Axis 1 – Learning democratic citizenship
This first axis focuses on the acquisition of values, attitudes and skills that constitute the ingredients of a healthy democracy. Democratic citizenship is based on the feeling of belonging to a political community, trust in the institutions that embody the democratic regime, social cohesion linked to the equality of citizens, as well as the information skills essential to understanding the world. However, several factors influence this learning, as research combining communication, social psychology, computer science, political science and sociology shows.
Responsible researcher:
Antoine Bilodeau
Researchers involved:
Nicolas Ajzenman, Frédérick Bastien, Laurie Beaudonnet, Éric Bélanger, Elissa Berwick, Marc A. Bodet, Joanie Bouchard, Colette Brin, Emmanuel Choquette, Simon Coulombe, Roxane de la Sablonnière, Marina Doucerain, Yannick Dufresne, Claire Durand, Dominic Duval, Aaron Erlich, Thierry Giasson, Jean-François Godbout, Allison Harell, Virginie Hébert, Eric Hehman, Mebs Kanji, Erick Lachapelle, Normand Landry, Valérie-Anne Mahéo-Le-Luel, Reihaneh Rabbany, Eran Shor, Thomas Soehl, Dietlind Stolle
THEMES
THEME 1.1: Citizen Identity
Citizen identity can take several forms: it can be centered on the inhabited territory or on a previously known territory; it can be unique or multiple; it can relate to an infra-state, state or supra-state territory.
THEME 1.2: Political Trust
The functioning of democracy requires a certain degree of political trust but also that the population is capable of healthy criticism of institutions and political actors. A first challenge is to measure trust, then a second is to understand what modifies the degree of trust.
THEME 1.3: Social Cohesion
We focus on social cohesion, that is, the quality of the relationships that citizens and others who live in the same territory maintain with each other, and the degree of solidarity they feel towards each other. This is one of the themes on which our members have the most projects. Three dimensions of social cohesion interest us: cohesion between people according to their ethnocultural, socioeconomic and capacity differences.
THEME 1.4: Information skills
The development of information skills is a crucial issue in a democracy mediated by digital technologies, algorithmic platforms and generative artificial intelligence.
KEYWORDS
Click on a keyword to see who is researching this topic.