IACSEE Conference 2015

2^nd – 4^th July at Goettingen University, Germany

“Political and economic systems under challenge – assessing the role and potential of citizenship education”

The 11^th International Conference of IACSEE, the International Association for Citizenship, Social and Economics Education, will take place 2^nd – 4^th of July 2015 at Georg-August-Universitaet Goettingen, Germany, hosted by Monika Oberle, Professor for Didactics of Civic Education, Goettingen University.

The conference will address the role and potential of citizenship, social and economic education, both theoretically and empirically in the challenging times that we are currently witnessing: Political systems recently have been fundamentally challenged, e.g. in Asia as in Hong Kong, China and Thailand; in the middle-east, in the Arab spring and the Ukrainian revolution, but also in Western countries such as the UK, Spain and Italy with their movements for more devolution and independence referenda. Global climate change needs to be addressed by international political solutions adopting new modes of governance. The far-reaching problems of the global financial system highlighted by the financial crisis starting 2008 have only been addressed superficially so far. People are disillusioned and ask for change. But many citizens feel that they adequately understand neither the problem nor the alternative solutions presented to them. In Europe the crisis of the financial and economic system, the debt crisis, anticipated Euro crises and – especially in the South – the horrendous rates of youth unemployment, give rise to “Politikverdrossenheit” and populist parties, but also to nationalist movements from the extreme right.

‪At the same time citizens are increasingly being asked by their national governments to become ‘active’. If citizens ought to be decisive actors confronted with such challenges, they need citizenship education to develop relevant competencies. Or so we think. Which roles really can and should be adopted by citizenship, social and economics education will be the leading question of this international three-day conference.

Key note speakers:

Sabine Manzel, Professor for Didactics of Social Science Education at the University of Duisburg-Essen

Susan Seeber, Professor for Business Education and Human Resource Development at the University of Goettingen‪

Thomas Krueger, President of the German Federal Agency for Civic Education, Bonn ‪

Richard Pring, Professor (em.) and honorary research fellow at Oxford University

>>> Conference Programme <<<