active citizens? presentation by the vienna team: claire wallace, georg datler and reingard...

Active citizens?

Presentation by the Vienna team: Claire Wallace, Georg Datler and

Reingard Spannring

Youth, Citizenship & European Identities

European Commission

Fifth Framework Programme

Youth and European

Citizenship

Presentation by Claire Wallace

Institute for Advanced Studies, Vienna

Background

• Much debate about young people‘s political apathy

• Lack of voters in European elections• Lack of connection between European

integration project and citizens of Europe• Debate about role of citizenship education, but

mainly concentrated at national level (i.e. Crick Report )

• Variations in commitment to European project across Europe

European citizenship?

• European Union increasingly important in people‘s lives

• European integration at first economic but since 1992 increasingly political and increasingly social policy project (2000)

• Economic, political and social citizenship dimensions

• BUT citizenship debates/education mainly confined to national level

• How far are new citizens (young people) aware of this? How far are they taking part?

Citizenship debate in sociology• TH Marshall (1950): civil, political, social citizenship (citizenship as

rights). Inequalities: implicit economic model• Turner/Lister and debate of 1980s/Wallace and Jones life cycle

citizenship: about universalism and in/exclusion• Rights and mobilisation of rights (Barbalet) Role of civil society

(Keane)• Move towards citizenship as participation in 1990s (social capital,

social inclusion) • Citizenship debate mainly at a national level • Different models of citizenship in Europe and different meanings of

citizenship (Brubaker) but we are using that of the Crick Report.• European citizenship: not much discussed.

Research questions

What leads young people to find Europe important?

What leads young people to vote in European elections?

Does citizenship education help?

The study

• UK: Manchester and Edinburgh• Germany: Bielefeld and Chemnitz• Austria: Vienna and Vorarlberg• Spain: Madrid and Bilbao• Czech and Slovak Republics• 2001-2004• Sample survey and qualitative interviews• Target group and representative group of 18-24

year olds

European citizenship: an empty box?

• In the qualitative interviews most people could not name anything associated with European citizenship (rights and duties), whilst they could discuss national citizenship (taxation, military service, obeying laws, right to travel and work etc.)

• Typical answers „Don‘t know“ or „There are some things, but I don‘t know what they are“

• This included students of European Studies and other European orientations from the target group!

European citizenship: some things in the box after all

• Mobility: work, study, passport, shopping, Euro

• Supranational institution: human rights, democracy, immigration, protecting workers, redistribution, transit traffic but seen as remote and mysterious

• Economic: Euro, transfers, harmonisation of standards, business

What influences voting and interest in Europe?Citizen activation

Political efficacy

Discussing political and social issues with friends and relatives

Interest in a variety of issues

Joining organisations

Citizenship education: political, social

(controlling for education, region, economic status)

Variables

CitizenshipEducation

Political activation

Willingness to vote

Importance of European integration

Schematic illustration of key findings

Intended participation in EU-electionspercent of respondents

69,3

76,8

68,6

69,9

56,4

59,5

61,7

51,3

29,7

35,4

0 20 40 60 80 100

Vorarlberg A

Vienna A

Prague CZ

Bratislava SK

Chemnitz D

Bielefeld D

Bilbao E

Madrid E

Manchester GB

Edinburgh GB

Vorarlberg

Vienna PragueBratislav

aChemnit

zBielefeld Bilbao Madrid

Manchester

Edinburgh

1 Job and training (73.5)

Job and training (67.0)

Job and training(29.8)



Job and training 58.5)


Terrorism (76.9)

Education (60.5)

Education (51.5)

2 Education (66.0)

Education (63.3)

Education (28.5)

Education (40.1)

Education (52.6)

Education (50.3)

Terrorism (61.3)


Terrorism (59.9)


3 Gender equality (63.7)

Gender equality (55.0)

Environment (22.4)

European integration (21.8)

Gender Equaltiy (40.8)

Terrorism (41.0)


Education (63.7)



4 Environment (57.5)

Environment (47.0)

Minorities (21.2)

Environment (21.6)

