Creating citizenship for marginalised groups

Governments across Euorpe worry about low levels of political participation. At the same time, groups that have been marginalised and disenfranchised by their governments have done the most to engage deeply in political life. Such groups often have little choice but to struggle to claim rights that have been taken away or never granted to them.  

 

'Once activists saw themselves as citizens, they began to imagine themselves as engaging broader political issues.'

Professor Isin's research revealed that activists and policy makers alike did not recognize these struggles as acts of citizenship. 

 

They found that when people were encouraged to think of themselves as ‘citizens’, they took on a new identity and developed a greater sense of belonging and engagement.

 

Professor Isin, an activist himself, says: "This was not a typical academic study. We worked with activists. They included Roma citizens of the EU whose rights to free movement have been denied by national governments across Europe, and gay and lesbian activists facing persecution in Turkey and Latvia. We invited them to reflect on what their politics means to them and to think of themselves as citizens. 

 

We found that once they saw themselves as citizens and the claims they make as acts of citizenship, they began to imagine themselves as engaging broader political issues. Equally importantly, governments began to see them as citizens too."

 

The work challenges conventional academic thinking and informs public policy on how and why people participate in political life. It develops a vocabulary through which activists can be acknowledged as citizens.

 

The research forms part of the Enacting Citizenship programme at The Open University, a series of EU-funded projects that look beyond narrow definititions of citizenship as legal status to record the innovative ways in which people act politically.

 

Watch the video for more information about this research: