The research done by master degree studies student Diana Petrikiene is based on the main concepts and understandings of National as well as International developments of citizenship education. In the first part of the thesis author presents the short history of Civic Education in Lithuania based on the research work of M. Luksiene (1985) and presented in the articles of I. Zaleskienė (2000). It is shown that Civic education did play a strong role during the historical developments of Lithuanian educational system. The post sovietic educational developments are reflecting on these experiences and on the international ideas coming from democratic states. The first ideas of rebuilding Civic education was developed already in 1988 when the educational reform did start. In the contemporary rapid political transition, civic education is framed within a more progressive forward - looking vision accompanying processes of social and political change. Implementation of citizenship education is foreseen in the national documents (Core-Curriculum and Standards, 2004). Main goals of the citizenship education can be structured and achieved according following areas or the ways on which Citizenship education is organised in Lithuania. 1. Through formal curriculum: a) citizenship education is taught as a cross-curriculum. It means that Civic ideas, concepts, topics are integrated in the new developed curricular, textbooks, teaching and learning materials for whole variety of subjects... [to full text]

This research examined changes in culture and agriculture in the rural community of Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia, with a specific interest in understanding and contextualizing (re)localization initiatives. The study employed key-informant interviews with 23 members of the agricultural community to develop a narrative of socio-agricultural transition, which was used to launch discussion on the role of agriculture during a public forum in Tatamagouche. The creamery was found to have played a central role in the community’s history, and its gradual decline coincided with the growing disuse of farmland in the area. New communities of farmers moved onto available farmland in Tatamagouche. Today, current ‘civic’ agriculture initiatives include CSAs, a local currency system, a farmers market, and a community land trust. The challenges and opportunities in the revived local agriculture community are discussed, and policy recommendations to support community-scale sustainable food systems are offered based on findings in Tatamagouche.

Urban sprawl with the advent of automobile commuting has led to the loss of a “sense of place” and the decline of informal public gathering in the urban core of Windsor, Nova Scotia. Building an integrated sense of community is the thesis objective. An interactive relationship between the town’s history and landmarks, and elements such as edges, paths, and districts, is established in the physical form of a new downtown civic square located at the intersection of the traditional main street (Gerrish) and Grey Street. The civic square enables new, year-round civic activities including a library, market, art gallery, and skating rink, enhanced by informal gathering spaces. The square revives Windsor’s “sense of place,” providing an anchor of public space and activity for citizens a ten-minute walk from surrounding residential neighbourhoods, and offers the opportunity for informal meetings and the element of surprise within the journeys of daily life.

Public participation in the design and planning process aims to engage citizens in the local decision-making process. Although participation provides a multitude of benefits, significant physical, temporal and attitudinal barriers have limited its potential. Social media technologies have the potential to address these traditional barriers to participation. Little research has addressed the opportunities, challenges, and effectiveness of these technologies in traditional planning and design frameworks. The goal of this research was to explore and evaluate the role of social media as a participatory tool in the planning and design process using a multiple case study method. Interviews were conducted with representatives from municipalities and consulting firms to develop case histories for evaluation. Results suggest ways in which social media can be an effective participatory tool, and that the incorporation of social media into municipal and institutional settings, while creating uncertainty, can create opportunity for more authentic participation within governance.

Initially digital communication was used primarily as a digital advertisement. Digital communication has matured and serves a valuable role for politicians and governments alike, through such campaigns as Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi’s 2010 election campaign. Digital communications continue to be used for new means, including sharing information and fundraising, with increased levels of success. The historical challenge of engaging youth aged 18-30 in civic activity and the documented high adoption rates among youth of digital communication tools such as social media, smart phones and Web 2.0 has created opportunities to engage youth by entering their digital environments. The study explores Nenshi’s campaign as a case study, exploring primary and secondary data to assess the ability to engage youth through the implementation of a digital communication strategy.

