Citizenship Engagement Through Economic Literacy

Background Understanding economics means understanding the world around us. Ceteris paribus - all other remaining equal. This term, popular in economics, is used to explain dependencies and laws - most of the time, something will occur as a result of something else, if nothing else changes. Economic rules in real life are often complicated to consider, as life itself intertwines so many factors, which, converging, lead to ambiguous results. People need to be equipped with better knowledge of what economists, similar to biologists or mathematicians, have theorized and discovered to be true of the societies humanity has constructed. To really understand the world around us and our agency, we need to look into topics as broad as opportunity costs related to using our personal time and money, debt or inflation rates of countries, personal and governmental savings, the effects of policies on our lives and the meaning behind policy changes, among others. Education instead often focuses on how to manage personal finances (in subjects like home economics) or, alternatively, on how to earn more and become rich (usually with the term “fast” following). Even the majority of games, educational or not, when related to the topic, focus on wealth management, trade, and commerce, without paying attention to the surrounding reality of the laws of economics. Economic education is related instead to a better understanding of the world, as well as a clearer understanding of our roles and responsibilities as parts of society. Terms such as Global Citizenship, Education for Sustainable Development, Development Education, and the Sustainable Development Goals, are strongly linked to economics education’s importance for young people and their interaction with democracy (Penner and Sanderse, 2017). Global citizens have an obligation to understand how the world works and to contribute to social and economic sustainability through active community engagement from local to global levels (UNESCO, 2014: 14). Global Citizenship places greater responsibility for the world in the hands of ordinary citizens to ensure it becomes central to the political and economic development of society. What CETERIS Paribus outlines as a project, is a push to put the needed emphasis on understanding economic theory and the impact of economics on our perception of the world around us and our place in it as active citizens. Through the development of interactive educational materials, a manual for youth workers on how to approach economic education, as well as a very modern, replayable engaging educational video game, the project is going to engage young people and youth workers from around Europe in a quest for comprehending, knowing and acting on important economic terms and laws, in order to boost civic participation in all democratic processes. The project will create space and opportunity for important conversations, related to modern democracy, learning, active citizenship, and individual roles in the future of our societies. Objectives CETERIS Paribus project aims to unite the youth workers, educators, and other professionals working with young people from the