Young People’s Citizen Identities: A Q-Methodological Analysis of English Youth Perceptions of Citizenship in Britain

Patrick Hylton,Ben Kisby,Paul Goddard

doi:10.3390/soc8040121

Abstract

Since the late 1980s, successive United Kingdom (UK) governments have sought to develop initiatives designed to promote forms of “active citizenship” among young people. But despite the substantial amount of work done by social scientists on the topic of citizenship in recent decades, relatively little research work has been done in social psychology to analyse citizens’ actual understandings of citizenship, viewed in terms of membership of a political community. This article presents the findings of a Q-methodological study of how teenagers (n = 75) from different parts of England (M = 17.25 years; SD = 1.41) regard citizenship and construct their own identities as citizens. It sets out the three factors and four distinct stances on what it means to be a citizen that emerged in the research: The active citizen, the rooted citizen, the cosmopolitan citizen, and the secure citizen. Understanding the multiple ways in which young people construct citizenship is essential for effectively engaging with them. In this way, young citizens can be enabled to make an impact on, rather than simply being at the receiving end of, the development of citizenship policy in Britain.

Highlights

Citizenship has come to the fore as a key concept in British politics over the past three decades.Since the late 1980s, United Kingdom (UK) governments have sought to develop initiatives designed to promote forms of “active citizenship”
The increasing prevalence of discourses of citizenship among politicians, academics, campaigners, and commentators has coincided with a significant shift at a governmental policy level towards a responsibilisation of citizenship [2], with successive governments arguing for the need for citizens to take increasing personal responsibility for their own individual educational, health, and welfare needs, and for a significantly greater role to be played by the community rather than the state in addressing various social problems
Utilising a Q-methodology approach to analysing subjectivities or, more precisely, intersubjectivities, we investigated the different ways in which young people understand citizenship and construct their own identities as citizens

Summary

Introduction

Citizenship has come to the fore as a key concept in British politics over the past three decades.Since the late 1980s, United Kingdom (UK) governments have sought to develop initiatives designed to promote forms of “active citizenship”. The increasing prevalence of discourses of citizenship among politicians, academics, campaigners, and commentators has coincided with a significant shift at a governmental policy level towards a responsibilisation of citizenship [2], with successive governments arguing for the need for citizens to take increasing personal responsibility for their own individual educational, health, and welfare needs, and for a significantly greater role to be played by the community (or communities) rather than the state in addressing various social problems. Such voluntary and community service is viewed as a crucial means of enhancing social cohesion. The focus on the inculcation of the responsibilities of citizenship has extended to forms of political participation such as voting and engaging in party politics [3]

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Discussion

Conclusion