Pilietinis – visuomeninis jauno žmogaus aktyvumas, svarbus bendrojo lavinimo įstaigose. Reikšmingas vaidmuo tenka mokyklos savivaldai, pilietiniam ugdymui mokymo turinyje, pilietiškumo raiškai mokyklos bendruomenėje, visuomeninėms organizacijoms veikiančioms mokykloje ir vietos bendruomenėje. Valstybė įgyvendina įvairias besimokančio jaunimo pilietiškumo ugdymo programas, tačiau stebima pačių jaunų žmonių pasyvumo tendencija. Šiame darbe tiriama 14 – 19 metų amžiaus mokinių visuomeninio dalyvavimo raiška. Raseinių rajono bendrojo lavinimo ugdymo įstaigose atliktas kiekybinis tyrimas, kurio metu buvo apklausta 130 respondentų. Tyrimo rezultatai atskleidė, kad: dalyvavimas pilietinėse akcijose ir savanoriškoje veikloje yra mokiniams priimtina forma pilietiškumui ugdytis; pagrindinės mokinių dalyvavimo visuomeninių organizacijų veikloje priežastys yra susijusios su savirealizacija, asmeninių savybių ugdymu, bendravimo poreikio tenkinimu; mokiniai suvokia dalyvavimo visuomeninėse organizacijose svarbą, dėl savirealizacijos poreikio tenkinimo, galimybės veikti komandoje, dirbti visuomenės labui, atstovauti bendruomenės narių (mokinių) interesams; tyrime dalyvavusiems mokiniams trūksta informacijos apie jų gyvenamoje teritorijoje veikiančias visuomenines organizacijas; visuomeninių organizacijų veikloje dalyvauja apie trečdalis tiriamųjų; gyvenamoji vietovė lemia mokinių dalyvavimo visuomeniniame gyvenime aktyvumą. / Civic-public activities of young people are important in general education institutions. A significant role is assigned to the self-governance of a school, civic education included in the teaching material, expression of citizenship in the school community, public organizations operating in schools and local communities. The state implements various programs of civic education for the studying youth, however, the passiveness of young people is observed. Public participation of pupils of the age of 14 to 19 is investigated in this work. Quantitative study has been carried out in the general education institutions in the district of Raseiniai, 130 respondents have been questioned. The results of the study revealed that: participation in civic campaigns and volunteering is an acceptable means of civic education for the pupuls; the main reasons for participating in the activities of public organizations are closely related to self-realization, development of personal qualities, fulfilling the need of communication; pupils understand the importance of participating in public organizations because it is a means of satisfying the need of self-realization, a possibility to act as a team and work in the public interest, to represents the interest of the members of the community (pupils); the pupils lack information about public organizations operating in their living area; one third of the respondents participate in the activities of public organizations; place of residence influences... [to full text]

Bakalauro baigiamajame darbe apžvelgiama ir išsamiai išanalizuojama šiuolaikinė miestų ir mažų miestelių bei kamiškų vietovių ekonominė ir sociokultūrinė situacija bei dinamika, aktualios jaunimo problemos, jaunimo pasirengimo integracijai į pilietinę visuomenę ugdymo sistema, viešojo sektoriaus ir nevyriausybinių organizacijų bendradarbiavimo sprendžiant jaunimo problemas prielaidos ir galimybės. Pateikiami Šiaulių miesto ir Joniškio rajono jaunimo nuostatų ir patirčių tyrimo rezultatai, interviu su Šiaulių miesto ir Joniškio rajono nevyriausybinių organizacijų bei savivaldybės institucijų atstovais rezultatai ir analizė. Remiantis gautais rezultatais, pateiktos darbo išvados ir rekomendacijos savivaldybių institucijų ir nevyriausybinių organizacijų bendradarbiavimo efektyvumui tobulinti. Patvirtinama autorių suformuluota mokslinio tyrimo hipotezė, kad viešojo sektoriaus ir nevyriausybinių organizacijų bendradarbiavimas įgyvendinant jaunimo politiką Šiaulių mieste ir Joniškio rajone gali turėti didelę reikšmę jaunimo integracijos į pilietinę visuomenę ir tautinio indentiteto stiprinimo procese. / The bachelor's work contains the overview and detailed analysis of economical and sociocultural situation as well as it's dynamics in modern big and small cities and villages, actual youth problems, the system of upbringing of youth for integration into civil society, the preconditions and possibilities of cooperation of public sector and non-governmental organizations in solving of youth problems. The results of investigation of youth attitude and experiences in Shiauliai city and Yonishkis district as well as the results and analysis of interview with non-govermental organizations and local goverment of Shiauliai city and Yonishkis district representatives are presented. Based on these results are the conlusions and recommendations regarding more effective cooperation between public sector and non-governmental organizations. Author's scientific reseach hypothesis that cooperation of public sector and non-governmental organizations of Shiauliai city and Yonishkis district in realization of youth politics can be of great importance in the process of youth integration into civil society and strengthening of national identity.

