Young Citizens in the Digital Age

Political Engagement, Young People and New Media

Brian D. Loader

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2007
• ISBN:
  9781134131563
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Medicina
• Subtopic: Prestazione di assistenza sanitaria

A social anxiety currently pervades the political classes of the western world, arising from the perception that young people have become disaffected with liberal democratic politics. Voter turnout among 18-25 year olds continues to be lower than other age groups and they are less likely to join political parties. This is not, however, proof that young people are not interested in politics per se but is evidence that they are becoming politically socialized within a new media environment.

This shift poses a significant challenge to politicians who increasingly have to respond to a technologically mediated lifestyle politics that celebrates lifestyle diversity, personal disclosure and celebrity. This book explores alternative approaches for engaging and understanding young people's political activity and looks at the adoption of information and ICTs as a means to facilitate the active engagement of young people in democratic societies.

Young Citizens in a Digital Age presents new research and the first comprehensive analysis of ICTs, citizenship and young people from an international group of leading scholars. It is an important book for students and researchers of citizenship and ICTs within the fields of sociology, politics, social policy and communication studies among others.

1 Introduction

Young citizens in the digital age:
disaffected or displaced?

Brian D. Loader

Few parents nowadays pay any regard to what their children say to them. The old fashioned respect for the young is fast dying out.

Lady Bracknell: The Importance of Being Earnest, Act 1, Oscar Wilde.

There’s nothing wrong with the younger generation that becoming taxpayers won’t cure.

Dan Bennett, attributed remark

A social anxiety seems to pervade the political classes of the western world that arises from the perception that younger people have become disaffected with liberal democratic politics (Henn, 2002). The traditional mechanisms of political socialisation, which have introduced each new generation to the institutions, mores and practices of democratic governance, no longer seem to inspire commitment or engender dutiful participation. Reluctance to vote at elections and a rising average age of the membership of political parties are cited as examples of this alarming lack of engagement by young people in public affairs. Such trends are compounded by attitude surveys that reveal high levels of distrust in politicians and politics held by young people (Dalton, 2004). Paradoxically, such disenchantment comes at a time when young people are more exposed to political information and discourse through the media and education than their parents experienced. Yet this generational malaise is often interpreted as a continuation of the growing political apathy and withdrawal from public activity that is leading to a weakening of democratic citizenship in many countries worldwide.

Running counter to this pessimistic disaffected citizen perspective, however, one can also increasingly detect what I will describe as a cultural displacement perspective of young people’s political engagement. This alternative view suggests that young people are not necessarily any less interested in politics than previous generations but rather that traditional political activity no longer appears appropriate to address the concerns associated with contemporary youth culture. Instead, the restricted democratic practices of voting and social class party allegiance, which have formed the basic means of collective mobilisation, are being displaced by mechanisms and modes of democratic expression that privilege presentday political preoccupations with the construction of self-identity (Giddens, 1991) within a global information economy (Castells, 1997). In this scenario it is not young people who have become disaffected with politics but rather that our political representatives appear distant and self-absorbed and unable to empathise with young people’s experiences of a dramatically changing social and cultural world. Nowhere, perhaps, is this more apparent than in the gulf that is depicted between the traditional style of political communication of elected representatives and the more new media-oriented life experiences of many young people, characterised by sociological patterns of increasing fluidity, mobility, individualisation and consumerism.

The concerns of proponents of the cultural displacement perspective have turned to considerations of the means by which young people may become politically socialised within a media environment that celebrates lifestyle diversity, personal disclosure, and self-help therapy. Parliamentary and congressional forums, voting booths and the restrictions of social classbased party allegiance contrast strongly with the self-expression induced communication spaces of MySpace, MSN, Flickr and mobile texting as potential means to enable young people’s political efficacy. Moreover, in a social world where celebrity, reality television and chat shows attract significantly larger audiences than civic and political association membership, such spaces may offer contexts for debates and awareness of lifestyle politics focused on sexuality, identity, environment, consumerism, gender and global justice. Indeed, it may even be possible to discern a fashionable portrayal of the young ‘Internet generation’ as the forerunners of an emerging techno-social and political culture. Born wired into the digital world, inhabiting the virtual spaces of online chat rooms, nurtured by the blogosphere and nourished by the flows of digital sounds and sights, these young people are seen to be significant actors shaping the parameters of democratic governance in late modern society.

