Mobile citizenship. Young Danes’ experiences with becoming citizens in charge in digital society

Mobile citizenship. Young Danes’ experiences with becoming citizens in charge in digital society
"I don’t know … If I need to check something related to citizen stuff I just Google it and I get there directly." (Male, 16)
The introductory quote frames the objective of the paper: to investigate the intersecting challenges of being a young citizen in digital society, developing fundamental civic literacy and democratic self-confidence (Chmitorz et al., 2020; Stald & Balle, forthcoming) while struggling with the logic of digital citizen systems. Denmark is a digital society by law, and young citizens are trained users of digital solutions. However, is the logic behind society's digital solutions the logic of young people? Are young citizens sufficiently civically literate to manage citizenship in digital society? What are the implications of challenges of digital citizenship to the experiences of being integrated, democratic citizens?
The paper provides a new perspective on youth and digital citizenship, based on two case studies: interviews with twenty first-year high school students, conducted winter/early spring 2024, and interviews with sixteen 16-24-year-old Danes, conducted in 2021. Both studies investigate questions about civic and democratic literacy, respectively participation in digital society. These findings are supported by results from the annual survey report on Youth and Democracy (DUF, 2023); and from Statistics Denmark 2023.
The paper title introduces the term ‘mobile citizenship’. The purpose is to point to aspects of the actual and metaphorical meaning of mobility and transformations of public citizen-management systems, intertwined with young citizens’ experience of digital public services as diverse, incoherent, fluctuating. John Urry identified several elements of mobility, such as the role of systems of mobility and the interaction of those mobilities systems and concerning implicit systemic power (Urry 2007). This broad understanding of mobility supports a diverse and multi‑layered approach to mobility. It also indicates an intrinsic relationship between mobility and democracy.
The data documents that young Danes are generally well-equipped to participate in civic society and democratic processes. However, they are not confident that they are, and the design and logic of the civic management systems may challenge them. Particularly, the youngest citizens, who experience management of their civic life and interactions with social institutions as a challenging surprise, encounter difficulties (Pors, 2021; Stald, forthcoming). The young informants in the studies do not comprehend the interconnectedness, dynamics, and reach of public citizen-management systems, neither in practice nor conceptually. They tend to perceive all civic tasks as independent necessary actions in an undefined digital realm.
Following the notion that inclusion, citizenship, and democratic participation are core preconditions for a thriving democratic system, young citizens need to experience that they are included, valued, and competent members of society (Amnå & Ekman, 2014; Banaji & Buckingham, 2013; Loader et al, 2014; Mihailidis, 2014; Wells et al., 2015). Sustainable democracy depends on the collective ability to allow new forms of information and citizenship while supporting young generations in developing civic literacy (Cortesi et al., 2020; Dauer et al., 2021; Stald, 2023).