Synthetic Worlds and Virtual Citizens: Experimental Ethnographic Simulation, Virtual Autotopography and Emerging Citizenship Identity in Young People

Concerns have risen sharply in recent years about the level of public disengagement with political and civic life in the UK, as evidenced by falling turnout at national and local elections, rising cynicism and lack of trust in politicians and a perceived increase in the alienation and marginalisation of some groups. Particular anxiety has been expressed, both by governments and in the media, about the radicalisation of some young people and the association of this with the growth of cultural and religious fundamentalism (Home Office 2001a, b, 2004, 2006; Bradford Metropolitan District Council 2001). Such concerns have been fuelled and given greater credence by international events, especially when perceived to be associated with political instabilities and terrorism and by rising levels of threat to individual nation states from military developments worldwide. Such anxieties are not unique to any one country and many governments have responded to concerns about the perceived fragmentation of and threat to political and national identity (Deakin et al. 2005). Some governments have reacted by increasing the attention given to producing citizens with appropriate senses of self, community and citizenship often through changes to their educational systems, via “citizenship education” under various guises (Martin and Feng 2006; Goldsmith 2008). In the case of England the intellectual, legislative and political legacy of British colonialism, the subsequent growth of the UK as a multicultural democracy and the development of trans-national political structures have over time increased concerns about entitlement to and the nature of British citizenship. This contentious area has promoted considerable debate about what should constitute the appropriate responses through educational policies and outcomes.