MEASURING ONLINE MOBILISATION POTENTIAL FROM A MICRO-NARRATIVES SURVEY: LEADING CONCERNS FOR POST-YUGOSLAV RESIDENTS IN AUSTRIA, GERMANY, AND CROATIA

Abstract:The paper explores the leading issues and concerns experienced by people of Post-Yugoslav origin living in Austria, Germany, and Croatia and which of those issues have the strongest potential for political mobilisation when discussed online. The data were collected in a Micronarratives Survey carried out in 2019. The questionnaire included an open-ended entry question asking which situation made respondents uneasy in the country where they live or anywhere else in the world. It then explored (1) how reading about that issue online makes them feel, (2) how ready they are to undertake unconventional political action to solve the issue, and (3) what direction of change they are inclined to pursue to solve the issue. Relationships between these three dimensions are validated through Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), resulting in an Online Mobilisation Score (OMS) which is estimated for all respondents and extrapolated for each theme of leading concerns. The main finding of the research is that, in 2019, Post-Yugoslav residents in the three countries were most frequently concerned about government decisions, but Diversity and Equality was the theme with the most potential for political mobilisation among those respondents (there being too much or too little of diversity and equality).

 

Keywords: diaspora, confirmatory factor analysis, online mobilisation