Sociological Views on Political Participation in the 21st Century

by Ruth Elwin Harris, Betty A. Dobratz, Timothy Buzzell

Political sociology continues to be the most significant place for the study of the relationship between society and politics. The study of political participation has always formed an important part of this research and in this volume, we present a diverse collection of works dedicated to assessing current research and future directions in the field. In the first volume of the series, Braungart suggested that political occurrences are born out of social dynamics. We find continued evidence of this.The electoral politics of society, whether unusual as presented in the symposium of the US 2000 election, or more routine, can be understood in terms of models of political participation that build on the work of political sociologists over the last 25 years. The contributors also examine political participation in the form of social and political movements, sharing the theoretical frameworks used by political sociologists to understand, describe and predict political participation. In compiling this volume we find the study of political participation to be alive and well, providing fruitful arguments and ideas for future research.

284 pages, Hardcover

First published April 8, 2002

About the author

Ruth Elwin Harris says that her historic quartet of novels, THE SISTERS OF THE QUANTOCK HILLS, had its beginnings while she was growing up during World War II. To escape the wartime bombing, she and her brother were sent to live with their grandfather in rural Somerset, England. His house and garden became the model for Hillcrest, the Purcell sisters' family home in the four-part series.

Another influence came later, when Ruth Elwin Harris emigrated to Canada at the age of twenty-one . "There was no such thing as e-mail then," the author says, "and the telephone was rarely used -- it was expensive and calls had to be booked. Letter writing was the way we kept in touch. Friends and family wrote often, and I was amazed at how accounts of the same incidents and people were often so different."


Years later, when Ruth Elwin Harris sat down to tell the story of the orphaned Purcell sisters, she remembered those letters and their different viewpoints and incorporated the idea into her writing. Each book has a different sister as heroine, and the story is told from that sister's point of view. "It was strange how partisan I became," the author says . " When I was writing SARAH'S STORY, the first in the series, I became very indignant about the way Frances was behaving, yet when I came to write about the same incidents in FRANCES'S STORY Frances's behavior seemed to me absolutely logical and right."


Ruth Elwin Harris won writing competitions as a schoolgirl, and also dramatized a children's novel for a school production. Before starting on the Quantocks series she wrote short stories for the British Broadcasting Corporation and for magazines. While researching the background for JULIA'S STORY, she came across a collection of family letters in the Imperial War Museum in London, which resulted in her only nonfiction book, BILLIE: THE NEVILL LETTERS 1914-16.


The author enjoys gardening ("very good for working out writing problems in one's mind"); music, particularly opera; traveling; and, of course, reading. She lives with her husband in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England.