Active citizens?

1. Youth & European Identities Active citizens? Active citizens? Presentation by the Vienna team: Claire Wallace, Georg Datler and Reingard Spannring Presentation by the Vienna team: Claire Wallace, Georg Datler and Reingard Spannring

2. Youth & European Identities What are active citizens? What makes young people into active citizens? Are active young citizens better Europeans?

3. What are active young citizens? Politically empowered questions • whether or not it was worth voting • whether or not it made any difference which government was in power • whether they could influence what the government does • whether one really should vote

4. Empowerment in the research regions Percentages of respondents Percentages of respondents

5. What makes young people into active citizens? • Why did some people feel that they were empowered and some did not? employment and educational status, citizenship education at school

6. Does citizenship education encourage active citizenship? questions • discussions about democracy and citizenship • participation of school pupils • learning about other religions and cultures • the possibility to meet and discuss with politicians • collecting for charity • collecting signatures for a petition

7. Results • Lack of citizenship education at school leads to feelings of powerlessness about politics • Feeling empowered was strongly associated with experiences of citizenship education in school • Citizenship education leads to stronger interest in European integration • Empowerment increases willingness to vote at all levels: local, regional, national and European • However, there are important differences in citizenship education between regions

8. Citizenship education in the research regions Percentages of respondents who had at least 4 out of 6 citizenship experiences at school

9. Schematic illustration of key findings Willingness to vote Citizenship Education Feeling empowered Interest in European issues

10. 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 issues • High expectations of Europe are not fulfilled • EU politics are overshadowed by national politics • Young people would like better representation in European politics

11. Recommendations Recommendations • More citizenship education and experiences in all types of schools • Providing citizenship education in general schooling not just elite education • Promoting greater knowledge of European issues • Giving young people the feeling that their voice counts at the European level and that policies respond to their needs • Developing a European public space, where European issues are discussed and not just national ones, e.g. TV-channels • Encouraging young peoples’ participation at all levels