The current debate on citizenship and the quality of democracy have actually delivered onwards to a wider context. These processes of change of rules, attitudes, capacities and values can be reached through social and political learning. We will analyze good examples in Education Policy where the mediators, NGO’s and agencies negotiate and develop different ways and networks in order to consolidate the participative democracy in some countries, through the general sites of citizenship and the specific “Education for Democratic Citizenship” programmes.
The paper is focused on the experiences from the called “Sites of citizenship” that involves a variety of different groups in the development of democratic practices, so they offer territorially unbounded politics. Certain level of sponsored institutionalisation is supporting them (i.e.:Council of Europe and other agencies). We could analyze the sites activity as forms of inclusive and pluralist citizenship and the different learning –educational, training, formal, non formal- from them. The inclusiveness can involve different ethnic, religious and cultural representatives’ groups, empowering disadvantages communities to face different problems. So, these creative ways in which people and youth engage in democratic activity and the potential relations with the administrations will be also identified.
The heart of most of sites is the notion of “community”, and empowerment is the term that could most commonly be attached to site activity. At the same time, “partnership” is a key structural and often involves novel arrangements with unfamiliar participants either created relationships of social peace, solidarity and confidence. Given the communitarian conception of democracy privileges the concerns and values relating to practices and understandings and overcoming forms of social exclusion and the participants can influence or change circumstances or inequalities that result in a further participation.
