Using Focus Groups to Study the Process of (de)Politicization

Abstract

Palgrave macmillan, 2017 (p.365-387). The growing distance that seems to characterize the relationship that citizens entertain with politics-in Western democracies, in particular-is matter for concern. How to make democracy work when those who are supposed to be the source of legitimate power don't bother to engage? (Hay, 2009; Stoker, 2009) Although the causes of citizens' de-politicization are most probably largely external to them – as, for instance, the disappearance of social capital, the role of modern media, globalization and the blurring of political accountability, neoliberalism and the individualization of social relations (Zürn, 2016)-their effects should also be analyzed, observed and interpreted. Interrogating such effects is all the more important, if we hope to find triggers that would help in reversing the trend of de-politicization. Focus groups might prove useful for studying (de)politicization-provided that they are designed appropriately. I did have experience of this in a study dedicated to attitudes towards European integration (Duchesne et al., 2013) i. The original project aimed to analyze a more specific process, conflictualization, i.e. how people accept or avoid conflict in public discussion. We first conducted an experimental series of three groups on delinquency which yielded promising insights (Duchesne and Haegel, 2010, 2004). We decided to replicate the study in a broader setting, in order to compare the French dynamic we had already observed