Beyond Netiquette: Digital Citizenship as Participation

Digital citizenship research has been on the agenda of scholars and practitioners since 1999 and has been trending since 2015. A plethora of approaches and definitions have been arising, with two major directions: a theoretical-methodological and a practical-educative. The present critical literature review is aimed at advocating for a more civic approach to the issue of digital citizenship and at presenting arguments in favour of a research agenda focused on the participatory components of digital life. Our desk research operated with both original studies and meta-analyses related to the concept of digital citizenship. While being technically savvy and well-behaved online is a key requirement for today’s netizen, becoming a citizen in virtual spaces requires more. Beyond netiquette, civic participation online is becoming a core competence.