protest or going on strike would constitute unconventional participation. Despite
the abundance of research on the topic, a clear definition of conventional and
unconventional political participation is yet to be developed and it still proves to
be a contentious issue among scholars. Much of this difficulty comes from the
dualist perspective the concept enforces. By interpreting participatory activities
as either conventional or unconventional, it ignores the complexity of the matter,
and does not acknowledge the potential for varying degrees of conventionality.
For example, while ‘attending a rally’ and ‘taking part in a riot’ would both be
considered forms of unconventional participation, the latter is clearly more
unconventional. However, the simple, dualist conventional-unconventional
distinction does not acknowledge this difference.
To effectively categorise participation in terms of conventionality a simple dualist
perspective will not suffice. This notion is shared by Kaim, who puts forwards a
framework that aims to develop a more complex understanding conventional
and unconventional participation. The framework draws on Luhmann’s system
theory (1990) which suggests that meaning is constructed by drawing
distinctions in observation. Admittedly Kaim uses much the same logic as the
simple, dualist conventional-unconventional distinction, but crucially defines
conventional and unconventional participation around six dualisms: “1) legal–
illegal, (2) institutionalized–not institutionalized, (3) government–opposition vs.
government–governed logic, (4) public–private, (5) collective–individual, and (6)
unity–plurality” (Kaim, 2021, p.60). Under this framework, the left represents
the conventional while the right represents the unconventional. An activity
would be considered entirely conventional if it was legal, institutionalized,
supported the government-opposition logic, occurred in the public sphere,
enforced the needs of the collective and promoted social unity. The framework
develops a more complex view of what constitutes conventional and
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