Active Citizenship: Revisiting Citizen Practices and Motives of Participation Today

Abstract

In this panel we explore contemporary citizenship as a means of political participation and as a challenge to the limits of representative democracy. As things unfolded since the 2008 economic crunch it turned out, at times contrary to common wisdom, that people—regardless of their formal status—still seek to become politically active. The papers in this panel demonstrate how people—be them, migrants, "ordinary" citizens, soon-to-be-citizens youth, etcetera—practise their political agency in mundane venues and contexts, as well as in the political arena. Thus, against the backdrop of a failing democratic system these forms of activism and participation demonstrate both the motives and the new forms of active citizenship.