Introduction to the Project

Project Launch

Programme for the Closing Conference on 22 March 2010

Event 1: 30 November 2009

Launch at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, London

 

Event 2: 27 January 2010

Teachers Continuing Professional Development Day, Bradford

 

Event 3: 3 March 2010

Year 10 Conference, Leeds

 

Event 4: 22 March 2010

Academic Conference, London

Events in EU development dating from the 1990s, such as the problematic ratification of the Maastricht and Lisbon Treaties and low turnouts in European Parliamentary elections, point to questions about the nature of citizenship in the EU. Policy makers have recognised and responded to these concerns in a number of ways, including, for example, the 2006 White Paper on Communication. Nevertheless, challenges remain.

UACES, assisted by co-funding from the European Commission, is convening and leading a major project into ‘Communicating European Citizenship’.

 

The project will take place as series of four linked events, organised by a team of academic and teacher-training experts, held in different parts of the UK to facilitate participation.

• Event 1, the launch workshop established the research agenda.

• Event 2 will be a continuing professional development event for secondary school teachers of Citizenship and will provide an important ‘continuing professional development’ (CPD) event for PGCE students, newly qualified and experienced teachers of Citizenship. The aim will be to identify, evaluate and select suitable teaching resources about the European Union that will then be "road-tested" during Event 3 below.

• Event 3 will take the form of a ‘Year 10 Conference’ for approximately 100 students. The Conference will be facilitated by PGCE Citizenship students from Bradford College, along with some more experienced teachers, and some representatives of civil society organisations.

• Event 4 will be a prestigious conference hosted by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London, uniting academic experts in communication, citizenship and European integration from a range of disciplines (politics, law, sociology, communications).

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This is a call for papers for the closing conference on 22 March 2010. The event is being supported by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office.

We invite proposed papers (empirical and/or theoretical) from academics and practitioners alike that respond to any aspect of the following issues:

• Citizenship and the EU: One of the main challenges facing all public policy makers, be they local, national or EU, is that there appears to be a wide-spread dissatisfaction about politics and policy-making among the citizenry. This appears to be manifest in public opinion polls and declining turnouts at local, national and EU elections. These challenges seem to be all the more acute with respect to the EU. Citizens appear to be even less engaged with the EU than in national or local politics and policy-making, describing it variously as ‘too remote’, ‘too interfering’, and ‘too undemocratic’. Accordingly, some of the main questions that arise are: Can public policy makers rectify or remedy these problems? If yes, how? Via what mechanisms? Moreover, can or should governments, at any level of governance, play a leading role in promoting the EU and in encouraging British citizens to engage with the EU? Whom, in addition to public policy makers, can or should stimulate the UK citizenry to be active participants?

• Communicating the EU to citizens: Arguably, there should be an open and lively, well-informed debate about the EU, both its benefits and drawbacks. How is this to be achieved? What can or should public policy makers do to promote the idea of the EU to the citizenry? What information can or should be conveyed to the citizens? Who else, apart from public policy-makers might have a role in promoting the EU?

Selected papers are to be presented during the closing one-day conference on Monday 22nd March 2010. The finished papers should be of no more than 7,000 words.

If you would like to propose a paper for the closing conference, please e-mail an abstract of no more than 200 words to UACES (admin@uaces.org) by Monday 25 January 2010. Please put "Call for Papers: Communicating European Citizenship" in the Subject field.

Decisions about submissions will be announced in mid February 2010.

We are offering to cover reasonable travel costs to the conference for those paper-givers who are unable to claim from elsewhere, as well as free registration for paper-givers.

Convenors of the Academic Conference: Dr Jenny Fairbrass, Professor Alex Warleigh-Lack, Dr Amelia Hadfield and Professor Kenneth Armstrong

 

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The project was launched at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office with an address by Chris Bryant MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (the Minister for Europe).

 

Please click here for a report of the event.

 

London, 30 November 2009

 

13:45	14:00	Welcome: Richard Whitman, Chair, UACES and Jenny Fairbrass, Treasurer, UACES and co-convenor of project
14:00	14:30	Key Note address: The Minister for Europe, Chris Bryant MP chaired by Sir Stephen Wall, Hon President UACES
14:30	15:30	Roundtable: The challenge of communicating the EU: Setting the Agenda Chair: Alex Warleigh-Lack, former UACES Chair and co-convenor of the project Dominic Brett, Head of Public Diplomacy, European Commission Millicent Scott, Association of Citizenship Teachers (ACT) Albert Weale, University of Essex Quentin Peel, Financial Times
15:30	16:30	Future directions: The project Facilitated in small groups by Stephen Fairbrass, Senior Lecturer in Citizenship Education / PGCE Citizenship Course Leader
16:30	16:35	Close: Richard Whitman

 

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