Active Citizenship is the involvement and informed participation of citizens in the civic and political activities of society.  Informed by the findings from a longitudinal research project investigating how to increase the impact of an active citizenship program, Community Capacity Builders Program for Active Citizens:
  • covers the active citizenship capabilities desired by Australian governments,
  • recognises active citizenship as a wicked problem,
  • takes a systems approach, 
  • addresses power imbalances, and
  • supports participants to pass on their skills and knowledge to other community members.

During the Program participants:
  • develop an initiative that encourages active citizenship in their community, and
  • identify how their initiative can influence broader systems change by contributing towards an ecosystem of initiatives that foster active democratic citizenship throughout their community.
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The Program consists of five units:
  • Active Citizenship
  • Solution Ecosystems
  • Social Movements
  • ​Community Organising, and
  • Community Education

Unit 1

Active Citizenship
In Unit 1 participants explore the different meanings of the terms citizenship, active citizenship and democracy.  The declining trust in government and diminishing appeal of democracy in western countries is investigated.  After covering the active citizenship capabilities desired by Australian governments, the difficulty citizens encounter when they attempt to put these capabilities into practice is discussed.  With a thorough understanding of active citizenship, participants then compare the characteristics of active citizenship to the characteristics of wicked problems.  

Unit 2

Solution Ecosystems
With active citizenship recognised as a wicked problem, Unit 2 demonstrates why a solution ecosystem approach is required to address active citizenship.  During Unit 2, participants research and map the solution ecosystem for active citizenship in their community.  The solution ecosystem for active citizenship in a community consists of all the initiatives that are addressing any of the causal factors that underpin the ability of the community to have a culture of active citizenship and all of the organisations that are partnering on those initiatives.  

Unit 3

Social Movements
During Unit 3, social movements are explored as a form of counterpower.  A range of different types of social movements are discussed.  Participants identify the characteristics and the stages of successful social movements.  The use of social media by social movements for communicative action and how social movements occupy urban spaces is investigated.  With an awareness of these social movement features, participants undertake an analysis of a social movement that is of interest to them.
Unit 4
Community Organising
In Unit 4 participants explore approaches to community organising including social action, community building and consensus organising approaches.  Power from the conflict and the consensus community organising approaches are compared.  Participants develop a power map that represents the power in their community for an issue of interest to them, or their organising goals.  Power maps show the key actors that are involved with an issue, defines the power they have in relation to decisions and resources, and analyse relationships between the actors
Unit 5
Community Education
Unit 5 provides participants with the knowledge and skills to share what they have learned during the program with other community members.  Participants take a learning experience design approach to develop an active citizenship learning experience that incorporates some of the active citizenship capabilities that they have covered in previous units.  Learning experience design is the process of creating learning experiences that enable the learner to achieve the desired learning outcome in a human centred and goal-oriented way.