IEA<\/p>\nCivic Education Study<\/a>, American 14-year-olds ranked dead last (out<\/p>\n
of 28 countries) in their knowledge of international issues and institutions.<\/p>\n
I presume that the transnational activists are more knowledgeable than<\/p>\n
their peers are, although that should be investigated. I wonder whether<\/p>\n
knowledge is a predictor of activism, and\/or whether people gain knowledge<\/p>\n
through participation.<\/p>\n
It is possible that interest in transnational issues has risen because<\/p>\n
knowledge of local and national issues and institutions has fallen.<\/p>\n
A lot of young people are fairly perplexed about how and why they might<\/p>\n
participate in local or national issues. Before they can participate,<\/p>\n
they must form opinions about private actors (such as corporations)<\/p>\n
and also about elaborate sets of public institutions. For example, if<\/p>\n
they want to get involved in US environmental issues, they may find<\/p>\n
that they have to understand the role of the EPA and the courts, the<\/p>\n
differences between Democrats and Republicans, their own state’s regulations,<\/p>\n
and many other matters that polls show they do not grasp. They also<\/p>\n
have to understand and consider a wide range of potential actions, such<\/p>\n
as voting for particular candidates, joining parties, and criticizing<\/p>\n
specific public officials. At the international level, however, the<\/p>\n
public institutions are very weak and can more easily be ignored. I<\/p>\n
realize that activists often choose to protest outside the existing<\/p>\n
international public institutions, such as the World Bank and the IMF.<\/p>\n
But my sense is that these bodies are viewed mainly as symbols of multinational<\/p>\n
capitalism. They don’t exercise as much power as national governments<\/p>\n
do, and they give average people no opportunities for influence. Paradoxically,<\/p>\n
their weakness and undemocratic nature may make them easier to understand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(posted on Friday morning) I am curious about the "transnational activists": those young people who organize movements and stage protests about global issues. In particular, I wonder about their knowledge levels. In the 1999 IEA Civic Education Study, American 14-year-olds ranked dead last (out of 28 countries) in their knowledge of international issues and institutions. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advocating-civic-education","category-revitalizing-the-left"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4275\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}