Axis 1 – Learning democratic citizenship
This first axis focuses on the acquisition of the values, attitudes, and skills that form the building blocks of a healthy democracy. Democratic citizenship is based on a sense of belonging to a political community, trust in the institutions that embody the democratic system, social cohesion linked to the equality of citizens, and the information literacy skills essential to understanding the world. However, several factors influence this learning process, as research combining communication, social psychology, computer science, political science, and sociology demonstrates.
Responsible researcher:
Antoine Bilodeau
Researchers involved:
Nicolas Ajzenman, Frédérick Bastien, Laurie Beaudonnet, Éric Bélanger, Elissa Berwick, Marc André 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, Eric Hehman, Erick Lachapelle, Normand Landry, Valérie-Anne Mahéo-Le-Luel, Reihaneh Rabbany, Eran Shor, Thomas Soehl, Dietlind Stolle
THEMES
THEME 1.1: Civic 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
For democracy to function, a certain degree of political trust is required, but the public must also be capable of exercising healthy criticism of political institutions and actors. The first challenge is to measure trust; the second is to understand what influences the level of trust.
THEME 1.3: Social Cohesion
Social cohesion refers to the quality of the relationships between citizens and other residents within the same territory, and the degree of solidarity they feel towards one another. It is one of the areas in which our members have the most projects. We are interested in three dimensions of social cohesion: cohesion between people based on their different ethnocultural or socio-economic backgrounds and abilities. The theory of intergroup contact underpins several of our research projects.
THEME 1.4: Information literacy
The development of information literacy is a crucial issue in a democracy shaped by digital technologies, algorithmic platforms and generative artificial intelligence.
KEYWORDS
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