From the alternative perspective of the disaffected citizen such a cultural turn is more often greeted with derision. From their position the sociotechnical changes, while acknowledged, are largely overstated by the displacement view and do not require a significant break from existing political style. Instead, the new media can be assimilated as a new additional channel of political communication to young people about existing democratic institutions and practices. Websites, podcasts and online discussion forums can be designed to facilitate more ‘modern’ ways for politicians, political parties and educationists to connect with young citizens. Indeed, a mixture of citizenship education in schools and a range of initiatives which have ICTs embedded in them has been a common response to the perceived civic apathy of young people in many countries. Together with occasional appearances on talk shows by politicians and the disclosure of their iPod playlists to demonstrate their affinity with youth culture, little else is required from political representatives to reconnect with young people.

Emergent tensions and issues

These two approaches do not of course represent the only interpretations that can be made and such a sharp distinction as presented here, it may be argued, is much narrower in practice and could be fruitfully replaced with a view which foregrounds their convergence. Nonetheless, the conceptual cleavage remains helpful for placing a number of important issues in relief and opening up the debate about the possibilities of young people adopting the new media for democratic engagement. This book has the primary aim of critically exploring the role of new media in influencing the democratic acumen of young citizens in late modern societies. It is undertaken through an examination of a number of tensions that emerge between the disaffection and displacement perspectives of young people’s civic engagement.

It may be useful to mention at this point some of the principle issues arising from this framework, which inform many of the contributions to this collection. First, the contrasting perspectives have a tendency to emphasise different aspects of democratic political engagement. The citizen disaffection perspective tends to focus upon formal institutions and procedures associated with classical liberal democratic theory such as representation, parties, parliaments and voting. Political education and communication within this framework are typically hierarchical and topdown, and shaped by idealised models of active citizenship (Combs and Nimmo, 1996). As such, they have been criticised for leaving little opportunity to hear the voice of young people or capable of enabling a sense of political efficacy. Following Murray Edelman (1971) it may be possible to regard such political socialisation as an essential introduction to the management of citizens which is practised ‘not by granting or withholding their stable subjective demands, but rather by changing the demands and the expectations’ (1971: 7).

The cultural displacement perspective attempts to widen the field of investigation to encompass deinstitutionalised forms of political engagement which are enacted within networks and spaces characterised by loose social ties and informal social structures. Here we might find interaction within non-hierarchical, flexible and personalised social relations, which offer the prospect of new repertoires for political socialisation outside traditional social institutions. Digital media may thereby provide young people with the communication channels to both facilitate such less regulated personal interaction and grant access to a broader range of transnational political influences. The following chapters explore how new media may influence the civic and political engagement of young people within both the formal domain of liberal democratic politics and also the informal realm of youth culture. Can the purposeful adoption of new media by politicians and political parties connect with the interests of young people? What evidence exists for new media to offer the prospect of stimulating new forms of mobilisation by young citizens themselves? How might the diffusion of ICTs shape the relationship between these two democratic domains?

A second aspect which should be mentioned before we embark upon more detailed analysis concerns what we mean by new media. While we are aware of the dramatic changes taking place in a wide range of digital ICTs such as mobile telephony and high resolution digital television, the primary focus of this work is the use of the Internet and World Wide Web (WWW) by young people. This includes analysis of how the Internet may influence civic engagement by young people by empirically exploring online communication. Is it different in its effect upon political socialisation from earlier forms of media? Too often, perhaps, new media theorists have been guilty of emphasising the ‘newness’ of the technology and the emergence of a second media age (Webster, 2001). In this volume, however, the authors have tried to be careful about jettisoning a link between old and new media and the lessons about political engagement and socialisation which may pertain to an examination of both. Young people may continue to be more influenced by television, for example, than by the Internet (Livingstone et al., Chapter 2).

