Basic Skills for Becoming a Citizen

Abstract

One of the major goals defined by the Lisbon Strategy for Lifelong Learning (LLL) in 2000 was the attempt to encourage people to participate in society and community as active citizens. But, what does Active Citizenship mean? What does Active Citizenship mean in the context of the Lisbon Strategy? This chapter endeavours to reflect on the building of an Active and Democratic Citizenship as opposed to the LLL’s policies that currently seem to be focused only on the construction of a hegemonic educational view mainly related to employment. Starting from the ideas of the Scottish Enlightenment and then from John Dewey’s thoughts on a democratic education, the chapter tries to define what skills could be useful for edifying an Active and Democratic Citizenship from both field and practices of Adult Education and Learning. The contributions of authors, such as Freire and Gaventa, are also included, among others. The chapter concludes by presenting the experience of the Participatory and Citizenship School from 2006 to 2007. This experience was developed in the background of the Participatory Budget experiment that took place in Seville, Spain, from 2003 to 2007. The Participatory and Citizenship School provides the opportunity for discussion – in the conclusions – of the role of education and learning in edifying a Europe for citizens and not only for workers, consumers and merchants.