Divided Youth in the Digital Age: Two Paradigms of Citizen Identity

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Divided Youth in the Digital Age Two Paradigms
of Citizen Identity

• Lance Bennett
• Center for Communication and Civic Engagement
• University of Washington, Seattle, USA
• www.engagedcitizen.org
• Young People, New Technologies and Political
  Engagement
• Surrey July 24-25 2007
• (cc please request permission for use)

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(No Transcript)
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Major (globalization-related) changes in Social
Identity

• Risk society (Beck) increased personal
  responsibility choice life management
• Changing social structure groups gt networks
• Personal lifestyles organize social identity
• Changing politics
• Government (seems) less relevant to individual
  needs
• Rise of personal -- expressive/self-actualizing
  --politics -- (direct action -- consumer/
  lifestyle issues)
• Persistence of older expectations about citizen
  duty
• Result generation gap in citizenship styles

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Generational Citizen Identity Differences
Youth Actualizing Citizen (AC) Older
Dutiful Citizen (DC)
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Research and Education PolicyConflicting
Conclusions

• Are young citizens disengaged? -- yes, if focus
  is voting knowledge about politics
  government
• (emphasis on DC citizen identity)
• Or are they Engaged ? -- yes, if focus is
  community work, consumer politics -- online
  communities
• (emphasis on AC citizen identity)
• Result -- conflicting poorly developed
  approaches to civic education and engagement

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Research Findings Generational Declines in
Traditional Participation
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Electoral Activity Low
DotNets born 1977-1987
Source PEW U.S. Civic Health Survey
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Source Young People News - Carnegie Report -
July 2007
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Importance of Public Affairs US - young citizens
vs adults
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Research Findings Rise in Direct Personal Action
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Personal Direct Action High
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Participation vs. DisengagementUS youth vs adults
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Non Electoral Political ActivitiesUS youth vs.
adults
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Schools and Political EngagementWhat are the
challenges?

• What schools do best
• teaching textbook knowledge about government --
  most effective for DCs
• Engaging AC identity and digital lifestyles
  present challenges for schools.

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Persistent Belief that Schools are Central
Institutions for Civic Engagement

• because
• Thats Where the Kids Are!!!

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Yet Most Schools May Produce Dutiful Citizens
(or none at all!)

• Textbook Knowledge about government
• Limited classroom democracy
• Schools are politically contested
• limited contact with community politics (although
  service learning is increasing)
• active suppression of politics inside the
  classroom
• Digital media environments limited
• Technology access
• Web access is often censored --limited to
  approved sites

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Most civic education designed by older DC
citizens - offering little for ACs
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The Policy Challenge Bridging the AC/DC Divide

• Civic Education Programs that
• Appeal to AC citizens -- through active/personal
  contact with real problems and issues..
• Help find personal paths to ACDC participation
  while
• avoiding textbook-only approaches
• avoiding defining citizenship mainly as duty
• offering personal paths to government
• using familiar social networking media

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Combining AC/DC Civics in Australia
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Implications How to Motivate Gen Next?

• I. Recognize citizen identity shifts
• less collective responsibility/civic duty
• strong interest in making a difference in society
• II. Use new learning comm. preferences
• make learning interactive, experiential, group
• use digital media to personalize information
• use online tools to link political info action
  
• III. Link classroom to government society
• Use media to engage students in public spheres

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Source Craig Peden, Microsoft Educational
Solutions Group
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Use Interactive Technologies to Bring Democracy
into the Classroom

• Use interactive technologies to help young
  citizens
• Learn public communication skills
• Communicate with each other
• Build a political agenda
• Organize and act effectively
• Communicate with government

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Easier said than doneDilemmas Facing Youth
Political Communities --in or out of schools

• May not be perceived as authentic -- too managed
  -- too little autonomy (Coleman)
• Schools / other sponsors of youth digital
  networks take responsibility for their sites --
• -- end up censoring managing content/access
• Creating an audience problem (Levine) They may
  attract few young people
• The long tail may work for commerce online, but
  does it work for democracy?

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Dilemma This Cheese Gets More Attention (1.5
million visitors) than most Civic Engagement sites
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Most Popular Online Engagement Community 130,000
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Create Communication Environments that bridge
schools real world

• Teach digital media literacy in schools - to
  develop PUBLIC VOICE
• Introduce tools/public voice skills into places
  where young people gather online (MySpace)
• Build community digital media systems -- public
  spaces -- outside of schools
• Build curriculum to help students discover those
  community sites
• Link both schools and personal life to those
  spaces via networking IT
• Make it fun -- produce share content

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Center for Communication Civic Engagement Lance
Bennett, Director www.engagedcitizen.org
Information Technology Community
_at_