Introduction: Complexity, Wicked Problems and Citizenship Education

Abstract

This chapter begins with a brief description of the challenges facing liberal democracies around the world. It then places these challenges within the discussion about how democracy itself is changing, and posits that one of the influences of this change is the increasingly complex or 'wicked' nature of the challenges faced by citizens and nation states. Next, there is a discussion about the failure of current models of civics and citizenship education to prepare young people for these challenges, before an alternative, complex model is proposed. The chapter concludes with an explanation of the rest of the structure of this book.