Children, Citizenship and Environment: Nurturing a Democratic Imagination in a Changing World, written by Bronwyn Hayward

Abstract

We are increasingly confronted with dangerous environmental change, weakening democracies, growing social inequalities, unemployment and poverty especially among young people, and global economies based on unsustainable growth and waste in a finite planet. These problems all interact and intensify one another. Yet they tend to be addressed separately and rather weakly, given the urgent need to confront all these extreme dangers. Centres of greatest hope and promise for developing the necessary knowledge and shared practical action include schools, and many young people show their interest and commitment in varying ways including lively protest movements. Bronwyn Hayward, a political scientist, provides a rich and complex analysis of the related problems and of an inspiring new agenda for ecological citizenship education to enable children and adults to learn to make a difference in the world.