Civic Knowledge, Engagement, and Attitudes Among Lower-Secondary Students in 24 Countries

The ICCS 2016 study is a continuation and extension of ICCS 2009. The study explored the enduring and the emerging challenges of educating young people in a world where contexts of democracy and civic participation had changed and continue to change. In total, ICCS 2016 is based on test and questionnaire data from more than 94,000 students enrolled in their eighth year of schooling (Grade 8 or equivalent) at more than 3,800 schools in 24 countries. These student data were augmented by contextual questionnaire data from school principals of selected schools and more than 37,000 teachers.

SOCIO-POLITICAL ACTIVISM OF OF RUSSIAN YOUTH IN THE CONDITIONS OF THE INFORMATION SOCIETY

The rapid development of digital technologies and their mass application in all areas has a significant impact on the forms of the socio-political activism of young people, as well as on the formation of young people's civic and political stances. Currently, the classical institutions of civic participation are being transformed under the influence of the digital environment, which leads to the emergence of new formations, which cover increasingly broad cohorts, have specific functioning features and tools. In the study, the author considers various approaches to work and forms of socio-political activism in the modern digital environment, identifies signs of the classification of the digital institutions of civic participation, as well as the subjects of the socio-political activism of youth in information society. The very notion of the digital institution of civic participation as a form of interaction between individuals through the digital environment is defined, which is used to implement joint goals and objectives that are relevant to all community participants. The author concludes that the interaction of traditional and digital tools, their mutual supplementation will allow to realize the socio-political needs of young people at a much more effective level, which are due to both objective age and psychophysical factors and the conditions of the external environment and current political reality.

Citizens’ Expectations for Crisis Management and the Involvement of Civil Society Organisations in China

Chinese citizens are relatively happy with the state's management of national disasters and emergencies. However, they are increasingly concluding that the state alone cannot manage them. Leveraging the 2018 and 2020 Civic Participation in China Surveys, we find that more educated citizens conclude that the government has a leading role in crisis management, but there is ample room for civil society organisations (CSOs) to act in a complementary fashion. On a slightly diverging path, volunteers who have meaningfully interacted with CSOs are more skeptical than non-volunteers about CSOs’ organisational ability to fulfill this crisis management function. These findings imply that the political legitimacy of the Communist Party of China is not challenged by allowing CSOs a greater role in crisis management.

Algorithmic Curation and Users’ Civic Attitudes: A Study on Facebook News Feed Results

Facebook users are exposed to diverse news and political content; this means that Facebook is a significant tool for the enhancement of civic participation and engagement in politics. However, it has been argued that Facebook, through its algorithmic curation reinforces the pre-existing attitudes of individuals, rather than challenging or potentially altering them. The objective of this study is to elucidate the emotional and behavioural impact of the personalization of Facebook users’ News Feeds results, and thereby to uncover a possible link between their online and offline civic attitudes. Firstly, we investigate the extent to which users’ Facebook News Feeds results are personalized and customized to fit users’ pre-existing civic attitudes and political interests. Secondly, we explore whether users embody new roles as a result of their emotional and behavioural interaction with political content on Facebook. Our methodology is based on a quantitative survey involving 108 participants. Our findings indicate that, while Facebook can potentially expose users to varying political views and beliefs, it tends to reinforce existing civic attitudes and validate what users already hold to be true. Furthermore, we find that users themselves often assume a proactive stance towards Facebook News Feed results, acquiring roles in which they filter and even censor the content to which they are exposed and thus trying to obfuscate algorithmic curation.

More learning, less activism: Narratives of childhood in Australian media representations of the School Strike for Climate

The School Strike for Climate campaign led to public discussion about children’s political participation. Children are generally excluded from formal political systems, however this campaign challenges mainstream attitudes that children are not sufficiently competent to participate in politics. This paper presents an analysis of Australian mainstream media representations of adult responses to the School Strike for Climate events held in Australia in March 2019. When analysed against theories of childhood, two primary narratives are reflected in what adults said about children’s participation in the campaign. Anticipatory narratives focus on children appropriately developing into adults, and are represented by the notion that strikers should be in school, be punished for missing school, and are ‘just kids’ who should not be listened to. Protectionist narratives seek to shelter children from adult matters, suggesting strikers were brainwashed and raising welfare concerns. Neither of these narratives regard children as citizens capable of political voice, despite these children acting prefiguratively to create a world in which their civic participation is valued. Social movement theories of prefiguration are also explored in this paper, providing a counter argument to suggestions that children have no political agency and should be excluded from activism and discussions regarding climate change.

Social Networking Sites and Civic Participation: Analyzing the Mediating Role of Online Bridging Social Capital

Technological advancements have introduced creative communication media with social media being one of its kind. Since its introduction, the use of social media is rising in India providing people a better penetrating medium to share their views and ideas. These networking sites have given people a wide range of options to share views about social issues as well. Civic participation is a personal or group effort to resolve a social issue. With the onset of social media, offline civic participatory activities have made a transition to the online space as well. With the soaring influence of social media, this study aims to determine the extent to which Social Networking Sites (SNS) usage influences social capital and civic participatory behaviour. It aims to examine whether SNS use aids in the development of behavior that fosters civic participation. Further, the mediating role of online bridging social capital is analyzed in the relationship between SNS use intensity and civic participation of users. The results show the role of SNS in positively influencing online and offline civic participatory behaviour of the users with online bridging social capital acting as a mediating variable. However, the cross-sectional nature of this study constrained the ability to infer causal associations. The study concludes with recommendations and directions for future research. The different SNS can be compared to learn about their respective influence on civic participatory behavior and infer this phenomenon in an enhanced manner.