Young People Talk about Citizenship: Empirical Perspectives on Theoretical and Political Debates

The citizenship literature includes remarkably few empirical studies. In this we report on how young people in a British city perceive citizenship and own transitions as citizens. Of five models which emerged, the most was ‘universal status’, followed by ‘respectable economic independence’,‘constructive social participation’ and, less frequently, ‘social-contractual’ ‘right to a voice’. The extent to which the young people identified as citizens reflected these models and their own life experiences. They clear distinctions between what it means to be a ‘good’ and a ‘first class’ and had greater difficulty articulating their rights than their responsibilities., their responses drew on fluid understandings of citizenship but more towards communitarian than liberal or civic-republican citizenship. They also underlined how everyday understandings of citizenship have both inclusionary and exclusionary implications.