Transnational citizenship, dissent and the political geographies of youth

Abstract

This paper brings a relational perspective to studies of citizenship beyond national borders. Analysing the responses of 16 to 19-year-old young people in Bradford (UK) to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, we demonstrate the complex entanglements of young people's lives with international politics and develop a relational conceptualisation of citizenship. Departing from the scalar logics and universalising assumptions upon which many definitions of cosmopolitan citizenship are based, we show that youth citizenship across and beyond national borders evolves from specific lines of connection and disconnection that are actualised and modified in performances of citizenship identities, giving rise to diverse political positions and dissent, both with the state and between young people. We conclude with some suggestions for translating these ideas into youth citizenship practices.

Relational Legal Consciousness of U.S. Citizenship: Privilege, Responsibility, Guilt, and Love in Latino Mixed-Status Families

“…Theoretically, I contribute to the vast literature on citizenship by pointing to a need to examine citizenship relationally to identify mechanisms that translate legal status into legal consciousness. This approach confirms that citizenship is multilayered and contradictory, fractured, and uneven, with illusory rights for members of marginalized groups (Brandzel ; Hörschelmann and El Refaie ). What I find, however, is that the social construction of citizenship, as expressed through legal consciousness, is developed most prominently in relation to others.…”

Encountering energy precarity: Geographies of fuel poverty among young adults in the UK

“…At the same time, fuel poverty debates and action have been mostly focused on heating, with other domestic energy services that are of key importance to young people – such as information technology (see Horta, Fonseca, Truninger, Nobre, & Correia, ) – receiving comparatively less attention (Simcock, Walker, & Day, ). Energy studies have rarely entered into a dialogue with the broader body of scholarship on young people, where the established literature on the “geographies of youth” (Skelton & Valentine, ) has itself shown relatively less interest in young adults (Evans, ; Hörschelmann & Refaie, ). As a whole, therefore, there is a significant gap in existing geographical knowledge about how young adults both need and use different energy services in the home, particularly when it comes to the relationship between socio‐economic hardship and their specific residential patterns (but see Butler & Sherriff, ).…”

Developing ‘active citizens’: Arts Award, creativity and impact

“…We use this wider lens of active citizenship to show how involvement in AA encompasses a wide spectrum of citizenship practices, including those embedded in everyday ‘playful’ encounters, those that expand opportunities for young people to broaden their personal horizons and those which lead to more pivotal engagements for young people (such as education and/or career progression). Our conceptualisation also acknowledges the relational aspects of citizenship (Hörschelmann & El Refaie, ); that is, aspects of citizenship formed in relation to others, and also recognises that citizenship is already practiced by young people in their moment‐to‐moment activities, and is not solely a future achievement (Gaskell, ; Skelton, ). We demonstrate how this broadly conceived notion of citizenship can help us to understand the connection between soft and hard arts impacts, and move away from understandings which reinforce a simple binary between the two.…”