Dr Jennifer Hardes Dvorak explores how you can use the upcoming General Election to enhance your students’ knowledge in some core areas of the sociology curriculum around questions of social class, gender and ethnicity, and provide an opportunity to make electoral politics more meaningful to them.
On Thursday 4th July 2024, if you’re a British citizen or qualifying resident over 18 years old you can vote in the general election. No matter your gender, ethnicity, religion, sexuality or disability, you have the right to exercise your vote. It’s such a taken for granted right that we might now presume that voting inequality is a thing of the past. Yet, despite making headway towards social equality, the 2024 general election will be just the third time in Britain that some prisoners (such as those who are on remand) can vote. Most prisoners are still unable to exercise this right. Likewise, although the voting age has been lowered to 18, we might also ask why younger people cannot vote when at the age of 16 they can legally have consensual sex, get married with a parent’s permission, work full time, and open a bank account.
Even when people do have the right to vote, not everyone exercises this right and chooses to use their vote. If they do, we might still ask whether their voting ‘choice’ was a wholly personal decision, or if their voting behaviour was shaped by wider societal factors. Indeed, the question of who does or doesn’t vote, and who they vote for, tells us a lot of interesting sociological information.
We know from official statistics that voting turnout has always been lower amongst the younger generations, but as time moves on the voting age gap is widening. Only approximately 54% of people aged 18-24 voted in the 2019 election. Accused of being ‘apathetic’ and politically disengaged, younger generations may feel not only stigmatised and shamed by these statistics, but also disenchanted by mainstream electoral politics (Sloam et al 2023). Some research suggests that younger generations do not see their concerns about sustainability and the environment reflected strongly enough in mainstream politics. A recent study shows how young people are ‘doubly disadvantaged’ in electoral politics: disproportionately lower unemployment rates in these groups impact their electoral turnout (Azzollini, 2023).
Although voter turnouts may be declining amongst the younger generations, students could also be encouraged to discuss whether young people are instead turning to other forms of civic engagement, engaged in everyday politics in other ways such as activism.
Asking Sociological Questions
In our book How to be a Sociologist we argue that sociologists must ask the right questions. For us, this means considering C. Wright Mills’ classic idea of the ‘sociological imagination.’ Being sociologically imaginative involves reflecting on how people’s behaviours or actions (personal troubles) are not simply their individual choices but are public issues – consequences of socio-structural inequalities. Voting behaviour, although deeply personal and private, is always socially shaped. Teachers might like to pose a range of questions to students around the forthcoming election to sharpen their sociological imaginations and hone their knowledge and research methods toolboxes. As with the example of young people and electoral behaviour above, teachers might also like to use the election to enhance students’ knowledge in some core areas of the sociology curriculum around questions of social class, gender and ethnicity.
For instance, you might ask students:
1. Does social class predict political party affiliation?
The election presents an excellent opportunity to discuss social class divisions and class identity and politics with students. It would be interesting to ask students who they think might be attracted to different political parties. They might be interested to know that despite Labour once securing most working-class votes, the 2019 election was described as the fall of the ‘red wall’ and represented the defection of traditional Labour supporters to the Conservative Party (Cutts et al, 2020). In fact, according to Bale et al 2023, as of 2023, the working classes are actually the least likely to support Labour.
Teachers might also discuss with students how social class identity heavily categorises voters who have swung to parties like Reform UK/Brexit Party on the ‘far right.’ These voters are typically older, white, male and working class and have been described as the ‘left behind’ (Isakjee & Lorne, 2019), often criticised for their xenophobic and anti-immigration beliefs. This same group is also disaffected by the impacts of capitalism – austerity, unemployment, and deprivation – and is more susceptible to right wing ideologies that use racism and prejudice to fuel their political campaigns. The election is therefore an opportune moment to discuss stigmatisation, social class, identity and deprivation more broadly within the sociology curriculum.
2. Is there a voting ‘gender gap’ and, if so, why?
As well as class identity, the election is an opportune moment to consider gender differences in voting behaviour. Women are less likely than men to hold strong party ties and tend to show more concern about financial security and a strong NHS (Bale et al, 2023) than favouring one political party over another. British women have historically tended to vote more conservatively, explained in part by their traditional domestic roles, stronger likelihood of holding religious beliefs, and less exposure to trade unions associated with the Labour party.
Elsewhere – particularly in the United States – the political views of women have moved towards the Left as women entered paid work and higher education. It was only in 2017 that British women began to follow the global trend with more women, particularly in younger age brackets, voting Labour. Neimanns (2022) argues that parties promising better childcare may secure more female voters – typically policies affiliated to Labour. Niemanns also suggests, however, that these childcare policies tend to attract affluent middle-class women seeking to return to work more so than their working-class peers.
3. How can the election be used to examine questions of racism and ethnic inequalities?
How votes differ by ethnicity is also sociologically significant. Most Black and ethnic minority voters tend to vote Labour while British Indian voters are slowly increasing support for Conservatives (Duckworth et al, 2021). Although there is little difference in electoral turn out between ethnic groups, Sobolewska & Barclay’s (2021) research reveals that electoral registration itself is often a significant hurdle to voting, particularly impacting women of Pakistani or Bangladeshi origin.
There is also an issue of representation. Minority ethnic representation in local government remains lower than the corresponding population. Although the last three general elections have increased the representation of Black and minority ethnic MPs, only recently has there been a shift away from ‘ethnic ghettoization of ethnic minority politicians’ (Sobolewska & Shankley, 2020) where minoritised MPs have been able to win previously ‘white’ seats.
4. How do research methods shape what we know about voting and politics?
Of course, the data and evidence we have on voting is also shaped by the research methods we use. In How to be a Social Researcher, we discuss the advantages of quantitative methods in giving us a big picture overview of demographic differences within society, but we also acknowledge its limitations. For instance, researchers may face challenges of sampling and representativeness. Statistics may not currently capture enough useful data on the voting behaviour of groups living in rural areas; there are also issues of data collection when English is a second language. How can we understand the views of the electorate if we cannot reach them or if survey data only gives us part of a more complex overall picture? The Election therefore gives us the opportunity to scrutinise methods and to ask questions about research rigor, evidence, truth and knowledge. We might also want to ask where people get their political information from and how the rise of social media, AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ‘fake news’ has created more complexity around how we can discern knowledge, truth and fact.
Reflecting with Students
Posing some of the questions above with students may provide an opportunity to make electoral politics meaningful for them. As younger generations continue to be accused of being politically apathetic, inciting their imaginations to think about politics sociologically, and to consider how they might engage in politics in meaningful ways, can reveal the transformative potential and promise of sociology.
About the Author
Dr Jennifer Hardes Dvorak is a Senior Lecturer at Canterbury Christ Church University where she teaches and researches in the fields of Sociology, Criminology and Law.
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References
Azzolini, L. (2023). Doubly disadvantaged: Unemployment, young age, and electoral participation in the United Kingdom. The British Journal of Sociology, 74(5), 8170836.
Bale, T. et al (2023) The state of public opinion. UK in a changing Europe. Available at: https://ukandeu.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/UKICE-The-State-of-Public-Opinion-2023-2-.pdf
Cant, S. & Hardes, J. (2021). How to be a sociologist. London: Harper Collins.
Cant, S., & Hardes-Dvorak, J. (2023). How to be a social researcher. London: Harper Collins.