Civics, active citizenship and individual action

Introduction

This chapter will explore the meaning of citizenship and explain the importance of understanding what it means to be an active citizen. Raising awareness of civics is an important part of the study of human geography; it enables people to realise the various opportunities they have to become informed, responsible and active members of their community, which in turn greatly affects our physical and built environments.

Promoting active citizenship helps enable people to identify injustice, inequity and forms of exploitation in their society, towards the physical environment or towards other humans. It also gives people an outlet to criticise forms of injustice and inequity, which should be an essential component of any democratic society. Active citizenry is the basis for social and environmental movements, which are usually centred on a cause addressing some form of discontent with the status quo.

What is citizenship?

The term 'citizenship' can be defined as the relationship between an individual and a political community (or society). While this political community or society could theoretically be any size, citizenship today is generally defined by membership of a particular geo-political entity or nation-state, which we commonly call a country. 'Citizens' are therefore an aggregate (collection) of people who share a common membership to a country. Examples of institutions of the citizenry (civic bodies) include governments, courts, political parties, trade unions, non-government organisations (refer to Chapter 4), churches, schools and universities.

When deemed a 'citizen', people have the right to be an active participant in all aspects of political, economic, social and cultural life in their society and a responsibility to uphold the values of their society. They also have the responsibility to abide by the rules of their society. This set of rights and responsibilities can differ between different political communities. In some countries, for example, citizens are forced to serve in the military for a set period of time.

Below are the main rights to which people are entitled under our modern understandings of citizenship:

• civil rights - these include things such as freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and equal and just treatment before the law
  
  
• political rights - these include the ability to vote in elections and the right to stand as a candidate for elections and
  
  
• social rights - these include guaranteed access to healthcare, welfare and educational services, which should be provided by the State (the government of the political community).

The origins of citizenship

The concept of belonging to a political community dates back to Ancient Greek and Roman times. These earlier forms of citizenship, however, differed quite substantially from our understanding of it now in countries such as Australia. Traditionally, women, poorer people, and people belonging to minority religious, racial or ethnic groups were not counted as full citizens.

Our understandings of citizenship today were moulded by the eighteenth century French and US Revolutions and are based on the ideal of equality for all citizens. While these significant historical events have been very influential in democratic countries such as Australia, it was still some time before true equality was achieved for all people. Universal suffrage (also known as political franchise or voting rights for all citizens) was not introduced into most countries until after World War II. Even today, Puerto Ricans, universally granted citizenship of the United States in 1917, are able to serve in the US military but still do not have the right to vote in presidential elections.

Citizenship in Australia

Citizenship as a formal legal status was introduced in Australia on the 26 January 1949 under the Australian Nationality and Citizenship Act 1948 (Cth). Before this, people born or resident here were known as 'British Subjects'. While Australian women were granted the right to vote in the early 1900s (much earlier than women in many countries of the world) the legal provision of full citizenship rights for Indigenous Australians did not occur until the 1960s.

Since 1994 any person not born in Australia wishing to become an Australian citizen must take a 'Pledge of Commitment'. By taking this pledge they are acknowledging that they will share Australia's democratic beliefs, respect Australia's rights and liberties, and obey Australian laws. Over 90,000 people from across the world became Australian citizens in 2004-05. If someone is already a citizen of another country, they are still allowed to become an Australian citizen. This is known as 'dual citizenship'. Being a citizen of more than two countries is known as 'plural citizenship'. See image 1

Citizenship and nationality

Although sometimes used interchangeably, it is important to note that citizenship is not synonymous with (does not mean the same thing as) nationality. During the peak period of nation-state formation of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the assumption arose that citizenship would entail sharing a common culture and committing oneself to remain loyal to a particular nation-state, with a particular national identity. Often these nation-states attempted to unify people from diverse cultural, linguistic, ethnic and religious backgrounds, but this has proven to be a problem in a number of historical instances. Citizens of the former USSR, for example, included Chechens, Ukrainians and Latvians; and citizens of the former Yugoslavia were a combination of Serbians, Croatians, Bosnians, Macedonians and Albanians. Even today, citizens of Great Britain can be English, Irish, Scottish or Welsh by nationality, and Spanish citizens - notably the Basques, Catalans and Galicians - often identify as nationals of the region, rather than the country, in which they were born.

Citizenship is much easier to define than nationality because it is a formal, legal status. Australia's contemporary multicultural society provides a good example of the complexities of defining nationality. This is because Australian society comprises citizens who come from a range of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds, which explains why some people may claim to be Australian by citizenship, but not by nationality. It also explains why some people feel they have two nationalities, even though they may only be a citizen of one county. The nationality a person identifies with depends on each and every individual.

Active citizenship

Having defined citizenship as a legal status, it is now important to distinguish this from what the concept of 'active citizenship' entails. If citizenship can be defined as having legal rights and responsibilities within a political community, active citizenship would involve acting upon these rights and responsibilities. It means participating as an involved member of society, not just legally being a member of it. See animation 1

Being an active citizen could therefore be defined as realising your potential to affect change within your political community and actively participating in processes that will alter the status quo, ostensibly for the greater good of society. Being an active citizen would also involve thinking critically about issues in your society and learning about the effects that certain aspects of our lifestyles can have elsewhere, or upon other people in the community. See animation 2

On the flip side of this idea, however, is the argument that in democratic countries such as Australia, citizens should also have the right to not participate as active citizens. In other words, people should have the right to behave apolitically and distance themselves from issues in which they do not wish to become involved. Examples of individuals acting to prompt positive change in Australia are discussed in more detail below.

Global citizenship

As the process of globalisation continues to compress space and time, bringing people from around the world closer together, the changing boundaries of communities are beginning to re-shape traditional national and cultural identities. Intercultural communication has also led people to challenge their own society's values; many people have begun to realise that embracing different perspectives of the world can increase our understanding of the world. In doing so, globalisation has begun to change people's interpretation of citizenship and led to the concept of 'global citizenship'.

Global citizenship symbolises the realisation that we are all essentially occupants of the same planet and the acknowledgement that what is done in one part of the world almost always has ramifications elsewhere. It essentially represents individuals' commitments to being aware of and taking an interest in issues of global concern that may or may not have a direct impact on their country or on them personally. A rise in people identifying as global citizens is one way that we could hope to achieve a fairer and more sustainable world.

Individual action - Ian Kiernan and the 'Clean up Australia' campaign

Fuelled by one man's astonishment at the state of the world's oceans, Ian Kiernan's 'Clean Up Australia' campaign has become one of the world's most successful environmental movements. It is a perfect example of what active citizenry can achieve, on both a national and global scale.

After completing a round-the-world yacht race in 1987, a journey which opened his eyes to the global problem of water pollution, Kiernan returned to Australia on a mission. He wanted to make a positive difference to the environment and tackle the problem of pollution. Two years later, around 40 000 Australians participated in the first ever 'Clean Up Sydney Harbour Day'. By 1990 the campaign had spread to a national level and 'Clean Up Australia Day' generated the active support of around 300 000 volunteers. See image 2

The success of Kiernan's campaign spread from Australia across the globe. Each year 'Clean Up The World' continues to engage millions of active citizens in countries all around the world, who share similar concerns for their local environments.