engleski

From Passive towards Active Citizenship: Education as a Means of Inclusion of Croatian Citizens into the Public Sphere

After theoretical examination and scrutiny of meanings of the ‘active citizenship’ concept, in the following section we will provide an analysis of the basic attributes of political participation and civic engagement of Croatian population. By referring to several researches and disposable data, we delineate, it should be underlined, only key contours of the level of inclusion of citizens in the public sphere. The conducted analysis indicates quite low rates of active engagement in both political sphere and civic sector. Therefore we ought to detect probable explanations for poor inclusion of Croatian citizens in the public life. In this light certain socio-cultural factors, like particular traits of persisting cultural heritage and unfavourable levels of social capital appears as possible plausible explanations. In order to overcome the denoted flaw of week participation, in the next section we emphasize the relevance of education, particularly of younger generations, as an intensely important factor that ought to generate more active, responsible citizens, directly engaged in activities of public significance. Thus the education for active citizenship has been highlighted as one of the crucial elements in the emergence of Croatian society as the knowledge society.

active citizenship ; social inclusion ; civic engagement ; relevance of education

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