Abstract
In both policy and research, civic engagement and citizen participation are concepts commonly used as important dimensions of social sustainability. However, as migration is a global phenomenon of huge magnitude and complexity, citizen participation is incomplete without considering the political and ethical concerns about immigrants being citizens or non-citizens, or ‘the others’. Although research on citizen participation has been a frequent topic in local government studies in Sweden, the inclusiveness and exclusiveness of terms used in the context of local political engagement, which are addressed in this article, has not received attention. This article examines the Swedish case by analyzing information provided by the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and by websites of all 290 municipalities as well terms used in selected research publications on local participation. Additionally, this article studies the effectiveness of municipal websites in providing information to their residents about how they can participate in local democracy. The results show that the term citizen is commonly and incorrectly used both by local authorities and the Association. The article concludes that the term citizen is a social construction of exclusiveness and the use of the term citizen should be avoided in political and civic engagement except for the limited topics that require formal citizenship.
Highlights
In both policy and research, civic engagement and citizen participation are concepts commonly used as important dimensions of social sustainability
The present paper focuses on the information related to the local political participation, i.e., the political agency of the residents
The empirical focus of this paper was whether political engagement at the local level is supported by using inclusive language and by clarifying online information about different means for participation
Summary
In both policy and research, civic engagement and citizen participation are concepts commonly used as important dimensions of social sustainability. Research on citizen participation has been a frequent topic in local government studies in Sweden, the inclusiveness and exclusiveness of terms used in the context of local political engagement, which are addressed in this article, has not received attention. This article examines the Swedish case by analyzing information provided by the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and by websites of all 290 municipalities as well terms used in selected research publications on local participation. While attending this event in 2018, an elected official from the municipality of Vänersborg explained that the word citizen is outdated:. This conversation triggered my interest in the inclusion–exclusion dimension of participation
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