The article presents two studies that address issues concerning the evaluation of public participation. Study 1 aimed to validate two instruments for measuring the process (the Deliberative Process Perceived Quality Scale, composed of two factors: ‘‘dialogue’’ and ‘‘knowledge/understanding’’) and the outcome (Outcome Rating Scale) of a specific participatory procedure, i.e. the Open Space Technology (OST). Study 2 explored whether the participants’ evaluation of OST’s process and outcome predicted the future involvement of citizens in the same type of practices. Participants (N ¼ 471) were recruited during five OSTs held in Italy between January and October 2010. The results indicated that (a) ‘‘dialogue’’ and ‘‘knowledge/understanding’’ appeared as distinct mechanisms and (b) participants who experienced respectful and collaborative relationships, and who positively evaluated the results achieved, were more likely to repeat a similar experience in the future, irrespective of the associated cognitive gains. Implications for community development and empowerment processes are discussed.

This study is comparative and explanatory in nature, investigating whether different types of participation (formal political par- ticipation, legal activism, and civic engage- ment) are differentiated from one another by a set of psychosocial variables (organisa- tional commitment, perceived social sup- port, stress and coping mechanisms, and or- ganisational variables). We also investigate whether these variables can predict the long-term engagement of those involved in political and civic organisations, as research on collective action, community participa- tion, and volunteerism suggests. A survey was conducted on 517 members of a variety of political and volunteer organisations. The results showed a polarisation both between the political and civic forms of engagement and within the two political forms of partic- ipation considered. In addition, it was found that the factors predicting the long-term engagement of the individuals differed significantly among the three types of par- ticipation.

In this paper, the relationship between territorial sense of community (SoC), perceived ethnic heterogeneity within the community and ethnic prejudice was analyzed. Specifically, the moderating role of perceived ethnic heterogeneity within the community on the SoC–prejudice relationship was tested in a sample of residents (N = 603) of the Salento region, Italy. Results showed that the relationship between SoC and prejudice was moderated by perceived contextual heterogeneity. For blatant and subtle prejudice, when perceived ethnic heterogeneity was low, SoC was negatively associated with prejudice. In the case of modern prejudice, SoC was positively associated with prejudice when perceived ethnic heterogeneity was high. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Based on the Social Identity and Social Categorization Theory framework, this study investigated how identification with the physical component of a community (i.e., the place identity), the perception of a community (i.e., the ingroup) in terms of cohesion and entitativity, and the perception of one or more territorial communities as laying beyond a community’s boundaries (i.e., the outgroup) affect a psychological sense of community (PSOC). A survey was conducted with 477 residents (55.1& female; aged 16-80 years) in the Salento region, Italy. The results showed that the more individuals identified with the spatial community, the more they felt connected to their fellow residents and the more satisfied they were with their social relationships. More importantly, the findings highlighted the contribution of ingroup-outgroup relationships on shaping PSOC, which suggests that determinants of PSOC should include both the internal identification processes and the processes that lead communities to behave towards other communities.

Lo scopo di questo lavoro è provare che l’autoritarismo può essere visto come una difesa psicologica all’ansia provocata dalla percezione che la propria comunità stia perdendo la stabilità dei suoi stessi confini. Tale reazione è tanto più forte quanto maggiore è il bisogno dell’individuo di vivere in un contesto stabile e ordinato. A tale scopo il presente lavoro illustrerà i risultati di due ricerche: la prima (Studio Uno: 208 ss) ha lo scopo di costruire lo strumento empirico per misurare il costrutto della Perdita di Confini della Comunità; la seconda ricerca (Studio Due: 276 ss) è, invece, mirata a falsificare l’ipotesi proposta e, cioè, che l’autoritarismo sia da intendere come possibile difesa dall’angoscia procurata dalla sensazione di perdita di confini.