The MARTA collection, held by Georgia State University, is a large collection of archaeological materials excavated in the late 1970s that documents the heritage of Atlanta. The current Phoenix Project is building on those original efforts and represents an ideal opportunity to explore praxis through civic engagement by making the collection easily accessible and interactive to the public through online community archaeology outreach. Key to this civic engagement is the digitization of artifacts and associated metadata as well as the use of the Heurist online data management system. In particular, I outline a three phase plan of implementing an online website that employs gamification methodologies integrated with existing social media formats to promote a diverse community of self-sustainable interaction with digital material that will benefit both Georgia State University and the community it serves. The main goal of the thesis is to provide a proof-of-concept web interface. I discuss why this is a critical first step to the broader civic engagement goals of the project, and I outline the next two phases of implementation.

Introduction: In today’s contemporary society individuals can use multiple media- channels to find civic information. Civic information should reach all groups of society and according to previous research young people are relatively hard to reach with this type of information. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate how young, highly educated individuals in Sweden are using media channels to find and take part in civic information, the expectations they have of the information and if they consider that they need to participate in public discourse. Methodology: In this qualitative study we had a hermeneutic perspective with an abductive approach. We have collected our empirical material by doing interviews with 15 respondents. The respondents are students and were chosen based on both their knowledge and their interest in media and communication since we were looking for a broad view on the subject. Conclusion: Through this study we discovered that young individuals mainly use the social-media channel Facebook to get updated on civic information. Facebook offers easily accessible information and also expose the information, which our respondents prefer. Through this study we found that young individuals expect information to be easily accessible and want to be exposed to it. We also found that young individuals find it important to be able to participate in public media-channels. In conclusion we found that social-media channels are the most used and preferred channels by young individuals when it comes to civic information.

This thesis addresses how government in Rwanda plays out in practice and how it affects lived experiences of state power and citizenship. Two decades after the genocide, Rwanda has come to be associated both with security, development, and stability, on the one hand, and with state repression and coercion, on the other. In 2007, a nationwide programme was launched to teach all Rwandans about the politically dominant vision of the model Rwandan citizen – an ideal that is today pursued through remote trainings camps, local village trainings, and everyday forms of government. The thesis is based on ten months of anthropological research in Rwanda, oriented around three ethnographic spaces: the life and workings of the Itorero training sites, the voices of two dozen Rwandans living in Kigali, and the daily government of a local neighbourhood in Kigali. The findings highlight how certain government practices in Rwanda engender in people experiences of being exposed to the state’s power and violent potential. As such, they represent an authoritarian mode of rule, reproduced through the way experiences of exposure guide everyday actions and behaviour vis-à-vis the state. The thesis starts from the Foucauldian assumption that all relations of power depend on the acceptance and agency of both those holding power and those who relate to themselves as their subjects. In Rwanda, the terms of acceptance are partly grounded in local social realities. Personal memories of mass violence, for example, justify for many the state’s tight social control. Such memories are also actively nurtured by the government itself, by associating the loosening of state control with the risk of renewed violence. Furthermore, in light of Rwanda’s attraction of foreign aid, authoritarian rule needs to be understood in relation to international terms of acceptance, which are embedded in liberal understandings of good, or at least good enough, governance.