Active citizenship involves citizens having control over their daily lives as users of public services, allowing them to influence decisions, voice concerns, and engage with service provision. This includes both choice and voice, enabling citizens to impact service provision by participating in local policies, interacting with institutions, and expressing preferences. It encompasses activities in politics, workplaces, civil society, and private spheres. This concept emphasizes how citizens' interactions with staff, administrators, and politicians at different levels affect their ability to shape services according to their needs. Three dimensions are considered: choice, empowerment, and participation. Choice involves informed decisions about service use, empowerment allows individuals to control their lives as users, and participation includes engaging in policy processes and influencing services.[1]
Active citizenship or engaged citizenship refers to active participation of a citizen under the law of a nation discussing and educating themselves in politics and society,[2] as well as a philosophy espoused by organizations and educational institutions which advocates that individuals, charitable organizations, and companies have certain roles and responsibilities to society and the environment. Active citizens may be involved in public advocacy and protest, working to effect change in their communities.
An active citizen is someone who takes a role in the community; the term has been identified with volunteering by writers such as Jonathan Tisch, who wrote in the Huffington Post in 2010 advocating that busy Americans should try to help others, particularly by offering high-level professional expertise in such areas as banking, education, engineering, and technology to help the less fortunate.[3]
Active citizenship is considered a buzzword by some[who?]due to its vague definition. Examples include volunteering, donating, and recycling.
Developments in social media and media literacy have changed how scholars begin to look at, and define active citizenship.[4] Active citizenship in politics can lead to an apparent consumption of the engaged person rather than offering people with an informed, active opinion.[5] Social media sites let people spread information, and create events to provide opportunities for engaged citizenship.[6]
Social media and the internet provide a public access point to government affairs, and police, away from town hall meetings, creating communities with similar concerns to recognize the pitfalls of governments and government policies.[6]
Examples of active citizenship in education
Due to concerns over such things as a lack of interest in elections (reflected by low voter turnout), the British Government has launched a citizenship education program.[when?] Citizenship education is now compulsory in UK schools up to 14 and is often available as an option beyond that age.
In Denmark, active citizenship is part of the curriculum in Danish teacher's education. The course is defined as 36 lessons.[8]
In Canada, there is an Active Citizenship Course being run at Mohawk College in Hamilton, Ontario. It is a compulsory course that is delivered by the Language Studies Department to all students at the college.
In the United States, writer Catherine Crier wondered in the Huffington Post about whether Americans had lost sight of Thomas Jefferson's sense of active citizenship. Crier lamented how Americans have tended to neglect participating in voluntary associations, and tend to live as "strangers apart from the rest", quoting Tocqueville.[9] In contrast, writer Eboo Patel in Newsweek suggested that President Obama had a somewhat different sense of active citizenship, meaning strong families, a vibrant civic center in which persons of different faiths and secular backgrounds work together, with government acting as a "catalyst".[10]
Jose Antonio Vargas writes in his memoirs, Dear America: Notes from an Undocumented Citizen, that undocumented immigrants, who contribute to the cultural, social, and economic fabrics of their adopted countries, are and ought to be considered citizens of those countries, notwithstanding what immigration authorities call them. He calls this a "citizenship of participation".[11]
↑ Lewis, Justin; Wahl-Jorgensen, Karin; Inthorn, Sanna (2004-05-01). "Images of citizenship on television news: constructing a passive public". Journalism Studies. 5 (2): 153–164. doi:10.1080/1461670042000211140. ISSN1461-670X. S2CID145242468.
↑ Jonathan Tisch (April 27, 2010). "Active Citizenship: A New Approach to Volunteering". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2010-06-16. I introduced Citizen You, the movement I've spearheaded to encourage Americans to utilize their professional skills to help others. This new kind of volunteering, which has come to be known as 'active citizenship,' is a fresh, innovative solution to an old problem: Countless busy Americans would love to help others, but simply don't have the time to figure out the perfect way to be useful. What could be more useful than applying high-level professional expertise -- in banking, law, education, engineering, technology, and other fields -- toward problems faced by those who are less fortunate?
↑ Mihailidis, Paul; Thevenin, Benjamin (2013-11-01). "Media Literacy as a Core Competency for Engaged Citizenship in Participatory Democracy". American Behavioral Scientist. 57 (11): 1611–1622. doi:10.1177/0002764213489015. ISSN0002-7642. S2CID145079247.
