Topic

This research exploited the unique opportunity of the 2014 Referendum on Scottish Independence, in which the voting age has been lowered to 16, to advance understanding of the political socialization of young people. Schools in Scotland have been directed by Scottish ministers to engage young people with the Referendum and schools have approached this instruction in different ways.

Research questions

What is young people’s sense of political community?

Does enfranchisement have an impact on young people’s sense of political community?

Has the Referendum campaign led young people to pay more attention to politics?

Objective

The research study eschews normative assumptions of what pupils should learn about the formal “politics” of nation states, and instead gauges how young people relate to the norms and decisions that affect their lives (which is how we use the term “political”), and whether young people feel that decisions are taken in their name (which we term a “sense of political community”). In a world in which nations are no longer the unquestioned units of political life, political community provides a broader concept which may include the towns and cities in which we live or indeed the institutions in which we work or study. The research investigates young people’s sense of political community, and then asks if, and then, how, it is affected by being eligible to vote in the Referendum.

Theoretical Framework

Since the 1950s there has been an impressive literature on political socialization, but it has viewed the “political” narrowly as well as normatively, focusing on what young people should be learning and specifically about national “politics”. The first generation (1950s-70s) was concerned to test young people’s knowledge of office-holders and institutions, which was termed political literacy (Hyman). The second generation (1980s-1990s) paid more attention to pupils’ civic habits and skills (Atherton, Niemi and Junn). The third generation (2000s-) is considering a wider range of issues under the rubric of citizenship education, but remains normative (Galston, Kiwan, Westheimer and Kahne). Rather than asking what young people are learning about and for national politics, our research begins with young people’s own sense of political community.

Sense of political community

Political community is a concept broader than citizenship in going beyond the nation, while more focused on whether people feel represented by the authorities that make norms and decisions in different contexts of their lives. Our research opens new vistas to scholars by asking what sense of political community young people have, rather than what they lack.

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