Young Citizens and Political Participation in a Digital Society: Addressing the Democratic Disconnect

201 Pages·2015·0.52 MB·English

by  Philippa Collin

Young Citizens and
Political Participation
in a Digital Society
Philippa Collin
Addressing the Democratic Disconnect
Studies in Childhood and Youth
Series Editors: Allison James, University of Sheffield, UK, and
Adrian James, University of Sheffield, UK.
Titles include:
Kate Bacon
TWINS IN SOCIETY
Parents, Bodies, Space and Talk
Emma Bond
CHILDHOOD, MOBILE TECHNOLOGIES AND EVERYDAY EXPERIENCES
Changing Technologies = Changing Childhoods?
David Buckingham, Sara Bragg and Mary Jane Kehily
YOUTH CULTURES IN THE AGE OF GLOBAL MEDIA
David Buckingham and Vebjørg Tingstad (e ditors )
CHILDHOOD AND CONSUMER CULTURE
Tom Cockburn
RETHINKING CHILDREN’S CITIZENSHIP
Sam Frankel
CHILDREN, MORALITY AND SOCIETY
Allison James
SOCIALISING CHILDREN
Allison James, Anne Trine Kjørholt and Vebjørg Tingstad ( editors )
CHILDREN, FOOD AND IDENTITY IN EVERYDAY LIFE
Nicholas Lee
CHILDHOOD AND BIOPOLITICS
Climate Change, Life Processes and Human Futures
Manfred Liebel, Karl Hanson, Iven Saadi and Wouter Vandenhole (e ditors )
CHILDREN’S RIGHTS FROM BELOW
Cross-Cultural Perspectives
Orna Naftali
CHILDREN, RIGHTS AND MODERNITY IN CHINA
Raising Self-Governing Citizens
Helen Stapleton
SURVIVING TEENAGE MOTHERHOOD
Myths and Realities
E. Kay M. Tisdall, Andressa M. Gadda and Udi M. Butler
CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE’S PARTICIPATION AND ITS
TRANSFORMATIVE POTENTIAL
Learning from across Countries
Afua Twum-Danso Imoh and Robert Ame (e ditors )
CHILDHOODS AT THE INTERSECTION OF THE LOCAL AND THE GLOBAL
Hanne Warming ( editor )
PARTICIPATION, CITIZENSHIP AND TRUST IN CHILDREN’S LIVES
Karen Wells, Erica Burman, Heather Montgomery and Alison Watson ( editors )
CHILDHOOD, YOUTH AND VIOLENCE IN GLOBAL CONTEXTS
Research and Practice in Dialogue
Rebekah Willett, Chris Richards, Jackie Marsh, Andrew Burn and
Julia C Bishop ( editors )
CHILDREN, MEDIA AND PLAYGROUND CULTURES
Ethnographic Studies of School Playtimes
Karen M. Smith
THE GOVERNMENT OF CHILDHOOD
Discourse, Power and Subjectivity
Spyros Spyrou and Miranda Christou
CHILDREN AND BORDERS
Leena Alanen, Liz Brooker and Berry Mayall (e ditors )
CHILDHOOD WITH BOURDIEU
Philippa Collin
YOUNG PEOPLE AND POLITICAL PARTICIPATION IN A DIGITAL SOCIETY
Addressing the Democratic Disconnect
Studies in Childhood and Youth
Series Standing Order ISBN 978–0–230–21686–0 hardback
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Young Citizens and
Political Participation
in a Digital Society
Addressing the Democratic Disconnect
Philippa Collin
University of Western Sydney, Australia
© Philippa Collin 2015
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
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save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the
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permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,
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Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2015 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndsmills, Basingstoke,
Hampshire, RG21 6XS
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ISBN: 978–1–137–34882–1
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
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Contents
List of Illustrations vi
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction: Young People, Participation and Digital Media 1
1 C onceptualising Young Citizens 1 8
2 C ultivating Good Citizens 4 4
3 C ivic Organisations in Context 7 0
4 Y outh Perspectives on Participation 9 7
5 M ediated Participation 1 28
6 A ddressing the Democratic Disconnect 1 55
Notes 170
Bibliography 172
Index 185
v
List of Illustrations
Figure
5.1 Approaches to youth e-citizenship 1 53
Tables
1.1 Forms of e-citizenship 3 7
3.1 Schema of policy contexts and civic organisations 9 3
4.1 Reasons for participation (multiple responses) 1 12
4.2 Issues that young people wanted to address 1 15
4.3 Interviewee perspectives on participation policies 1 21
5.1 Formal and informal online participation at the
Inspire Foundation since 1998 1 36
5.2 Interviewee perspectives on participation policies:
online and offline 1 48
vi
Acknowledgements
This book has emerged from nearly a decade of work in organisations
and academia and through engaging in research, policy making and
service design with young people. Their work, passion and generosity are
the foundations of this project. I acknowledge all of those who partici-
pated in the research and thank them for their openness and insightful
reflections.
I would also like to thank the organisations whose case studies are
presented in this book for their involvement, and particularly, the staff
and executives who gave their time to help me understand their aims
and practices.
I am indebted to many intellectual friends, but most specifically to
Ariadne Vromen, David Marsh, Eric Sidoti, Lucas Walsh, Greg Noble,
Ned Rossiter and Amy Denmeade for their guidance and critique at
various points in this project. I also thank Ien Ang and the Institute for
Culture and Society at the University of Western Sydney for the institu-
tional support to realise this book.
I am also grateful to Vanessa Mendes Moreira De Sa for her research
assistance and to Caroline Cockburn, my wonderful mum, for her
support in all aspects of my life and work – as well as editing and feed-
back on the manuscript. Some of the chapters draw on work previously
published in article form, such as ‘The Internet, Youth Participation
Policies and the Development of Young People’s Political Identities in
Australia’, Journal of Youth Studies 11(5): 527–542, 2008; and ‘Building
and Connecting to Online Communities for Action: Young People, ICT
and Everyday Politics’, International Journal of E-Politics: Special Edition
on E-Democracy – Online Youth Participation and Engagement 1:3, 1–18,
2010.
This book is in memory of Kelly Betts, the kind of Everyday Maker who
could have changed the world, and for Marcelo, Violeta and Amelia –
three who can.

