This major reference work on digital citizenship (entitled The Palgrave Handbook of Digital Citizenship) aims to bring together a collection of 45 chapters by leading experts in this area of scholarly research presenting the main concepts and areas of contention (at both the theoretical or practical level) associated with membership in a digitized world. The Palgrave Handbook of Digital Citizenship is aimed as a resource for a global scholarly audience looking for either a detailed presentation of a particular aspect associated with digital citizenship, a problem dividing either scholars, policy-makers or practitioners or an outline of a possible future area of research associated with it. From Antiquity onwards, the idea of citizenship has been associated with membership in a polity. Its evolution from an exclusive status to a more egalitarian and inclusive conception of membership has been characterized by several important changes resulting in universal suffrage as well as other civil, political and social rights that have had an emancipatory impact of contemporary societies. At the same time, social and political events (e.g. the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the democratization of previously oppressive regimes) brought to the forefront a panoply of alternative refinements that have challenged the 'standard' liberal conception of civic equality including cosmopolitan citizenship, multicultural citizenship, feminist citizenship, digital citizenship etc.    Over the last few decades, technological change (including the development of AI) has had a transformative influence not only on political membership and democratic participation but has challenged the very foundations of active citizenship and civic engagement. The advent of big data, social media and online communication have reshaped the social and political landscape of our societies. Although digitisation and the development of ICT have clearly improved the quality of life, work processes, science and the educational process itself in the direction of greater flexibility and optimisation, digital innovations have also brought to the fore the phenomenon of so-called 'digital disruption'. Moreover, various forms of fake news and propaganda including misinformation, disinformation and other forms of information 'pollution', have had a negative impact on both the quality of public debate, governance and decision-making in modern societies. The Palgrave Handbook of Digital Citizenship is intended to provide an authoritative exposition of contemporary accounts of digital citizenship, its evolution, a comprehensive presentation of the different concepts most commonly associated with it (e.g. e-democracy, digitalization, algorithmic citizenship, e-voting, #Hashtag activism etc.) as well as the discussion of the many problems at both the theoretical or practical level (e.g. algorithmic racism, fake news, echo chambers, digital disruption, cancel culture, polarization, online hate speech etc.). The Palgrave Handbook of Digital Citizenship is aimed as a resource for a global scholarly audience looking for either a detailed presentation of major accounts of digital citizenship or associated phenomena. Given its transformative influence on democratic processes as well as its contemporary import on the ‘standard’ rights-based conception of citizenship, a comprehensive coverage of the most important issues, problems and challenges associated with digital citizenship would provide a much-needed scholarly resource.

Mitja Sardoč (PhD) is senior researcher at the Educational Research Institute in Ljubljana (Slovenia) where he is member of the ‘Educational Research’ program and a researcher at the Faculty of Social Sciences (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia). His research interests and expertise include philosophy of education, political philosophy and education policy. He is author of more than 40 scholarly articles and editor of a number of journal special issues on citizenship and citizenship education, multiculturalism, toleration, diversity, radicalization and violent extremism, patriotism, equality of opportunity, the American Dream, neoliberalism and education, talents and distributive justice etc. He is Managing Editor of Theory and Research in Education. He has recently edited a journal special issue of Theory and Research in Education on Michael Sandel’s book The Tyranny of Merit. He refereed papers for several scholarly journals including the Cambridge Journal of Education, Journal of Intercultural Education, European Journal on Educational Research, Educational Philosophy and Theory etc. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Handbook of Patriotism, The Palgrave Handbook of Toleration, Handbook of Equality of Opportunity, co-editor of The Routledge Handbook on the American Dream (Vol. 1 & Vol. 2), editor of Talents and Distributive Justice and The Impacts of Neoliberal Discourse and Language in Education. He has published a book of interviews with leading scholars on radicalization and violent extremism (Making Sense of Radicalization and Violent Extremism: Interviews and Conversation). His forthcoming book of interviews Making Sense of Toleration is to be published by Palgrave. He is completing a book Equality of Opportunity: An Introduction that is to be published by Routledge.