Focus of interest in this article are the concepts of globalization and civic citizenship and the questions are; what is required to be a global citizen, and how to work with this in civic education. The concept of civic citizenship implies democracy. A citizen is an independent and (to some extent) educated decision maker and actor, not a mere subject loyal to the sovereign. So whenever speaking of a global citizen democracy is implied. But the world is not a democratic place as such. Most of it in fact is quite undemocratic. The question therefore is how it is possible to act as a citizen (as a democrat) in global space. The article argues that this will only be possibly if citizens are capable of dealing with complex societal problems and to understand their own role as citizens (democrats) in relation to these problems. The argument is firstly that problems and issues in global space are complex and can only be understood interdisciplinary. Therefore the ability to reflect problems interdisciplinary is crucial to the global citizen. The second argument is that the ability of self-reflection is necessary for citizens in their efforts to understand, maintain and develop their own (democratic) identity and (democratic) values and practices in relation to the complexity and unfamiliarity of the various non-democratic identities, values and practices in a global space. Therefore it is suggested that students in civic education need to develop competencies of reflection on interdisciplinarity and self-reflection-as-citizen as key tools for analyzing societal problems and to act democratically on them. And it is suggested that dealing with interdisciplinarity requires use of second order concepts and that self-reflection as citizens requires third order concepts

Germany draws on a unique net of state-founded institutions operating in the adult civic education field established after the Second World War to promote democratic values in the society. These Agencies for Civic Education work at state and federal level and are non-partisan. This thesis seeks to grasp the phenomenon of universal adult civic education in Germany, while focusing on The Saxon State Agency for Civic Education; on how is it organized, and whether and how its activities proved beneficial in the context of the current socio-political situation. The first part will elaborate on historic, conceptual and institutional background of adult civic education in Germany. The second part, a case study, will focus on the current socio-political situation in Saxony, and the reaction of The Saxon State Agency for Civic Education to the challenges arising especially from the current migration crisis. The thesis will be based on the information from electronic and printed sources primarily in German; some of them provided by the Saxon State Agency. The complementary source will be an interview, which was conducted with two representatives of the Agency.