Childrenâs and Young Peopleâs Citizenship
The concept of citizenship before the twentieth century, although highly contested, broadly referred to a geographical context. This could range from a citizen of the Roman Empire to one of a specific and boundaried city, such as the city states of the Low Countries in the seventeenth century where citizens could number in the hundreds. From the Renaissance to the mid-nineteenth century, a sense of citizenship developed alongside natural rights theories. These âcivil rightsâ included the freedom to own property and to make contracts. This enabled the exchange of goods, services and labour to participate in a market economy. This burgeoning of citizenship also involved concepts of the state , nation and transnationalism as European countries expanded across the globe and consolidated their governance in their home territories. European countries colonised other parts of the globe, assuming a terra nullius of local indigenous peoples. The imperialist project involved a migration of people out of Europe, into Europe and people transferred across the various European powersâ global spheres of influence through trade, slavery and the free movement of workers and their families. Today the processes of European state consolidation, the movement of people across the globe, the assertions of citizen identities and governmentality continue to concern scholars today. Sociologists of childhood, including those in this collection, also engage with these long-running themes of citizenship.
In Europe, at the time of writing, there are a number of âcrisesâ affecting governance and citizenship. There is the crisis of the European Union (EU) project after the UKâs Brexit vote in June 2016; the continuing refugee âcrisisâ as Southern Europe is beset with migrants (including children) entering the continent by boat and overland from Syria, North Africa and other troubled parts of the globe; the rise of nationalistic and populist political parties across Europe; and the continuing economic debt âcrisisâ of Greece and other Eurozone states . Such crises are not new; Europe has had a long and troubled history of moments of unity (albeit relatively brief) and fragmentation; economic crises, immigration and emigration; and rampant nationalism. However, scholarship today has engaged with childrenâs experiences within these processes amid other theoretical responses to understanding children and young people.
It is perhaps too early to forecast the political consequences of the Brexit crisis for Europe. At the time of writing, relatively simple agreements about EU citizensâ residency in the UK and British citizensâ residency rights in the EU are yet to be determined. Childrenâs place in these negotiations has to date been largely overlooked because adult workers and the health needs of the elderly are at the top of the list. The repercussions on children of the 2008 economic crisis receive little conventional coverage. The few studies to have taken place from a European perspective have demonstrated the negative consequences on the provision of childrenâs services, decreasing levels of financial support to families with children, and the impediments this has posed to childrenâs participation in play, leisure , and formal and informal education (Ruxton, 2012). There are rising levels of child poverty among 28% of Europeâs children (Eurochild, 2014), and young people as a generation continue to lag behind older age groups (Olk, 2009).
A growing body of research is concerned with childrenâs migratory experiences and how they need to be untangled from adult migration issues (Dobson, 2009). There are studies of migrant childrenâs own experience in host countries and their concomitant struggles for citizenship recognition (Crawley, 2010; Dorling & Hurrell, 2012). The important element of the sociology of childhood is to untangle childrenâs own definitions of their citizenship identity, separate from that of their parents, or to see them as âvictimsâ of the migration process. This raises the issue of childrenâs agency , one to be returned to later in this introduction. For now it is necessary to note the ambiguity of many migrant children in the process and to acknowledge the spectrum of migration experiences. These range from victims of âchild traffickingâ and the suffering of children by immigration policies and their enforcement (OâConnell Davidson, 2011; for a further study across Europe, see Mougne, 2010) to the children of highly skilled workers (Hatfield, 2010). It is clear that it is important to retrieve the perspective of childrenâs experiences in their everyday worlds to capture their suffering, identity formation or enjoyment of their new lives in a new country (Crawley, 2010; Den Besten, 2010). The long history of migration has also turned a focus onto the experiences of second- and third-generation âethnic minorityâ experiences of children (Crul & Vermeulen, 2003). The experiences of migrant childrenâs identity formation brings into focus issues of their multidimensional citizenship because they are active constructors of identities utilising their identities from the host culture, those of their parents and their own constructions of citizenship as a generational experience (OâReilly, 2012). These complexities have given rise to concepts of âpartialâ citizenship (Salazar Parrenas, 2001) and hybrid citizenship status (Stasiulis, 2004).
The processes of globalisation are today the subject of huge academic attention. In citizenship studies, these have progressed into debates around global governance and global citizenship, perhaps encapsulated in ideas of âcosmopolitanismâ and cosmopolitan citizenship in contrast to national citizenship identities (Delanty, 2006). There are of course positive aspects of this, such as the âstructure of feelingâ (Nava, 2002) of a symbolic allure of cultural differences in art, fashion and consumption goods from across the globe. The development of global cities, with a diverse set of communities from across the planet and the prospect of global travel, allows for a beneficial sense of âglobal citizenshipâ for everyone to enjoy. However, cosmopolitanism has also shown up recurring tensions around citizenship identity formation, in particular the competition and contrasting experiences of urban and rural dimensions. These tensions have been identified in the recent EU referendum in the UK with urban centres tending to vote remain in Europe and displaying their embrace of international and cosmopolitan ideals, in contrast to more rural locations voting to leave the EU, citing concerns about immigration, among others. The open-minded ideas around cosmopolitanism have their alter image of xenophobic racism and nationalism also touching the lives of children, especially those from immigrant and Muslim backgrounds (Gillborn, 2012).
Much contemporary theorising focuses on the processes of the construction of citizenship identities. For children this has taken the form of a focus on the deficits that children have in relation to adults. Here children lack full citizenship, are unable to make contracts and have problems participating in equivocal terms as adults (Cockburn, 2013). Scholars, such as Lister (2007), thus tend to outline moves for a more inclusive form of citizenship. Following on from this, theorists of childhood critique the unitary, individual model of the citizen in contrast with one that emphasises the interconnected nature of human experience (Cockburn, 1998, 2013). The interconnected nature of citizens is illustrated in models of citizenship based on principles of redistribution outlined by Marshallâs classic conception and updated by Nancy Fraser for a politics of redistribution. Thus notions of poverty and class and how they link with childrenâs lived citizenship experiences become important. The attention to the assertion of i...