Launch of Centre

The Centre for Citizenship and Democracy (CCD) was formally launched on 5th November 2007. The centre aims is to support teaching and research that explains, interprets and evaluates the challenges and opportunities that face citizenship and democratic politics in the modern world. CCD’s members and its interests are drawn from a wide variety of disciplines across the arts, sciences, and social sciences at the University of Southampton. It was our commitment to cross-disciplinary work that particularly impressed our guest speaker Matthew Taylor Chief Executive of the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce). At the seminar that followed the launch he spoke about his own ideas for re-engaging people in civic affairs. A paper outlining Matthew’s thoughts on these issues can be found at Pro-Social Behaviour.

We were also pleased to welcome the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills, John Denham, who launched the Teaching Citizenship in Higher Education website the culmination of a three-year project funded by HEFCE. The website provides free-to-access learning activities that challenge students to reflect on academic materials as well as their own experiences: education about and for citizenship. In praising the approach taken by the project, John Denham emphasized the importance of engaged citizenship in contending with many of the difficult issues faced by contemporary society. The Teaching Citizenship project is one example of the work that will be undertaken by members of CCD.