Civic Mind and Good Citizenship: Comparative Perspectives

As the political sphere within the EU changes, for external and internal reasons, the citizenship model of Europe is facing new challenges. The book Civic Mind and Good Citizenship asks, whether it is possible to find a "European" set of ideals and beliefs, and if so, what the nature and dynamics of this European citizenship might be. In addition to empirical advances, the book aims to combine synthesize democracy theories and research on citizenship as well as welfare regimes and capitalism types. The authors employ a wide and integrative notion of citizenship.

Civic Mind and Good citizenship is a product of the Finnish Cinefogo (Civil Society and New Forms of Governance in Europe - the Making of European Citizenship) research team as well as invited specialists in the field. The book reports some core results relating to the prerequisites of politically active citizenship by using the ISSP 2004 survey data from 38 countries. The main focus in empirical analysis is on the differences between the EU countries. The Nordic region, especially Finland, is picked as a focus of special attention for both theoretical and empirical reasons.

The book is intended for a wide academic audience. It deals with topical issues by using a recent set of relevant data. It will serve as a source book or as a text book for students and scholars in the fields of sociology and political science as well as all readers looking to gain an understanding of the unity of European ideas of citizenship and/or the case of Finland in particular. A printed copy of the book is no longer available.

Keywords: citizenship