A central aim of schooling is the production of educated citizens capable of exercising their rights, duties, and responsibilities. However, often teaching about such rights may focus mostly on parliamentary democracy with an emphasis on voting. In such a context children and young people are implicitly thought of as citizens-to-be in the future. In this chapter the implications of this approach are considered, and the significance of rights, duties, and responsibilities of school students here and now are emphasized. Ways in which agency of young people can be fostered and facilitated are discussed. The concept “urban citizenship” is central in the analysis.
Cities here are examined as political spaces where rights and duties of citizenship can be enacted. Pluralistic practices contained in social and cultural practices in urban spaces are traced. The starting point is that in local areas there are formations of political spaces where processes related to belonging, inclusion and exclusion are played out and contested. The ways in which schools enable, support or constrict rights related to urban citizenship are explored. The focus is also on practices of school students in their local areas and on ways in which these are reflected in the everyday life at school. How local membership is discussed and negotiated in encounters in urban areas is explored. The analysis is based on theoretical and empirical foci including literature review, site visits to schools and interview data with young people.
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Gordon, T. (2007). Urban Citizenship. In: Pink, W.T., Noblit, G.W. (eds) International Handbook of Urban Education. Springer International Handbooks of Education, vol 19. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-5199-9_24
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