 56 - 81
Copyright
Copyright © Berghahn Books 2018

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