Spatial, relational and affective understandings of citizenship and belonging for young people today: towards a new conceptual framework

In recent times, globalising processes have disrupted traditional bonds between identity, citizenship and place, affecting how young people today think and feel about themselves as citizens who act, influence and feel they belong within different spatial contexts. This chapter critically reviews research and scholarship to formulate a more geographically-responsive vocabulary of citizenship and shed light on the relationship between citizenship, place and belonging. It argues for a spatial, relational and affective conceptual framework of young people’s citizenship that encompasses belonging as feeling, belonging in the context of others and belonging within places. This approach will provide a more dynamic, expansive notion of citizenship and belonging characterised by flexible social membership (Isin & Turner, Citizenship Studies, 11(1), 5–17, 2007) and spatial affiliations consistent with young people’s lives as citizens today.