vii
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Introduction: Young People,
Participation and Digital Media
When Annie, 19, responded to my Skype call it was a windy day in
Canberra where she attends university. She was on her way to the
shops, but was able to fit my interview on her experiences of participa-
tion in between other commitments, and I was grateful for her time.
Annie was on the board of directors of an Australian non-government
organisation – appointed ‘by accident’, she said laughing, when nomi-
nated by her collaborators in a youth-led organisation. I asked if her
experience paralleled, in some dark way, that of the previous Australian
Prime Minister, Julia Gillard. But Annie said that the organisation and
other board members had been very accepting and supportive of her. By
contrast, her experience discussing policy matters with politicians had
been more confronting. ‘Governments just want to fix things, to find
policy responses that keep the public happy and minimise criticism’, she
tells me. She was even more sceptical about the ways in which govern-
ment engages with young people to find solutions to policy problems.
Her direct experience with the Australian Government’s flagship youth
involvement mechanism, the Australian Youth Forum, was that it was
highly managed:
This is the government policy: go away and tell us what young
people think about this policy. There was never a sense of control or
[informing] any department or informing any decision. It was, ‘Do
this so we can say we’ve engaged with young people’ and that’s that.
Consequently, Annie has decided to focus her energies on youth-led
and youth-serving NGOs working with other young people and adults,
around the country and the world, on issues such as gender equality.
Annie exemplifies both the optimism and fears regarding young
people and civic engagement in contemporary discourse. The rapidly
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