Making citizens : from belonging to learning

Abstract

The European Union has committed itself to the strategic goal of positioning Europe as the ‘the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion’ (European Council, 2000). Articulating the goal in this way acknowledges that the primary economic objective goes hand in hand with social and civic objectives aimed at establishing a tolerant Europe that is socially inclusive and supports active citizenship. This rhetoric frames up the kind of idea that French foreign policy analyst, Dominique Moisi, expresses in the quote above. In today’s globalising world, European integration entails a double agenda: the construction of ‘Europe’ as a legitimate and powerful collective agency in world affairs, and the formation of new kinds of citizens. We would argue that in order for the double agenda to be effected, these new citizens will need to be able to straddle the imperatives of the knowledge economy and societal security, able to draw the best from national traditions and supra-national developments, while exercising and actively protecting democratic values. Our aim in this chapter is to interrogate this double agenda that we see as centred on reworking citizenship, through the idea of the ‘learning citizen’. We approach this topic by reflecting on a country that has been generally successful in integrating European communities into a multicultural and pluralist democracy of the kind envisaged in an integrated Europe. Specifically, we consider the successes and challenges that have confronted Australia as it worked to modernise its democratic politics. In adopting this approach we are not suggesting that Australia offers any simple lessons for Europe or that Australian democracy is the best model for European integration. Indeed, we recognise that Australia offers a relatively simple small-scale case of political integration, compared to Europe with its ambition of bringing 25, possibly more, nations with diverse cultures and sub-cultures into a coherent governance structure. However, a small case-study is sometimes helpful in crystalling issues and strategy, and it is with this orientation that we draw from Australian research and our own professional experience, to see what can be learned from the Australian case that might shed light on the ‘European learning citizen’. We begin by outlining what we understand by citizenship and how it is under pressure from broad social and economic changes in many countries of the world—Australia as much as Europe. We argue that current conceptions of citizenship are unhelpfully bifurcated in the legacies of social democratic centralism and the ambitions of market liberalism. In the main body of the paper we use this conceptualisation of citizenship to consider citizenship and citizen formation in Australia. Firstly, we make a case for considering Australia as a productive illustration when investigating European integration and citizen re-formation, insofar as it provides evidence of the ways that Australia, a largely European country, has successfully integrated diverse European communities into a functioning pluralist democratic polity. Secondly, we outline the factors that have facilitated the formation of Australia as a collective agency based in a pluralist democracy. We then consider citizen formation within this democratic framework, highlighting its successes and the limits of its success. The usefulness of the case-study holds true, despite one important difference: in Australia citizen formation and learning has always had to work with a dominant model (Anglo-Saxon, Westminster, system, an agreed theoretical relationship of citizens to the rule of law, and so on). Whilst the argument can be put that having this dominant model has simplified the task, it can equally be argued that having a range of models facilitates the discussion of options and a societal evaluation of goals. Having outlined the Australian situation as a case, we return to the question of European integration and ask what does it mean to create ‘European learning citizens’.