Czech pupils and citizenship: attitudes and participation

EVC , Martina. Ob anské postoje a participace ák v eské republice. Praha, 2011. 120 s. Diplomová práce (Mgr.) Univerzita Karlova, Fakulta sociálních v d, Institut sociologických studií. Katedra sociologie. Vedoucí diplomové práce PhDr. Ing. Petr Soukup. Abstract This thesis focuses on civic participation of Czech pupils in the realm of civil society. The main task is to find out which factors influence civic attitudes and engagement of youth in current society. There has been an increased interest in concept of civil society since the fall of Communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe with respect to political, economic and social changes. These changes resulted in a need to rethink the content of civic and citizenship education. Firstly the author describes civil society as a context for civic participation with special emphasis on Czech civil society and then she deals with the theory of political socialization, which helps her to identify the key determinants of civic engagement. Family, school, peer groups and media are seen as the main agents of this socialization. Using data from the International Civic and Citizenship study the author concludes that context of schools and classrooms and motivation are the most important direct factors in civic engagement