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Ruth Lister
Ruth
Lister
Noel Smith
Noel
Smith
Sue Middleton
Sue
Middleton
Lynne Cox
Lynne
Cox
Young people talk about citizenship: empirical perspectives on theoretical and political debates
Loughborough University
2006
untagged
Language, Communication and Culture not elsewhere classified
Studies in Human Society not elsewhere classified
Sociology
2006-01-04 12:44:38
Journal contribution
https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/journal_contribution/Young_people_talk_about_citizenship_empirical_perspectives_on_theoretical_and_political_debates/9475265
The citizenship literature includes remarkably few empirical studies. In this
article we report on how young people in a British city perceive citizenship and
their own transitions as citizens. Of five models which emerged, the most
dominant was ‘universal status’, followed by ‘respectable economic independence’,
‘constructive social participation’ and, less frequently, ‘social-contractual’
and ‘right to a voice’. The extent to which the young people identified
themselves as citizens reflected these models and their own life experiences. They
drew clear distinctions between what it means to be a ‘good’ and a ‘first class’
citizen and had greater difficulty articulating their rights than their responsibilities.
Overall, their responses drew on fluid understandings of citizenship but
pointed more towards communitarian than liberal or civic-republican citizenship
paradigms. They also underlined how everyday understandings of citizenship
can have both inclusionary and exclusionary implications.