Welcome to the Club: From Multimodal Voluntary Participation to Community Involvement

Abstract

This study integrates the theory of media multiplexity and a social network perspective to examine whether and how multiple modes of participation in voluntary groups, that is, multimodal voluntary participation, facilitate community involvement. Analyzing a 2013 random sample survey of 400 residents in the Greater Cleveland area, Ohio, in the United States, the results show that multimodal voluntary participation contributes to community involvement after controlling for local social ties and multiple affiliations. However, the normalization hypothesis was not supported as individuals who occupy bridging affiliation positions are not necessarily more advantaged than are those without such positions in adopting multimodal voluntary participation and engaging in community activities. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.