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eParticipation for Political Education: Challenges and Opportunities

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Electronic Participation (ePart 2009)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 5694))

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Abstract

This paper argues, that the incorporation of eParticipation into political education at schools will broaden the chances of young people for political and societal engagement and strengthen civil society of a country or state. Frustration with traditional party politics especially of the younger generation is increasing in contemporary society. Since the voting age in Austria was lowered to 16, new ways of learning for political education by utilizing information and communication technologies (ICTs) that have the potential to increase participation of young people are considered. However, Austrian young people are not yet educated in developing and expressing political perspectives and therefore not prepared for actively taking part in politics. Exemplified on the project Polipedia.at, a collaborative online textbook on political education, this paper aims to give recommendations from a social science perspective for integration of ICTs into political education in order to enhance political participation of youth.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. ICT&S Center, University of Salzburg, Sigmund-Haffner-Gasse 18, 5020, Salzburg, Austria

    Ursula Maier-Rabler & Christina Neumayer

Authors
  1. Ursula Maier-Rabler
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  2. Christina Neumayer
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Chair of Digital Governance, Centre for Digital Citizenship, Institute of Communications Studies, The University of Leeds, LS2 9JT, Leeds, UK

    Ann Macintosh

  2. University of Macedonia, Egnatia 156, 540 06, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Efthimios Tambouris

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© 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Maier-Rabler, U., Neumayer, C. (2009). eParticipation for Political Education: Challenges and Opportunities. In: Macintosh, A., Tambouris, E. (eds) Electronic Participation. ePart 2009. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 5694. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-03781-8_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-03781-8_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-03780-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-03781-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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