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Europe on the Edge: Rethinking European Citizenship - A Virtual Exchange Programme for students across Europe

Module Code: EM7440

ECTS Credit : 5
Mandatory/ Optional : Optional
Module Coordinator : Dr Gillian Wylie
Module Length: Online (Michaelmas Term): October-December 2015

Module Description:

Citizenship is often defined through limited concepts such as voting or membership of a political party. However, young people are (politically) engaged in many different ways. This programme is based on the premise that the current understanding of citizenship is exclusive and limiting, consequently, many different ways of being a citizen are missed, especially in the younger generation who use new ways to communicate, interact and express themselves politically.

This framework, in being exclusive rather than inclusive, has some serious implications for how we relate to others and the world around us, highlighted by topics such as immigration and statelessness, consumerism and the environment and the concept of the embodied citizen.

This programme and the research connected to it aims to give young people an opportunity to completely rethink and redefine from their own perspectives the kind of actions and expressions that reflect being a citizen in Europe in the 21st century.

Learning Outcomes:

Knowledge: Students gain a deeper understanding of the principles that underpin citizenship theory and learn about connected political concepts. Students learn to critically analyze the framework, to explore the implications of this framework in practice in a European context and reflect upon how our societies deal with these complex issues.
Primary research: Opportunity not only to learn and explore the subject matter from experts across Europe, but also to participate collectively in a large scale piece of primary research (survey engaged over 3000 unique respondents last year) as well as individually conducting an in-depth interview.
Cross-cultural: Students build confidence in speaking honestly and respectfully on controversial and complex issues in a cross-cultural environment. Equally they learn how to listen receptively and value contrasting perspectives.
Interpersonal: Develop bonds of trust, understanding and support for their fellow peers through a process of getting to know each others’ views and experiences as individuals.
Technology: Gain experience in virtual communication and essential technical capabilities.

Delivery and syllabus:

During ten weeks, students will follow webinars from experts in their field addressing contemporary European issues underpinned by the concept of citizenship. Guided by U.N. accredited facilitators, the students will meet weekly online for seminars to explore their different perspectives on issues such as immigration and statelessness, consumerism and the environment, equality and representation. Additionally all participants will collectively implement a European-wide primary survey research into the perceptions of European citizenship among youth across different national and socioeconomic boundaries and each student will independently conduct an in-depth interview. The programme culminates in a summit held in Brussels for the highest graded participants who will interact with EU officials and present their findings.

The programme is a virtual exchange, which means that most of the learning takes place online and that the emphasis of the programme lays on the interaction between the students from different countries: the virtual exchange. The programme is built around four different activities:

We use webinars and video-presentations to provide students with academic content on contemporary European issues underpinned by the concept of citizenship;
We use tailored video-conference technology to host weekly seminars with students from different countries to reflect on that content. These sessions are facilitated by U.N. accredited facilitators;
We organise a European-wide primary survey research conducted by all participants, to gain a sense of the different viewpoints of young people in Europe on the concept of citizenship;
and finally, for a selected group of students there is the opportunity to travel to Brussels to present their findings to European policy makers.