ABSTRACT
The aim of this book is to engage with contemporary debates about citizenship education, democratisation and globalisation. The purpose is to encourage debate about how citizens are educated in ways that contribute to an international sociological fi eld of citizenship education studies. The book cannot claim to cover the wealth of literature now available on citizenship and citizenship education, nor to explore in depth the philosophical basis of these concepts. However, by bringing together this collection of new and previously published papers (some of which I have updated and amended), I hope to show that there is an important line of sociological research on citizenship and citizenship education that complements and engages with the study of contemporary educational reforms. The education of citizens is now a global debate and brings us directly back to Durkheim’s (1956) concerns about the relationship between education and society
The critical perspective I develop in this book is that of gender – what Yuval Davies and Stoetzler (2002) call the ‘gender gaze’. A gender perspective never claims to be comprehensive, nor exclusive, but it does aim to be productive in assessing the social signifi cance of education. Gender relations in Western European philosophy are central to the defi nition of the social contract between individuals and government and are deeply implicated in the distribution of power and control within society. Gender relations are also embedded within other sets of social relations including religious, ethnic, community relations and social class cultures that affect men’s and women’s differential access to citizenship rights and entitlements.
