Abstract
Since 2014, a range of actions associated with the preceding Youth in Action initiative have been interpolated into the Erasmus programme, including voluntary placements and other forms of short duration exchange. In this chapter, we elaborate upon the shift away from academic mobility and towards establishing a clearer personal-political agenda in Erasmus+. We also examine the potential role of Erasmus in encouraging active citizenship, taking into account the value of mobility to its realization. Evidence is used from empirical material gathered in Estonia in the form of interviews with young people conducted before and approximately seven months after they had participated in a mobility project, with specific emphasis on the development of citizenship competences.
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Notes
- 1.
The social agenda of Erasmus+ can also be regarded as an inheritance of another antecedent programme, the Lifelong Learning Programme, which ran between 2007 and 2013 (although officially established on 15 November 2006), during which time it provided an integrative context for Erasmus. The relevance of this programme to this chapter is explained in the European Reference Framework of Key Competences for Lifelong Learning (European Council 2006), which cites social and civic competence among eight key aptitudes, defined as the ‘knowledge, skills, attitudes and values needed to enable individuals to become active citizens’ (Hoskins et al. 2008, p. 11).
- 2.
Dedicated research on active citizenship among youth in the EU is rather limited in scope, but one interesting development concerns the Horizon 2020 project, CATCH-EyoU, on the theme of constructing active citizenship with European Youth, in which these expert interviews were conducted. For more details, see: http://www.catcheyou.eu/
- 3.
According to Taru (2013, p. 10), in 2011, the average duration of a YIA project was 8 days.
- 4.
All names used in this chapter have been changed to protect the anonymity of the interviewees.
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Cairns, D., Krzaklewska, E., Cuzzocrea, V., Allaste, AA. (2018). Erasmus and Citizenship. In: Mobility, Education and Employability in the European Union. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76926-4_7
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