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Transcript of 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(46.8)
Job and training(61.8)
Job and training 58.5)
Job and training (65.2)
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)
Job and training (70.5)
Terrorism (59.9)
Job and training(42.3)
3 Gender equality (63.7)
Gender equality (55.0)
Environment (22.4)
European integration (21.8)
Gender Equaltiy (40.8)
Terrorism (41.0)
Gender Equaltiy (51.9)
Education (63.7)
Job and training (57.3)
Gender Equaltiy (37.1)
4 Environment (57.5)
Environment (47.0)
Minorities (21.2)
Environment (21.6)
Terrorism (34.8)
Gender Equaltiy (38.3)
Education (41.7)
Gender Equaltiy (58.4)
Gender Equaltiy (52.9)
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)
Public services (34.9)
6 Animal rights (49.3)
Poverty (45.5)
Terrorism (20.3)
Terrorism (19.0)
Minorities (26.3)
Minorities (36.8)
Public services (41.2)
Minorities (45.4)
Animal rights (44.0)
Poverty(31.5)
7 Minorities (47.8)
Public services (40.0)
Gender Equality (18.3)
Animal rights (18.3)
Environment (25.1)
Environment (25.6)
Minorities (38.0)
Public services (42.6)
Minorities (43.2)
Minorities (30.2)
8 Minorities (47.8)
Animal rights (32.3)
Poverty (16.2)
Poverty (16.6)
Animal rights (25.0)
Animal rights (23.0)
Environment (36.6)
Environment(42.1)
Poverty (40.1)
Animal rights (26.4)
9 Terrorism (43.0)
Terrorism (31.5)
Animal rights (15.9)
Public services (15.1)
Public services (16.5)
Public services (20.3)
Animal rights (27.3)
Animal rights (32.7)
Environment (26.5)
Environment (22.4)
10
European integration (23.8)
European integration (20.1)
European integration (15.5)
Minorities (13.7)
European integration (14.8)
European integration (17.5)
European integration (10.2)
European integration (22.5)
European integration (15.2)
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