In recent years citizens' involvement has become a key issue of the current political and institutional agendas. The deficient democratic processes and legitimacy crises of the modern idea of democracy have caused a growing focus on the importance of social and civic participation for democratic innovation, inclusion and social cohesion. This development in combination with the impact of globalization and neoliberal governance has changed the relationship between state, market and civil society organizations, ad-hoc-groups and citizens as individuals both at local, national, european and global level. Followed by this development, the conditions for provision of social benefits and services as well as for critic and democratic participation have changed.

Key research focus

The key focus of the research group "Changing Societies: Citizenship, Participation and Power" is the social and political processes that are involved in defining citizenship rights, conditioning active participation, shaping identity formation and organizing interaction between individuals, ad-hoc-groups, civil society organizations, market and state. This involve analyses and theorizing of the new and changing conditions for provision of social benefits and services, critic and democratic participation, including the impact of these on justice, recognition, equality, trust, active citizenship, identity formation, solidarity and social cohesion.

The research is based on an understanding of citizenship, which in addition to rights to become a full member of society includes active citizenship, issues of access to citizenship and relations of belonging. Consequently, subjective feelings of belonging must be aligned with politics of belonging, and the competencies for and courage to active citizenship understood as shaped in everyday practices. Active citizenship comprises influence on decision-making as well as inclusion in the social practices of the community/society. Thus, beyond the significance of the realization of democratic rights more generally, the shaping of citizenship is strongly dependent on social participation in all spheres of everyday life as well as in innovation of policies and practices with regard to more complex issues, e.g. technology and clima. The arenas of such social participation include the labour market, the family arena, peer groups and community networks as well as civic, public and private institutions. Through this approach the research group moves beyond a conceptualisation of citizenship as being an issue which exclusively concerns "status", towards encompassing social and political processes of learning and identity formation, i.e. sense making, with the significance of formal rights as an accompanying perspective.

Research themes and questions

• Participation and citizenship under changing societal conditions - analysis of power relations and dynamics of inclusion and participation versus marginalization, exclusion and silencing
• Recognition and citizenship - analysis of the combination of diversity and equality in relation to ethnicity, gender, age, social class, and other social categories
• State policies contribution to, or constrain of, social rights, active citizenship and the subjective feeling of belonging for different social groups, where the dimensions of ethnicity, gender, age, and social class are important separately or in combination, at local, national or international level
• The relationship between employment, voluntary work, welfare services and families under the pressure from globalization
• Conceptualization of citizenship and participation, embracing their embeddedness in life experiences, democratic and innovative institutions, historical and cultural processes and power relations
• Theoretical and empirical analyses of participation and democratisation in public and social innovation
• Identification of the main determinants for civic participation and social cohesion under the conditions of greater individualization, diversity and flexibility in social and economic relations.
• The feasibility of different types of policy and organizational measures, at the local, national and global level, regarding dealing with welfare and citizenship rights, including social equality, civic participation, and access to services, care and benefits given the diversity in welfare models?
• Changing conditions for critic and un-conventional as well as more conventional modes of participation

Existing research competence

The research on "Changing Societies: Citizenship, participation and power" builds on an established and long-lasting research at ISG in social policy, critical theory, civil society, citizenship, power relations, childhood, migration, ethnicity, inter-sectionality, labour market and family relations. It has to some extent been coordinated through the CINEFOGO Network of Excellence, the ESPA-network and latest through the Centre for International Studies in Citizenship, Democratic Participation, and Civil Society (CIPACI).