(Ab)using Citizenship: An idea-analysis of the use of Citizenship and Active Citizenship in an academic and a EU-policy discourse

Abstract: Sometimes are words most familiar to us, the hardest ones to define. They seem self-explanatory. Political concepts are not just words that create ambivalence. They affect and shape people’s lives. This thesis engages with the present context of the European Union (EU) and investigates the meaning of Citizenship and Active citizenship. It poses the questions; what do we need citizenship for? The conducted study is a sender-focused idea-analysis, used to grasp normative claims about behaviour and reality within primarily an academic discourse and secondly a EU policy discourse. The thesis argues for four dimensions of citizenship that evoke four different mechanisms; Rights (inclusion); Duties and responsibilities (exclusion), Lived-experience (self-perception) and lastly Deeds (interaction). This framework questions the theoretical claim that citizenship is a promoter for equality and argues for the importance of the exclusionary elements of citizenship. Instead, citizenship is highlighted as contextual, involving tensions and connected to power. Through critical assessment this thesis argues that active citizenship in a EU policy discourse is not a citizenship concept, but a government strategy, whereas it is not linked to dimensions of citizenship.