Stephen Coleman on the CIVICWEB seminar

On Tuesday, 5. February, a seminar was held at the London Knowledge Lab, concerning young people, the internet and civic participation. The main speaker was Stephen Coleman.

Stephen Coleman

Two moral narratives that always recur in debates about civic media:

- citizenship: what is it (should it be), what tools are needed; it takes a pessimistic form, there is supposedly a decline in citizenship, people are not doing what political scientist believe they should be doing. It has a normative dimension.

- technology, particular technology as a cultural fixer: they supposedly open up a space for broadening democracy. New media are particular in 4 aspects: 1) for the first time in history we are living in infromation over-abundance, 2) cheap access and low barriers to participation
3) they are interactive, 4) they have the capacity for creating decentralized horizontal networks of production and transmission

Those two narratives has two obvious limitations:
-they are normative, not empirical not descriptive
-it is very unsubtle, talks about generalities like »internet« and »citizenship« as monadic phenomena

We will consider how these narratives are applied to young people and internet, examine empirical examples of participation by young people, talk about policy implications.

Young people:
There is a stereotype of young people as apathetic. But actually it claims they are overly pathetic, but they lack removal from the sentimental feelings of the moment. Another stereotype is that they are distracted, that popular culture distracts and displaces them. Underlying it is the difference between engaging young people and engaging with young people. Government says: participate, but they actually mean: participate on our terms. The mentality is a managerial fix that needs to be done, young people need to be engaged, something has to be done to them.

Empirical examples:
- managed (top down coordinated); Hansard society's Headsup, The english school students' association, Northern Irish project Where is my public servant;
- autonomous (young people are doing it for themselves); students against sweatshops, George fox 6 campaign, Educationet;

Managed projects tend to be better resourced and have connections to authority. Managed projects connect young people to political institutions, they are about being heard (therapeutic approach), regulated speech, accept government funding, see young people as apprentice citizens

Autonomous projects tend to create peer-to-peer networks, want to make actions, speech is democratic, independent from government and have an alternative view of citizenship. Autonomous projects are often exclusive, might be just talking shops.

10 principles for policy:

- power holders should fund but not directly interfere with civic online spaces for young people;
- these online spaces should provide horizontal and vertical (to power holders) links;
- young people should set the terms for debate without external censorship;
- the terms of the influence of participation should be explicitly outlined;
- we have to build deliberative structures, where different opinions can meet;
- young people should be encouraged to counter social injustice and broaden the political agenda in any way they see fit;
- e-citizenship does not exclude everyday political experience, negotiation of feelings ... Citizenship is changing, becoming more fluid;
- young people are encouraged to use technology innovatively;
- they must be able to challenge notions of young people, citizenship, national identity;
- policy will be determined in partnership between policy makers and young people;