A Genealogy of the “Everyday” Within Young People’s Citizenship Studies

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the concept of "everyday citizenship" by children and young people's geographers. But what are the origins of "everyday" approaches, and what can an everyday approach offer the field of children and young people's citizenship? This chapter undertakes a brief disciplinary and theoretical genealogy of the everyday and how it has emerged as a feature of analysis within children and young people's citizenship. This examination also traces the integration of the everyday into citizenship research through feminist theory and the "new" social studies of childhood. The second half of the chapter examines how everyday citizenship has been applied across a range of disciplines. Applying everyday citizenship approaches in research with children and young people has contributed to expanded notions of citizenship through a closer examination of spatial and relational attributes of young citizens and an interrogation of what constitutes acts of citizenship. The chapter concludes by raising a number of issues that require further debate and consideration.