Mind the Gap: Uneven and Unequal Experiences of Youth Citizenship

Abstract

While the field of youth citizenship has grown in recent years, many ‘gaps’ still exist. This commentary paper takes a critical look at three of these gaps in youth citizenship studies, namely (i) the Global North/Global South gap in understandings about youth citizenship, (ii) the citizenship status and empowerment gap, and (iii) the citizenship opportunity and participation gap. The paper argues that unless these gaps are attended to, we have a distortion in what we know about youth citizenship as the understandings and young people profiled (predominantly the Global North, elite, White and well resourced) represent only a small subsection of the whole, thus ignoring the experiences, knowledge, stories and voices of many diverse young citizens.