To date, the discussion of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has consistently addressed organizational activities, which are the focus of measures that are able to evaluate CSR in enterprises. However, the psychosocial characteristics of CSR have remained relatively unexplored. Indeed, some scholars have recently proposed that both the perspective-taking (as a cognitive dimension of CSR) and propensity to take care (as an affective dimension of CSR) of different stakeholders are related to sustainable and socially responsible organizational behaviors (as the behavioral dimension of CSR), thus fostering the development of CSR within enterprises that take a multi-stakeholder approach. According to this psychosocial perspective, we propose and test a multidimensional Psychosocial CSR (P-CSR) scale to measure organizational engagement in corporate social responsibility with regard to multiple stakeholders. By linking the cognitive, affective, and behavioral dimensions of CSR to the propensity of business professionals to enhance their environmental and social ethics, we offer a more complete description of how CSR involving multiple stakeholders arises in enterprises. A survey of 345 business professionals-including both employers and employees-of Italian Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) completed a self-reported questionnaire. Based on the psychosocial perspective, we found that multi-stakeholder-oriented perspective-taking, propensity to take care, and socially responsible behaviors are part of the same construct, leading to an exhaustive explanation of CSR at the organizational level. Moreover, we developed both theoretical and practical implications for the promotion of CSR in organizational contexts, especially among SMEs. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York.

Psychological sense of community (PSOC) has been a focus of extensive research investigation. However, despite the emphasis on the positive aspects of PSOC, scholars have paid relatively little attention on its negative aspects. The present work assumes PSOC to be a bipolar construct (Brodsky, 1996), introduces negative psychological sense of community (NPSOC) as a centrifugal force that drives individuals away from the community, and reports the development of the NPSOC scale. Community residents (N = 612) were sampled and surveyed to examine the statistical validity and the psychometric properties of the NPSOC scale. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) revealed that the second-order factor structure of NPSOC (consisting of four first-order factors) yielded the most satisfactory fit indices, with correlational analyses supporting the construct validity of NPSOC. To lay the foundation for future directions, the concept of NPSOC was further discussed in relation to its implications and to the construct of PSOC.

Many studies indicate that participation and sense of community (SoC) are associated factors enhancing community development. However, research has almost completely ignored the magnitude of the association between the two and the stability of this relationship across contexts, populations and different forms of community participation. A meta-analysis was conducted to assess the following: (a) the strength and stability of the SoC-participation relationship; (b) variations in this relationship associated with different forms of participation (i.e., civic and political); and (c) the influence of population characteristics on the SoC-participation relationship. The results showed that the SoC-participation relationship is significant, positive and moderately strong for forms of participation in the adult population and specific cultural contexts. Implications for theory and applications are discussed.

Embedded in the strand of research on the community determinants of sense of community (SoC), the study was designed to verify whether: (1) the size of the urban context was inversely related to residents’ SoC; (2) the size of the urban centers affected some of the correlates of SoC, namely the perception of social support, the residential environmental satisfaction, the residential social climate satisfaction, and the perceived reliability of local services in the areas of health, transport, administration, education, and security. The sample comprised 1254 individuals residing in a variety of towns/cities of different sizes in Southern and Northern Europe. Analyses revealed that the larger the town/city, the lower the SoC expressed by the inhabitants. They also showed that the residential environmental and social climate satisfaction, as well as perceived social support, were associated with an increase in SoC, but that there were variations in the patterns of associations according to towns/cities’ size. © 2017 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

The aim of this study was to adapt the Participatory Behaviors Scale (PBS) and validate the results for use among the Spanish population. Using snowball sampling methodology, 501 individuals from all areas of Spain were selected to participate in the study. The Participatory Behaviors Scale (PBS) and questionnaires that measure a sense of community, belief in a just world and Machiavellianism were used to analyze the criterion validity of the adapted scale. A confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the items on the questionnaire fit a second-order model with four factors, which corresponded to the four dimensions proposed by the original authors, namely, disengagement, civil participation, formal political participation and activism. Additionally, it has been found that the scale is related to a sense of community, belief in a just world and Machiavellianism. In light of these results, we concluded that the questionnaire is methodologically valid and can be used by the scientific community to measure participatory behavior. © 2015 Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de Madrid. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U.

Within Community of Practice theory, this study aimed at validating a psychosocial model about sustainable learning as a process of participation in socially responsible practices of organizations, fostered by ICTs. 345 workers, employers and employees of Apulian Small and Medium Enterprises, were involved in our study. Two main groups were considered: workers (N=130) who participated in DI.CO.TE., a project focused on building a sustainable digital network among SMEs (ICT group), and they (N=215) who were not part of this project (no ICT group). Both groups filled in a questionnaire, including several scales of Corporate Social Responsibility, organizational sense of community and commitment. Quantitative analyses demonstrated that the participation of workers in the sustainable practices fostered their organizational sense of community, which, in turn, influenced their commitment as a salient dimension of self-definition. Furthermore, ICTs empowered the sustainable learning process.