↑ Gaëlle Faure (August 12, 2009). "British Citizenship: Points Off for Protest?". Time. Archived from the original on August 15, 2009. Retrieved 2010-06-16. Becoming British just got trickier. Under a new government proposal announced on Aug. 3, would-be Brits may have to work a little bit harder to get their citizenship when a second test is added to the country's points-based immigration system. If the plan goes through, applicants would serve a term as 'probationary citizens,' winning or losing points on the path to the passport depending on how well they fit into British society. Critics have also attacked the ways points could be awarded. Some worry that the 'active citizenship' fast track would coerce candidates into volunteering,
↑ Catherine Crier (May 21, 2006). "A Degree in Citizenship". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2010-06-16. Alexis de Tocqueville, described our challenge over a century ago in his monumental work, Democracy in America. So clearly did he see the strength of a democracy and the weakness of human character, his words might have been written today. He said, in summary, that our real power as a people came through voluntary associations. Our personal freedoms would be protected if we could voluntarily resolve the problems of society, rather than permit the heavy hand of government to do it for us. But he recognized our great weakness--the willingness to live 'as strangers apart from the rest'.... we Americans have failed to shoulder our responsibilities. The qualities of active citizenship that Jefferson ascribed to us have not been realized, nor have our appointed leaders lived up to their noble assignment.
↑ Eboo Patel (March 18, 2010). "The Faith Divide". Newsweek. Archived from the original on March 25, 2010. Retrieved 2010-06-16. Barack Obama's vision of the good society is based on the idea of strong families, a vibrant civic sector that includes groups from various faith and secular backgrounds working together, and a government that serves as a catalyst, a convener and a capacity-builder, while always respecting the line between church and state. And Barack Obama's Faith Council gives me a vision for what active citizenship in that good society can look like.
Alexis Charles Henri Clérel, comte de Tocqueville, was a French aristocrat, diplomat, sociologist, political scientist, political philosopher, and historian. He is best known for his works Democracy in America and The Old Regime and the Revolution (1856). In both, he analyzed the living standards and social conditions of individuals as well as their relationship to the market and state in Western societies. Democracy in America was published after Tocqueville's travels in the United States and is today considered an early work of sociology and political science.
Participatory democracy, participant democracy, participative democracy, or semi-direct democracy is a form of government in which citizens participate individually and directly in political decisions and policies that affect their lives, rather than through elected representatives. Elements of direct and representative democracy are combined in this model.
Citizen participation or public participation in social science refers to different mechanisms for the public to express opinions—and ideally exert influence—regarding political, economic, management or other social decisions. Participatory decision-making can take place along any realm of human social activity, including economic, political, management, cultural or familial.
E-democracy, also known as digital democracy or Internet democracy, uses information and communication technology (ICT) in political and governance processes. The term is credited to digital activist Steven Clift. By using 21st-century ICT, e-democracy seeks to enhance democracy, including aspects like civic technology and E-government. Proponents argue that by promoting transparency in decision-making processes, e-democracy can empower all citizens to observe and understand the proceedings. Also, if they possess overlooked data, perspectives, or opinions, they can contribute meaningfully. This contribution extends beyond mere informal disconnected debate; it facilitates citizen engagement in the proposal, development, and actual creation of a country's laws. In this way, e-democracy has the potential to incorporate crowdsourced analysis more directly into the policy-making process.
Alternative media are media sources that differ from established or dominant types of media in terms of their content, production, or distribution. Sometimes the term independent media is used as a synonym, indicating independence from large media corporations, but generally independent media is used to describe a different meaning around freedom of the press and independence from government control. Alternative media does not refer to a specific format and may be inclusive of print, audio, film/video, online/digital and street art, among others. Some examples include the counter-culture zines of the 1960s, ethnic and indigenous media such as the First People's television network in Canada, and more recently online open publishing journalism sites such as Indymedia.
Participatory budgeting (PB) is a type of citizen sourcing in which ordinary people decide how to allocate part of a municipal or public budget through a process of democratic deliberation and decision-making. Participatory budgeting allows citizens or residents of a locality to identify, discuss, and prioritize public spending projects, and gives them the power to make real decisions about how money is spent.
Global studies (GS) or global affaires (GA) is the interdisciplinary study of global macro-processes. Predominant subjects are political science in the form of global politics, as well as economics, law, the sociology of law, ecology, environmental studies, geography, sociology, culture, anthropology and ethnography. It distinguishes itself from the related discipline of international relations by its comparatively lesser focus on the nation state as a fundamental analytical unit, instead focusing on the broader issues relating to cultural and economic globalisation, global power structures, as well of the effect of humans on the global environment.
