The social psychology of citizenship: engagement with citizenship studies and future research

Clifford Stevenson (Lead / Corresponding author), Nick Hopkins, Russell Luyt, John Dixon

Research output: Contribution to journalSpecial issuepeer-review

18 Citations (Scopus)
290 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

In this article we review the argument outlined in the opening article in this special thematic section: that the current social psychology of citizenship can be understood as the development of longstanding conceptualisations of the concept within the discipline. These conceptualisations have contributed to the current social psychological study of the constructive, active and collective (but often exclusive) understandings of citizenship in people’s everyday lives, as evidenced by contributions to this thematic section. We consider how this emerging body of work might fit with current citizenship studies and in particular how it may contribute to the current trend towards conceiving citizenship as an active practice embedded in everyday social life. Specifically, we highlight three areas of future research that we think are particularly promising: citizenship and recognition; displays and enactments of citizenship in public space; citizenship and lived coexistence. Although this is far from an exhaustive list of possibilities, we propose that research in these areas could enable the way for social psychology to articulate a distinct, recognisable and valuable contribution to citizenship studies.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)192-210
Number of pages19
JournalJournal of Social and Political Psychology
Volume3
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2015

Keywords

  • Social psychology
  • Citizenship
  • Social identity
  • Social representations
  • Discursive psychology
  • Citizenship studies

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