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This year's NECE conference focuses on the complex changes regarding civic participation and its effects on socially disadvantaged groups. All over Europe, citizens tend to refrain from traditional political participation, which is reflected by decreasing turnout rates in elections and a growing disenchantment with politics. One criticism is that – increasingly influenced by private or narrow-topic interest groups – governments and political institutions all over Europe (and in other western democracies as well) are losing legitimacy. Populist sentiments and a general sense of powerlessness are rife as trust in democracy ebbs. ‘Post-democratic’ tendencies – as described by Colin Crouch – seem to dominate formal institutions of democracy. At the same time new ways of getting involved in politics and society by using social media and digital technologies are gaining importance. This development could be considered a positive one, interpreted as proof that democracy is still alive and kicking. Critics claim, though, that these tendencies can lead to a further weakening of democratic institutions. As regards citizenship education it has to be admitted that these new forms of political participation are to a large extent determined by access to education, and by income and skills. Engagement with the wider public may become dependent on small 'single issue' groups, spin doctors and advertising professionals. A rising number of socially disadvantaged groups and individuals may become excluded from participation in civil society and political processes and suffer from a conspicuous ‘empowerment gap’.

Experts and activists in the fields of citizenship and cultural education, youth and social workers, NGO representatives will meet in Warsaw to focus on a central question: How can citizenship education become a suitable tool for closing the empowerment gap? 

Warsaw, Art & Cultural Center Fabryka Trzciny, November 17.-19., 2011