The meaning of active citizenship and citizenship education in the time of migration and refugee crisis in Europe

Abstract

The article examines the conceptualisation of citizenship education and active citizenship in adult education in the increasingly diverse and pluralistic European society, which is faced by a mass influx of migrants and refugees. The discussion embraces two concepts of citizenship education: the “citizenship as status” and “citizenship as a practice”. The definition of the first originates from Habermas’s notion of democracy and the public sphere, by which we demonstrate that citizenship education in the integrative education programmes is primarily associated with the adaptation of newcomers to the existing liberal democratic social order, i.e. with its socialization function. Contrary to this conceptualization of citizenship education and referring to the concepts of democracy and politics as developed by Mouffe and Rancière, we argue that citizenship education and active citizenship are significantly associated with the practice of democracy, therefore with its subjectification function, in which all potential members of one community, regardless of their status, can actively participate in the public sphere, speak as its equal members and thus learn democratic practices.