Ideations in Analysing and Strengthening Democratic Citizenship

By now, the decade-long tendencies of depoliticization and technocratization (e.g. Fawcett et al 2017) have created a counterreaction of repoliticization, including the rise of value rhetorics, polarization and populism. This necessitates refreshing the perspectives in analysing the normative dimension of democratic citizenship. This paper develops an approach for approaching the various different but viable normative perspectives on citizenship (Oldfield 1990, Heater 1999, Delanty 2000, Westheimer 2015, Kalev, Sinivee 2024) as not only contradictory but mutually enriching. I develop the approach based on the concepts of aporias and ideations. Aporias can be concisely characterized as the insolvable impasses stemming from equally valid but inconsistent principles or premises, e.g., the community-autonomy and rights-privileges oppositions (Huysmans, Guillaume 2013). In practice, these can be negotiated by developing a contextually optimal combination or compromise. But the aporias can also be used for analysing the different normative perspectives on citizenship on a more abstract level (Kalev, Sinivee 2024). Ideation refers to the formation of ideas or concepts, the act or process of constructing a particular thought, idea, or image, and, more broadly, the ways in which ideas emerge and influence practices. Also, the institutions can be seen as condensed ideations (see more Kalev et al 2023). Ideations serve as political and governance resources (Howlett 2019) and this way the normative perspectives can be seen as discursive resources that can be tapped for innovating democratic citizenship. I will discuss the different perspectives on democratic citizenship as sources of both tensions and opportunities, and outline linkages to contemporary political, governing and educational practices that could strengthen responsible democratic citizenship. I seek to identify the more promising pathways for innovating democratic citizenship in contemporary European contexts. This includes both making sense of the various ideations and normative perspectives embedded in democratic citizenship, and developing integrity, reflectiveness and resilience vis a vis these different expectations. Attention is paid also to practice-related aspects, mostly in terms of education and engagement. This discussion is mostly based on the empirical and practical materials from the Horizon Europe Democrat project and Tallinn University Democrat+ project.