Online but still not taking part? : A multi-method investigation of the online participation divides in Germany

In this presentation, I summarize the main results of my cumulative dissertation about the online participation divides in Germany. I briefly present the three articles that my dissertation consists of. In the first piece, a systematic literature review is conducted to assess the current state-of-research and to derive a typology of online participation. In the second piece, salient drivers of online participation are researched from a social cognitive perspective. This contribution shows that cognitive factors, namely privacy concerns and online self-efficacy, partly mediate the effect of demographic antecedents (age, gender) and education on different forms of online participation. Finally, German users' online participation patterns are differentiated along social milieus. This contribution expands notions of the digital and participation divide with a cultural perspective. At the end of the presentation, I address the chances and risks of writing a cumulative dissertation and describe my own experiences along this way.

The presentation is part of the alumni day of the Oxford Internet Institute's Summer Doctoral Programme (OIISDP), where invited ex-participants of the Programme present and discuss their current research.