Citizenship, young people and political engagement: how young people make sense of their role as citizens in Scotland and the Netherlands

Abstract

Citizenship has become a catchphrase in debates about young people’s political engagement. In many of these debates, citizenship is defined as a practice, often based on things that adults do. It remains unclear how young people understand citizenship and how they make sense of their role as citizens. In an effort to contribute new evidence to debates about youth political engagement this study explores how young people ascribe meaning to the role of the citizen. It builds on an understanding of citizenship as a multifaceted and contested notion: one that goes beyond conceptions of citizenship as a practice to also involve ideas of citizenship as a status and as a feeling, and one that explicitly acknowledges the tensions and trade-offs that are inherent in the concept.

Based on exploratory in-depth and repeated interviews about conceptions of citizenship with 46 young people aged 15 to 18 years in Scotland and the Netherlands, this study provides a thick description of young people’s views on citizenship, the role identity, belonging, and engagement play in it, and how young people experience and navigate the challenges that come with citizenship. The study finds that many young people are ill at ease with ideas of citizenship as a status in terms of civic rights and duties, because these are not yet relevant and rarely useful for them. Instead, many young people choose to make sense of citizenship as a feeling of home, an understanding that is based on belonging and recognition. This view, however, is difficult to navigate in pluralized societies and for young people who prefer multiple and flexible identities. The problems young people have with civic rights and duties as well as with being recognized as citizens in their communities have profound consequences for how they view their role as citizens and how they decide to become engaged in politics.

These findings raise new questions on youth political engagement that have to be discussed in the context of youth participation and youth transitions as well as in relation to wider questions on the power and agency of young people.