What Do Digital Skills and Competencies Reveal About Political Participation and Trust? Insights from the Austrian Digital Skills Panel Project

Description

Most western democracies are under pressure. They faced and continue to face complex 'multi-crises', which includes, but is not limited to economic, health and migration related challenges. These crises led to a loss in trust in political institutions in many countries, providing ample opportunities for populist and anti-democratic actors to position themselves. In parallel numerous digital technologies matured, providing the public with new means for political participation. However, this came with a cost: fears of misusing digital technologies for political gains, the widespread dissemination of disinformation and misinformation as well as other aspects like polarization are continuous reminders.

While there is substantial research on loss of trust in political institutions and how political participation changed, the role digital skills and competencies of the public played in these processes is less researched, despite the often-discussed influence of digitalization on the public and political sphered. Accordingly, we discuss what kind of influence digital skills – inspired by van Deursen and Helsper – and digital competencies – inspired by the EU DigComp Framework – have on conventional (e.g. voting), as well as alternate and digital forms of participation (e.g. online petitions, social media engagement with politicians) before testing their impact on trust in political institutions.

Using multi-wave CAWI panel data from Austria (n=2000; multi-stage-quota sampling, matches population structure), focusing on digital skills and participation, preliminary results show that digital skills – especially those tied to digital privacy and safety – and interest in digital technology have a statistically significant impact on political online participation. Yet there is no indication that political participation in general benefits from digital skills or competencies. Trust is positively correlated with skills and competencies.

Period	30 Aug 2024
Held at	European Sociological Association
Degree of Recognition	International