How to Strengthen Awareness of ‘Europe’: A Digital Analysis of Informational Material from the German Federal Agency for Civic Education

Abstract

Since the 1990s, the European Union has invested substantial resources in political education, seeking to strengthen civic competence and knowledge of (European) politics. Learning about Europe may be seen as part of the political socialisation that provides young people with fundamental insights into the norms and values of a particular culture. This chapter presents a computational analysis of Europe-related concepts offered by the website of the German Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb), a public, government institution that aims to strengthen civic competence. This study seeks to exemplify, in a Digital Humanities context, how digital data-mining methods may be used to explore a large collection of online material, to acquire an understanding of the topics and themes it covers. Also, based on the results of the digital analysis, this chapter discusses how ‘Europe’ is presented by the bpb, and how the institution’s online presentation reflects broader German and European civic education objectives.