Julia Mayr

// DISSERTATION PROJECT

Education and Political Participation: An Empirical Analysis from a Life-Course Perspective

Political participation is one of the central pillars of our democratic system, as the interest and commitment of the broad civil society contribute significantly to the long-term stabilisation of democracy. However, current data indicates that certain citizens can participate to a greater extent in the political discourse – as they possess the necessary means. Since, among other things, not all population groups are equally engaged and (feel) equally represented by politics, the support and basic trust of other, potentially less privileged citizens is increasingly crumbling. In this regard, the pandemic-related exceptional situation may have further shifted the balance of power in the political sphere. These developments contradict the democratic principle of political equality and can contribute to the destabilisation of the political system, which illustrates the great socio-political relevance of this highly topical issue.

In this context, the educational aspect is of essential importance – the formal education component is considered a central predictor of political engagement. It can be assumed that higher educational attainment and the accompanying longer educational path accumulate more abilities and interest as well as knowledge about the political system and the associated institutions and lead to a stronger internalisation of the importance of democratic values.

Accordingly, the present thesis aims to examine the causal effect of education on political participation in greater depth using an interdisciplinary approach and a life-course perspective to identify and better understand potential underlying (causal) mechanisms that mediate the causal effect. Therefore, aspects like political interest, competencies, political self-efficacy, institutional and social trust will be enquired in more detail regarding their potential role as (mediating) mechanisms. Since there are only a few studies addressing this topic in German-speaking countries and no consensus has yet emerged in international research due to ambiguous findings – a detailed investigation would provide a considerable gain in knowledge.

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// ACADEMIC BACKGROUND  

2019 – 2022
Master of Arts in Sociology, University of Bamberg, Germany

2014 – 2019
Bachelor of Arts in Sociology, University of Graz, Austria

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// EXPERIENCE

10/2023 – today

Research Assistant in the Project Returns to Education | Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories, Bamberg

09/2019 – 09/2021

Student Research Assistant | Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories, Bamberg

Staff "NEPS-Entwicklung"