Civic engagement or civic participation is any individual or group activity addressing issues of public concern. Civic engagement includes communities working together or individuals working alone in both political and non-political actions to protect public values or make a change in a community. The goal of civic engagement is to address public concerns and promote the quality of the community.
Electronic participation (e-participation) refers to the use of ICT in facilitating citizen participation in government-related processes, encompassing areas such as administration, service delivery, decision-making, and policy-making. As such, e-participation shares close ties with e-government and e-governance participation. The term's emergence aligns with the digitization of citizen interests and interactions with political service providers, primarily due to the proliferation of e-government.
Public participation, also known as citizen participation or patient and public involvement, is the inclusion of the public in the activities of any organization or project. Public participation is similar to but more inclusive than stakeholder engagement.
The Encampment for Citizenship (EFC) is a non-profit, non-partisan, non-sectarian organization currently based in California that conducts a residential summer programs with year-round follow-up for young people of widely diverse backgrounds and nations. The Encampment program brings youth together to form a self-governing community, learn to think critically about pressing social and political issues, and become empowered to take action. The EFC was founded in 1946 by Algernon D. Black, a leader of the New York Society for Ethical Culture, and Alice K. Pollitzer, a prominent civic leader. The program was sponsored by the American Ethical Union and its affiliated societies, in particular the New York Ethical Culture Society.
Public engagement or public participation is a term that has recently been used to describe "the practice of involving members of the public in the agenda-setting, decision-making, and policy-forming activities of organizations/institutions responsible for policy development." It is focused on the participatory actions of the public to aid in policy making based in their values.
Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy (www.janaagraha.org) is a non-profit trust, working towards the mission of transforming the quality of life in India's cities and towns. Founded in 2001 by Ramesh Ramanathan and Swati Ramanathan, it started as a movement to include people's participation in public governance and has now evolved into a robust institution for citizenship and democracy. The core idea of Janaagraha's work does not revolve around fixing problems but instead seeking to fix the system that can solve the problems. To achieve this objective, Janaagraha works with citizens to catalyse active citizenship in city neighbourhoods and with governments to institute reforms to city governance.
The University of the Philippines - National College of Public Administration and Governance, a degree-granting unit of the University of the Philippines Diliman, is the first school of public administration and public policy in Asia and the top educational institution in the said academic field and practice in the Philippines. It was established in 1952.
Participatory justice, broadly speaking, refers to the direct participation of those affected most by a particular decision, in the decision-making process itself: this could refer to decisions made in a court of law or by policymakers. Popular participation has been called "the ethical seal of a democratic society" by Friedhelm Hengsbach, a professor of Christian Social Science and Economic and Social Ethics at the Philosophical-Theological College Sankt Georgen in Frankfurt and "the politics of the future" by Gene Stephens, professor of criminology at the University of South Carolina. It is about people and relationships.
Archon Fung, is the Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Democracy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and co-founder of the Transparency Policy Project. Fung served as an assistant professor of public policy at the Kennedy School from July 1999–June 2004, then as an associate professor of public policy at the Kennedy School from July 2004–October 2007, and finally as a professor of public policy from October 2007–March 2009 before being named as the Ford Foundation Chair of Democracy and Citizenship in March 2009. In 2015, he was elected to the Common Cause National Governing Board.
Action civics is a modern and alternative form of civics education in the United States. Action civics is an applied civic education process in which participants learn about government by examining issues in their own community and then select a focus issue for action through a process of debate, research the issue and learn advocacy strategies, develop civic skills such as public speaking, formulate a plan, mobilize, educate, then evaluate, and reflect on their experience. Participants' voices are encouraged, valued and incorporated. Participants learn by doing, with a focus on collective action. Action civics can encompass a number of different actions from community service to electoral engagement and from talking about concerns with public officials to creating peer education campaigns.
Citizenship education is taught in schools, as an academic subject similar to politics or sociology. It is known by different names in different countries – for example, 'citizenship education' in the UK, ‘civics’ in the US, and 'education for democratic citizenship' in parts of Europe. The different names for the subject is mirrored in the different approaches towards citizenship education adopted in different countries. These are often a consequence of the unique historical and political developments within different countries.
The World Forum for Democracy is a gathering each November in Strasbourg, France to debate the complex challenges facing democracies today and foster democratic innovation. The Forum is hosted by the Council of Europe and brings together members of civil society, political leaders and representatives of business, academia, media and professional groups. Past editions have revolved around themes such as "Bridging the gap: democracy between old models and new realities", "Re-wiring Democracy: connecting institutions and citizens in the digital age" and "From participation to influence: can youth revitalise democracy?".
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