ABSTRACT
This part introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. It focuses on forms of empowerment among young people via examples of engagement in the processes through which citizenship is acquired. The part demonstrates some of the controlling tendencies on the part of adults in a comparative study of environmental education projects in Finland, France and Switzerland. It looks at an older age group, where in principle engagement in the adult political process might be expected. The part draws an interesting analogy between the feminist struggles for women’s emancipation in the political and economic world with that of young people’s struggle for recognition. It identifies the historical sequence of first civic rights (right to own property, right to freedom of speech), then political rights (right to choose who governs) and finally, social and economic rights (right to a minimum standard of living and to equal opportunities).
