Citizenship in practice

Abstract

The idea of citizenship dates back to classical antiquity. It was originally concerned to address legitimacy of occupancy in the public sphere. Our empirical study contributes to the project of developing a social psychology of the citizen by focusing on the dynamics of such membership, specifically rights and identities. The authors briefly describe a number of existing psychological models of the citizen. Drawing on the main theoretical principles of discursive psychology, rather than asking, 'who is the citizen?' in terms of mental states, we suggest a shift in focus to the more social question, 'how do people claim citizenship and to what ends?'. We present an analysis of private letters of complaint that formed part of a larger mixed data set used in a recent research programme centred on disputes over Britain's newer travellers' rights of settlement. Specifically our analysis demonstrates how some of the letter writers generate a basis for claims-making by making relevant a citizenship/ governance alignment of identities. We also demonstrate how the entitlements associated with the category citizen are built up and action-oriented rather than flowing from the (unproblematic) assumption of citizenship. Finally we discuss how citizenship can be used for the purposes of inclusion and exclusion.

Praktisering av medborgerskap

“…Samtlige arrangementer viser hvordan medborgerskap er materielt forankret. Sentrale bidrag innenfor litteraturen om medborgerskap løfter frem betydningen av sosiale relasjoner (Barnes, Auburn og Lea 2004;Bartlett og O'Connor 2010). I denne artikkelen viser jeg imidlertid at medborgerskap ikke bare skapes i sosiale relasjoner, men som en effekt av den sosiomaterielle praksis som personer med demens selv er med på å utforme.…”

Territoriality and migration in a divided society: Lay theories of citizenship and place in Northern Ireland.

“…Barnes et al (2004), in their analysis of letters to a town council concerning 'New Age' travellers' site, illustrated how depictions of the travellers as economically inactive were used to undermine their right to residence as well as their entitlements to local services and amenities. Their transitory lifestyle was also used to highlight their lack of belonging or commitment to the…”

“…Within this body of work, discursive analyses of political, legal and everyday talk has shown that the ways in which the boundaries and contents of citizenship are described can be flexibly used to deny rights and entitlements to those depicted as failing to qualify as citizens or as lacking the qualities of 'good citizens' (Barnes, Auburn, & Lea, 2004). Place has a central role in this process as groups are often denied rights on the basis of either being outside of a geographically-bounded polity or as failing to belong within it (Hopkins & Dixon, 2006;Phillips, 2015).…”

Cross-cultural differences in the character strength of citizenship in South Africa

“…At the broadest level, citizenship is linked to concepts such as membership and belonging. Although it was initially linked to belonging to a specific nation state, in recent times understandings of citizenship have moved beyond simplistic linkages with nation states to the idea that citizenship can be related to belonging to any grouping (Barnes, Auburn & Lea, 2004;Hamilton, 2009). Within psychology, citizenship has recently been conceptualised as one of the trait like character strengths identified by Peterson and Seligman (2004) and as such forms part of the growing positive psychology movement.…”

“…This study examined this particular conceptualisation of citizenship within the South African context, making use of Peterson and Seligman's (2004: 13) seminal conceptualisation of citizenship as a trait-like construct that is "ubiquitously recognized and valued". It is acknowledged that despite the prominence of Peterson and Seligman's (2004) conceptualisation of citizenship other, contrasting, notions exist within psychology that view citizenship as being more situationally and culturally, rather than dispositionally, bound (Barnes et al, 2004). These contrasting perspectives on citizenship inform a need for further research into the concept, in order to investigate the utility of the trait-like conceptualisation advanced by Peterson and Seligman (2004).…”