Niels Nørgaard Kristensen & Thomas Denk 
Perspectives on Political Awareness [PDF ebook] 
Conceptual, Theoretical and Methodological Issues

This interdisciplinary volume presents a comprehensive framework to understand political awareness. Political awareness has become an important part of research on political attitudes and political behavior since the publication of John Zaller’s work on political opinion. The authors elaborate on his theory and present a new conceptualization, which stipulates that political awareness is the attentiveness, knowledge, and understanding of politics. 






Hence, the book discusses different aspects, such as the concept of political awareness, its formation, significance, measurement, and exploration. The result is a new framework that addresses conceptual, theoretical, and methodological questions, such as: What does the concept mean? How to study political awareness? How is it connected to other orientations? How do children and youth develop political awareness? 






Addressing researchers and graduate students, as well as scholars in political science, sociology, and education, this book is a must-read for everybody interested in a better understanding of political awareness. 

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Chapter 1 – Introduction.- ​Chapter 2 – The relevance of political awareness: a literature review with meta-analysis.- Chapter 3 – Political Awareness, Concept and Measurement.- Chapter 4 – Political Awareness and Identification among Young Students: Political Identity and Democratic Engagement.- Chapter 5 – Role of Political Awareness in Complex Societal Matters: The Cases of Health and Climate Change.- Chapter 6 – Accuracy of self-assessments of political sophistication.- Chapter 7 – Travelling with political awareness: A comparative approach.

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Niels N. Kristensen is an assistant professor of political sociology at Aalborg University, Denmark. His research focuses on democracy and political participation, as well as a political identity, participation, citizenship, user influence, and innovation in the public sector.






Thomas Denk is a professor of political science at Örebro University, Sweden. His research focuses on political culture, state formation, and democratization.





Maria Olson is a professor for education at Stockholm University, Sweden. She is also a guest professor in educational work at Dalarna University, Sweden. Her research covers education policy, educational theory, and philosophy, with a special focus on curriculum theory, democracy, and citizenship in education, as well as social science education.






Trond Solhaug is a professor in the Department of Teacher Education, Faculty of Social and Educational Sciences at the NTNU Trondheim, Norway. He is teaching social science and pedagogy. His research focuses on democracy, citizenship in education as well as teacher education.  Recent research is framed by ‘inclusive citizenship’ and focuses on participation, political identity, and intercultural competence, as well as integration in teacher education.