Raising Today’s Young Citizen for Tomorrow

Schools and youth organizations are the first to convey sets of expectations for being a citizen. What are exactly these expectations? And how are they conveyed? We suggest that youth civic initiatives aim to fabricate "good citizens" through experimentation. They highlight the normative postulates of what should be a citizen in a specific society. In proposing an ethnography of the Gatineau Youth Commission, a group that has been developing collaboration between schools and the city of Gatineau, we try to identify and analyze how democratic values and practices are transmitted in daily life. Is it part of an emancipatory vision (Vitiello, 2016) or an ethical and political experimentation (Dewey, 1916)? Or is it a transmission of democratic values and emotions (Nussbaum, 2013)?

This Commission brings together 26 young people from all sectors of the city of Gatineau (Quebec, Canada) to ensure "the development of alert, accomplished, committed and thoughtful citizens". It is particularly concerned with making recommendations to the authorities and to support projects related to young people’s interests. We have followed the Commission for almost a year and it allowed us to refine our understanding of a democratic educational experience. We will present our analysis of the democratic norms of the group, the environments that facilitate change in political postures and the tension between differents expectations of being a “good citizen”.