As well as empirical investigations of Internet usage a number of specifically designed online applications intended to engage young people are also considered. These case studies often provide examples of projects that attempt to facilitate a range of intermediate civic spaces which could exist at the interstices of the formal political institutions and the informal world of online youth culture. That is to say, they represent socio-political experiments where these two worlds can intersect at the nodes of Internet and social networks. Their design frequently begins from a recognition that young people are not a different species but, rather, share the insecurities and uncertainties arising from the global cultural transitions outlined earlier. As such, many of the lessons which may come out of these small endeavours may address the limitations of current citizenship pedagogy (see Selwyn, Chapter 9) as well as providing genuine opportunities for young people’s political efficacy.

As social commentators increasingly regard the ubiquitous new media as playing an important part in the activity of engaging young citizens in democratic politics, it becomes increasingly necessary to consider the impact on this process of what is commonly referred to as the ‘digital divide’. This term, more recently, has come to relate not only to unequal social access to ICTs but much more importantly to the differential use and adoption of new media (Mansell, 2002; Loader and Keeble, 2004). While lowering prices and government policies may be stimulating the expansion of online access in many countries, such crude indicators may act to disguise the socio-demographic variations in mastering the new media for political advantage. We need instead to think of youth culture as heterogeneous and contextualised in its adoption of the new media by a range of factors both facilitating and inhibiting democratic participation (see Vromen, Chapter 7). Internet use for many young people may continue to be dominated by the kind of one-dimensional communication (online shopping, downloading music and videos, online gambling) beloved of many politicians rather than the more empowering activities of personal content creation, blogging and interaction symptomatic of the cultural displacement model. It is as well to remember Manuel Castells’ pertinent observation recognising that ‘who are the interacting and who are the interacted in the new system . . . largely frames the system of domination and the processes of liberation in the informational society’ (1997: 374).

Whatever the differences between the two perspectives they both seem to share an acceptance that the vitality of young people’s democratic engagement in the future will be influenced by the outcomes of at least three aspects of socio-cultural transitions. These are changes in the relationship between the citizen and the nation state; the nature of civic participation; and the role of new media in the political socialisation and citizenship education of young citizens.

Globalisation, identity and the nation state

Citizenship is notoriously difficult to define. Traditionally, its locus has been derived from the nation state as a primary reference. It may encompass identity, gender, participation, attitudes, values, rights and obligations. Pattie and his colleagues approach citizenship as ‘a set of norms, values and practices designed to solve collective action problems which involve the recognition by individuals that they have rights and obligations to each other if they wish to solve such problems’ (Pattie et al., 2004: 22). Thus citizenship comprises both attitudinal and behavioural characteristics. We consider the latter in the next section. For now we consider the normative aspect of citizenship as a set of values, symbols, experiences, imagination and identification which can provide the meaning for political action and behaviour. A familiar depiction of this dimension might be along the lines suggested by Pattie et al., that it ‘relates to the balance between the individual’s sense of their rights and their obligations to the wider society’ (ibid.). This is a useful opening at first sight until one considers what that ‘wider society’ might be in the light of some the most significant socioeconomic changes currently underway. At least three important aspects of the current debates highlight the problematic nature of such a definition and point again to a distinction between disaffected and displaced citizenship models: globalisation and national identity; social fragmentation; and individualisation.

Globalisation and national identity

David Held describes globalisation simply as ‘a shift or transformation in the scale of human organization that links distant communities and expands the reach of power relations across the world’s regions’ (2004: 1). At a time when many such commentators are pointing to the possible decline in importance of the nation state arising from these processes of globalisation it has been a concomitant development that citizen rights and obligations may correspondingly be less strongly aligned on a national basis (Soysal, 1998). Instead, some have championed a ‘cosmopolitan view that human well-being is not defined by geographical or cultural locations’ (Held 2004: xi). The idea here is that, increasingly, citizenship rights and obligations are less dependent upon membership of a particular territorial and legal society. Many people, described as denizens by Tomas Hammer (1990), increasingly live and work in countries in which they were neither born nor naturalised. Thus it becomes possible for denizens to have different rights and obligations to a number of ‘wider societies’ and experience a series of transnational and transitional citizen statuses. Moreover, a range of transnational procedures and institutions have facilitated an increase in the cross-border flow of migrant denizens, which may reinforce such trends.

