Lived citizenship: conceptualising an emerging field

Lived citizenship has emerged as a key concept in citizenship studies over the last two decades. A growing number of authors have applied ideas of lived citizenship as a generative approach to recognise the embodied, relational and lived experiences of being a citizen in everyday life. However, lived citizenship currently lacks conceptual clarity and framing which weakens its analytical power and potential. In this paper we consider the theoretical origins, current applications and development of lived citizenship in order to clarify it as a concept and consider possibilities for its future. We propose a conceptual framing underpinned by four dimensions of lived citizenship (spatial, intersubjective, performed and affective) to serve as a starting point to sharpen and define this emerging field. We then explore these dimensions through three domains of scholarship, of children and youth, asylum seekers, and city-regional dwellers to illustrate the potential of a lived citizenship approach. We conclude by examining some of the implications of this concept as well as its limitations, with the aim of opening a dialogue with inter-disciplinary scholars to help us to further conceptualise this emerging field and widen its future possibilities.