Relevance & research question: Political participation is a central and flourishing field of research in political science. Many models using mainly micro and macro-level explanatory factors have greatly contributed to our knowledge of who gets involved, why, and under which context. Yet, we don’t know much about the process of engagement, i.e. the triggers of participation or the factors that turn potential participators into politically active citizens. Investigating these dimensions calls for an analysis of the role of intermediate explanatory factors, and especially the role of mobilization by social groups or agencies.

The mobilizing effects of interpersonal communication networks have attracted a growing attention. However, these researches are limited to electoral participation and how political discussion among peers might influence the decision to vote. Few researchers have extended this framework to other forms of political participation. This paper intends to fill this little gap by looking at the mobilizing effect of interpersonal political communication networks (measured as political discussion networks) on the individual decision to participate politically. The goal is to emphasize that individuals do not act in isolation. They are influenced by the people with whom they discuss.

Data & Methods : This study uses social network analysis as main theoretical and methodological tool. We use data collected via an online survey among a sample quota of Belgian citizens (N=2,800). We combine traditional micro-level factors (resources and attitudes) and network characteristics (size, density, homogeneity, strength and type of social ties) to explain variation in participation levels among citizens.

Results: The analysis is still on going. The final results should be available around January 2017.

Added Value: On the one hand, the use of Social Network Analysis contributes to a methodological innovation: collecting relational data pertaining to discussion networks. This suggests the implementation of “name-generating” procedures in traditional survey questionnaire pertaining to political participation. On the other hand, this type of data allows to go beyond common socio-demographic and attudinal explanations of political participation, exploring the relational dimension of social capital and the effect that discussion with other people may imply in terms of political involvement.