Loughborough University
Browse
1/1
2 files

Young people talk about citizenship: empirical perspectives on theoretical and political debates

journal contribution
posted on 2006-01-04, 12:44 authored by Ruth Lister, Noel Smith, Sue Middleton, Lynne Cox
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.

History

School

  • Social Sciences

Department

  • Communication, Media, Social and Policy Studies

Pages

85240 bytes

Citation

LISTER, R., SMITH, N., MIDDLETON, S. and COX, L., 2003. Young people talk about citizenship: empirical perspectives on theoretical and political debates. Citizenship Studies, 7(2), pp. 235-253

Publisher

© Taylor and Francis

Publication date

2003

Notes

This article has been published in the journal, Citizenship Studies [© Taylor & Francis]. The definitive version: LISTER, R., SMITH, N., MIDDLETON, S. and COX, L., 2003. Young people talk about citizenship: empirical perspectives on theoretical and political debates. Citizenship Studies, 7(2), pp. 235-253, is available at: http://www.journalsonline.tandf.co.uk/openurl.asp?genre=journal&eissn=1469-3593.

ISSN

1362-1025

Language

  • en