Youth, Citizenship, Sense of Belonging in a 'Brexitised' England
Final Report Abstract
The project was aimed to provide an in-depth analysis of how young people in transition to official adulthood viewed their opportunities to participate in society in the period following the EU referendum in 2016 and before the UK's impending exit from the EU. The study focused on young people aged 15 to 17 who did not yet have the full rights of adult citizenship. The age group was also characterised by their transitional phase between school and vocational training, school and university, and other forms of education. The young people's perceived participation was analysed applying citizenship theories and sense of belonging. In this qualitative study, which took place in spring/summer 2019, 17 focus groups were conducted with young people in different regions in England, selected for characteristics such as the outcome of the EU referendum and regional social mobility. The topic of Brexit was relevant as it dominated the political discourse in Great Britain in 2019, the year in which the field phase of the study took place. In terms of their participation in society, for some young people, Brexit could be understood as a political event that highlighted political powerlessness as they did not feel represented by the outcome of the EU referendum. At the same time, the same participants did not see opportunities for representation in the near future. This circumstance led them in part to question existing political structures. For other young people, the lack of opportunities for participation was understood as legitimate and seen as a structural given. At the same time, the young people emphasised that they were not affected by Brexit in their everyday lives and that they were more concerned with issues such as school and the transition to work. By comparing their situation with other countries, they felt other countries were in more severe political crises (e.g., wars) than the UK, which had extreme impacts on everyday lives. Due to the study's exploratory nature, the topic of being British and being a European/EU citizen, which was taken up by the participants in the focus groups when talking about Brexit, was examined more closely. Here, concepts such as 'sense of belonging' served as an analytical grid. The study allows insights into the participation perspectives of young people, which can be expanded in further studies through international comparisons and in the national context concerning political participation and parliamentary representation.
Publications
- (2021): Participation and everyday comparisons in the time of Brexit: Young people’s perspective in England. Tertium Comparationis, Journal für International und Interkulturell Vergleichende Erziehungswissenschaft. 2021, Vol. 27(2), S. 164-180
Feld, I.
(See online at https://elibrary.utb.de/doi/10.31244/tc.2021.02.04)
