Here is some recent research which would be of interest to CivicSource followers:

Geographic Mobility, Social Connections and Voter Turnout

It is known that those recently moved are less likely to vote. If the decision to vote is a cost-benefit calculation, then those intending to move may also be less likely to vote as they will not be affected by the local result. This self-interested calculation might be mitigated if people vote sociotropically. We show that the effect of intending to move is conditional on levels of social capital: those who have invested in their community are less affected by their intention to move in their decision whether to vote.

Do You Have a Voting Plan? Implementation Intentions, Voter Turnout, and Organic Plan Making

Phone calls encouraging citizens to vote are staples of modern campaigns. Insights from psychological science can make these calls dramatically more potent while also generating opportunities to expand psychological theory. We present a field experiment conducted during the 2008 presidential election (N = 287,228) showing that facilitating the formation of a voting plan (i.e., implementation intentions) can increase turnout by 4.1 percentage points among those contacted, but a standard encouragement call and self-prediction have no significant impact.

Educational Model Development: Search for a Longer-Term Balance

Experience provides numerous examples where some model of education is considered superior to some other model, resulting in efforts to copy, or “import” the superior model without extensive research and public discussion as to the longer-term effects of such imports. We review the dominant educational trends in Asia, their recent historical development via pace-setting Japanese imports of mainly Anglo-Centred education, as well as the subsequent spreading of these practices from Japan to Korean and Chinese circumferences.