Metropolitan residents’ community consciousness and their participation in community activities in Japan: A social survey in Kyoto city

Abstract

The aim of this study is to understand how metropolitan residents’ community consciousness (peoples’ attitudes toward their local community) and their demographic factors affect their participation in community activities in Japan. Two hundred and ninety four individuals were surveyed with a questionnaire that included a measure of community consciousness. Factor analysis showed that community consciousness was composed of four factors, which were solidarity, self-determination, attachment, and dependency on others. The result suggests that people thought that citizen’s participation in the administrative decision-making process was more important. Multiple regression models were employed, in which respondents’ demographic factors and community consciousness were set up as explanatory factors, and their participation in community activities as outcome variables. The analyses of those models showed that having children and being a woman were positively correlated with more frequent companionship with near neighbors and more positive participations in local community activities in a metropolitan city. These analyses also revealed that the respondents with a high level of dependency on others were reluctant to participate in local community activities and have neighborly companionship. Residents who have a high level of attachment to their local communities tend to overestimate the quality of their local communities