National identity, as a collection of symbols, values and practices which inform young people’s sense of citizenship may therefore come to be regarded as one among a number of competing identities. These alternative sites for citizenship identity are further intensified for young people in many late modern societies by the advent of multiculturalism as a social characteristic. First and second generation immigrants may have less difficulty in identifying with both their countries of birth and those of cultural heritage. They might, for example, be members of the UK armed forces and supporters of the visiting Pakistani cricket team to England. Moreover, those who live in such multicultural societies are both subject to the cultural benefits such diversity brings as well as the social tensions which may arise. But the growing liquidity and mobility of large sections of populations (Urry, 2000; Bauman, 2005) exposes many younger people to a broader range of influences than previous generations. In, sometimes, stark contrast it also reveals new social divisions between those who experience greater mobility and those who are involuntarily embedded.

The weakening of national identity may further be associated with the perceived weakness of national politicians and institutions to deal effectively with many of the global political issues which concern young people. Environmental damage to the planet and poverty in the developing world, for example, consistently challenge traditional national attempts to deal with global commercial interests, transnational regulation and economic liberalisation. Such disenchantment with national politics may be further extended by government’s failure to meet demands from rising welfare expectations. Kenneth Galbraith (1992) cogently outlined the challenge confronting late modern democratic welfare states as a ‘culture of contentment’. While the majority of voters are increasingly well off and self-interested, they are content to use their electoral advantage to oppose public expenditure and state interference which might meet the needs of the socially and politically excluded. Increasingly bereft of the national security provided from welfare institutions, young people may be less likely therefore to develop that sense of social obligation which would underpin a commitment and identification with the welfare state exhibited by previous generations.

Deinstitutionalisation and social fragmentation

The social construction of political identity is further complicated for young people as a consequence of the sociological and cultural changes postulated in much contemporary social theory (Giddens, 1991; Castells, 2001; Lash, 2002; Urry, 2003; Bauman, 2005; Sennett, 2006). Despite the expected disagreement about the precise nature and future direction of the social and political development underway there does seem to be a consensus that late modern advanced societies are subject to significant institutional and cultural changes arising from an increasingly global informational economy (Castells, 1996). Traditional social and cultural institutions (families, voluntary organisations, churches, employment organisations), which provided collective political meaning, symbols and authority for young people are being challenged by processes of deinstitutionalisation (Bennett, 1998; Beck, 2000).

Related to the weakening sense of obligation to traditional social institutions has been a significant decline in the importance of social class as a signifier of political identity and allegiance. In many late modern societies, deindustrialisation, automation and a notable increase in white-collar employment has seen the working classes diminish both in size and political relevance. So here too we have another example of how the political socialisation and identity of working-class young people into the values of solidarity, trust and collective action, in relation to the ‘wider society’ is being eroded as a consequence of social restructuring and the accompanying decline of local communities. The old values, norms and affinities conforming with social class identity are being transformed and replaced with the prospect of multiple identities arising from new social distinctions such as gender, sexuality, race and disability, which confront young people in contemporary societies.

Individualisation and consumerism

Associated with these developments in social fragmentation has been a corresponding emphasis upon the individual and the process of selfreflexivity (Giddens, 1991). The disconnection with social class and political institutions identified above has led to a corresponding shift in social obligation and rights, such that individuals are being required to take more responsibility for managing their own lifestyle choices, risk assessments and life plans (Giddens, 1991; Beck, 1999; Bennett, 1998; Loader, 1998). There are many manifestations, but they encompass individualised agendas characterised by the ongoing activities of choosing between various lifestyle and fashion statements, shaping and expressing one’s persona, celebrating body forms and artistry, and developing and managing social networks of friends, family and associates. Significantly, such social action increasingly takes place within a consumerist and lifestyle orientated context where the rights and obligations of citizens are much harder to discern. Instead, citizenship identity appears to be more closely associated with the development of individual preferences related to lifestyle and consumer politics. Unlike more stable forms of social class, religious or national political identities, these deinstitutionalised identities may take multiple forms and be transitory in nature.

Such developments pose serious problems for conventional ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Notes on Contributors
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Introduction
• Part I Young Citizens Online
• Part II Making the Political Connection with Young People