Terrorism (34.8)


Education (41.7)



Terrorism (36.1)

5 Poverty (51.4)

Minorities (46.1)

Public Services (19.7)

Gender Equality (20.9)

Poverty (31.8)

Poverty(37.0)

Poverty (42.1)

Poverty (57.5)

Public services (44.7)


6 Animal rights (49.3)

Poverty (45.5)

Terrorism (20.3)

Terrorism (19.0)

Minorities (26.3)

Minorities (36.8)


Minorities (45.4)

Animal rights (44.0)

Poverty(31.5)

7 Minorities (47.8)


Gender Equality (18.3)


Environment (25.1)

Environment (25.6)

Minorities (38.0)


Minorities (43.2)

Minorities (30.2)

8 Minorities (47.8)


Poverty (16.2)

Poverty (16.6)



Environment (36.6)

Environment(42.1)

Poverty (40.1)


9 Terrorism (43.0)

Terrorism (31.5)







Environment (26.5)

Environment (22.4)

10




Minorities (13.7)






European integration(7.6)

Discussing political and social issues with friends and family (mean score)

2,23

2,42

2,34

2,05

2,32

2,34

2,56

2,35

1,74

1,7

0 0,5 1 1,5 2 2,5 3

Vorarlberg

Vienna

Prague

Bratislava

Chemnitz

Bielefeld

Bilbao

Madrid

Manchester

Edinburgh

Participation in organisations %

45

27

18

10

28

33

31

18

10

18

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

Vorarlberg

Vienna

Prague

Bratislava

Chemnitz

Bielefeld

Bilbao

Madrid

Manchester

Edinburgh

Percentages of respondents

Politcal efficacy (mean score)

5,0525

5,1754

4,125

4,7257

4,995

4,995

4,6608

4,2732

3,4879

4,0619

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Vorarlberg

Vienna

Prague

Bratislava

Chemnitz

Bielefeld

Bilbao

Madrid

Manchester

Edinburgh

What activates young people?

employment and educational status, citizenship education at school (political and social)region

Does citizenship education activate young people?questions

discussions about democracy and citizenshipparticipation of school pupilsthe possibility to meet and discuss with politicianscollecting for charitycollecting signatures for a petition Learning about other religions and cultures

POLITICAL and SOCIAL dimensions

50,1

53,3

36,6

24,1

58,6

65,0

24,8

22,1

37,9

49,4

46,0

46,0

34,7

54,0

61,8

21,2

39,2

68,6

70,2

0 20 40 60 80 100

Vorarlberg A

Vienna A

Prague CZ

Bratislava SK

Chemnitz D

Bielefeld D

Bilbao E

Madrid E

Manchester UK

Edinburgh UK

Target

Representative

Citizenship education in the research regions

Percentages of respondents who had at least 4 out of 6 citizenship experiences at school

ResultsActivation leads to interest in European integrationActivation leads to willingness to vote at all levels (especially at European level)Lack of citizenship education at school leads to less activation, leads to less likely to vote/take interest in European integrationBeing activated was strongly associated with experiences of citizenship education in schoolHowever, there are important differences in citizenship education between regions

What do young people in Austria say themselves?

The EU is not seen to engage with the issues that young people think are important, e.g. opportunities in education and work, environmental issuesHigh expectations of Europe are not fulfilledEU politics are overshadowed by national politicsYoung people would like better representation in European politics

RecommendationsConclusions

• Activation leads to interest in Europe and willingness to vote•Activation explains more in terms of European voting than at other levels•Activation leads to greater interest in European issues•Citizenship education makes a difference to activation even when all other things are controlled for•Regional variations: citizenship education strong in Germany, less so in Austria but lacking in other countries •In the UK: only the target sample seemed to enjoy citizenship education (elite)•Citizenship education should take on a European dimension•European citizenship a neglected dimension

active citizens? presentation by the vienna team: claire wallace, georg datler and reingard...

Documents

social citizenship citizenship

european citizenship

citizenship debateseducation

social citizenship dimensions

european project

role of citizenship

national citizenship

citizenship education