Becoming a citizen: Analysing the social representations of citizenship in youth

Abstract

Although citizenship and youth have traditionally seemed to be two terms with very little in common, recent years have shown an enormous interest in analysing their relationships. On one hand, exploring how the new generations become citizens is a key issue for understanding the characteristics of the civic life of a society. On the other, the concept of citizenship has revealed itself as a potent conceptual and analytic instrument for explaining youth transitions. In order to acquire a deeper comprehension of these relationships, we believe it necessary to advance in their empirical study, to acknowledge their multidimensional character, and to defend a dynamic perspective of citizenship. This paper approaches the study of citizenship from its cultural dimension and proposes an analytical framework for the empirical study of the discourses and representations of what being a citizen means to young Europeans. Our analytical framework is structured along two axes: the dimension of belonging and the dimension of involvement.