Raising Citizens: Public Power, Youth Politics, and the New Fairness of Society

What does it mean to raise responsible citizens in a society increasingly divided over politics, education, technology, and fairness?Raising Citizens explores some of the most important public debates shaping the lives of young people today. From immigration and voting rights to political expression in schools, artificial intelligence, social media, education, and public policy, the book examines how decisions made by governments, schools, and institutions influence the next generation.Across twenty-four chapters, Junhee Han approaches these issues through three recurring values: fairness, freedom, and responsibility. Rather than treating public controversies as simple battles between right and wrong, the book considers the difficult trade-offs behind them. How should schools protect students while maintaining fairness for everyone? When should individual freedom give way to public responsibility? How much should governments regulate new technologies? And what responsibilities should accompany the expansion of young people's political voices?The book moves through four major areas: belonging and borders, the civic role of schools, the growing influence of digital technology, and the choices governments make about public goods and policy. It examines questions surrounding immigration and integration, youth voting, political expression and education, AI and social media, online information, welfare, global institutions, work, and public spending. Together, these issues reveal a larger question about how societies establish rules that balance individual rights with the needs of the broader community.Rather than offering a single ideological answer, Raising Citizens encourages readers to examine competing perspectives and think carefully about how public rules should be designed. Its central idea is that democracy depends not only on what citizens believe, but also on their ability to reason through disagreement, recognize the consequences of their choices, and balance rights with responsibilities.Ultimately, Raising Citizens is about more than youth policy. It is about the kind of society being created through the institutions, classrooms, technologies, and public decisions that shape young people today-and the kind of citizens those choices will help create tomorrow.