IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/socres/v19y2014i1p1-12.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Why Has Civic Education Failed to Increase Young People's Political Participation?

Author

Listed:
  • Nathan Manning
  • Kathy Edwards

Abstract

Recent years have seen a revival of civic education. Advocates of this policy have cited the alleged declining normative political participation of young people as a primary reason for its need. This paper builds on the findings of a recent systematic review that examined the effect of civic education on young people's level of normative political engagement. The review found little evidence for civic education having a clear effect on voting/registering to vote, but did identify modest positive effects on forms of political expression (e.g. signing petitions). Hence, it seems civic education has broadly ‘failed’ in its specified aim. We argue here that this ‘failure’ reflects a mechanistic approach to policy and a naive notion that ‘knowledge will result in action’, neglecting insights from sociological literature that shows structural barriers to young people's political participation and the displacement of electoral politics by new hybrid and creative forms of participation.

Suggested Citation

  • Nathan Manning & Kathy Edwards, 2014. "Why Has Civic Education Failed to Increase Young People's Political Participation?," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 19(1), pages 1-12, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:socres:v:19:y:2014:i:1:p:1-12
    DOI: 10.5153/sro.3206
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.5153/sro.3206
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.5153/sro.3206?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rigmor C Berg & Eva Denison, 2012. "Interventions to reduce the prevalence of female genital mutilation/cutting in African countries," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 8(1), pages 1-155.
    2. Sally Smith & Stephanie Barrientos, 2005. "Fair trade and ethical trade: are there moves towards convergence?," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(3), pages 190-198.
    3. Brian Reichow & Amanda M. Steiner & Fred Volkmar, 2012. "Social skills groups for people aged 6 to 21 with autism spectrum disorders (ASD)," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 8(1), pages 1-76.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jutta Kister, 2013. "Fair trade in Germany left the niche market. Power shifts observed in global fair trade value chains," Economia agro-alimentare, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 15(3), pages 35-54.
    2. Moana S. Simas & Laura Golsteijn & Mark A. J. Huijbregts & Richard Wood & Edgar G. Hertwich, 2014. "The “Bad Labor” Footprint: Quantifying the Social Impacts of Globalization," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(11), pages 1-27, October.
    3. Childs, John, 2008. "Reforming small-scale mining in sub-Saharan Africa: Political and ideological challenges to a Fair Trade gold initiative," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 203-209, December.
    4. Pamela K. Robinson, 2009. "Responsible retailing: Regulating fair and ethical trade," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(7), pages 1015-1026.
    5. John Wilkinson, 2011. "From Fair Trade to Responsible Soy: Social Movements and the Qualification of Agrofood Markets," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 43(9), pages 2012-2026, September.
    6. Viet Hoang & An Nguyen & Carmen Hubbard & Khanh-Duy Nguyen, 2021. "Exploring the Governance and Fairness in the Milk Value Chain: A Case Study in Vietnam," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-22, September.
    7. Hugh Waddington & Birte Snilstveit & Jorge Hombrados & Martina Vojtkova & Daniel Phillips & Philip Davies & Howard White, 2014. "Farmer Field Schools for Improving Farming Practices and Farmer Outcomes: A Systematic Review," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 10(1), pages -335.
    8. Eeva L. Laine & Matias Laine, 2009. "Finnish World Shops at a crossroads in the commercialized fair trade market," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(5), pages 274-283.
    9. Prachi Pundir & Ashrita Saran & Howard White & Ramya Subrahmanian & Jill Adona, 2020. "Interventions for reducing violence against children in low‐ and middle‐income countries: An evidence and gap map," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(4), December.
    10. Childs, John, 2014. "A new means of governing artisanal and small-scale mining? Fairtrade gold and development in Tanzania," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 128-136.
    11. Oto Buraimo & Olatunji Sonoiki, 2018. "Abandonment of Female Genital Mutilation within a generation: what worked and what next?," Global Journal of Reproductive Medicine, Juniper Publishers Inc., vol. 4(4), pages 53-57, April.
    12. Nick Clarke & Clive Barnett & Paul Cloke & Alice Malpass, 2007. "The Political Rationalities of Fair-Trade Consumption in the United Kingdom," Politics & Society, , vol. 35(4), pages 583-607, December.
    13. Yount, Kathryn M. & Krause, Kathleen H. & Miedema, Stephanie S., 2017. "Preventing gender-based violence victimization in adolescent girls in lower-income countries: Systematic review of reviews," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 192(C), pages 1-13.
    14. Will Low & Eileen Davenport, 2009. "Organizational Leadership, Ethics and the Challenges of Marketing Fair and Ethical Trade," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 86(1), pages 97-108, April.
    15. Strachan, Jacinta Muteshi, 2021. "A commentary: Using a theory-based approach to guide a global programme of FGM/C research: What have we learned about creating actionable research findings?," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    16. John Wilkinson, 2007. "Fair Trade: Dynamic and Dilemmas of a Market Oriented Global Social Movement," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 219-239, September.
    17. Ashrita Saran & Howard White & Hannah Kuper, 2020. "Evidence and gap map of studies assessing the effectiveness of interventions for people with disabilities in low‐and middle‐income countries," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(1), March.
    18. Vivian Welch & Elizabeth Tanjong Ghogomu & Sierra Dowling & Victoria I. Barbeau & Ali A. A. Al‐Zubaidi & Ella Beveridge & Mostafa Bondok & Payaam Desai & Rebecca Doyle & Jimmy Huang & Tarannum Hussain, 2024. "In‐person interventions to reduce social isolation and loneliness: An evidence and gap map," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(2), June.
    19. Sandrine Mesplé-Somps, 2016. "Migration and female genital mutilation," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 282-282, August.
    20. Luc Fransen & Brian Burgoon & Jette Steen Knudsen, 2017. "How Do Domestic Regulatory Traditions Shape CSR in Large International US and UK Firms?," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 8, pages 29-41, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:socres:v:19:y:2014:i:1:p:1-12. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.