‘Living Rights’, rights claims, performative citizenship and young people – the right to vote in the Scottish independence referendum

Sanghera, Gurchathen; Botterill, Katherine; Hopkins, Peter; Arshad, Rowena

Abstract

This paper examines the rights claims-making that young people engaged in during the 2014 Scottish independence referendum when the right to vote was extended to 16- and 17-year-olds for the first time in the UK. Understanding citizenship and rights claims-making as performative, we draw on the novel idea of ‘living rights’ to explore how young people ‘shape what these rights are – and become – in the social world’. They are coexistent and situated within the everyday lives of young people, and transcend the traditional idea that rights are merely those that are enshrined in domestic and/or international law. We explore the complex and contested nature of rights claims that were made by young people as ‘active citizens’ in the lead up to the referendum to illustrate how the rights claims-making by young people is bound up with the performativity of citizenship that entails identity construction, political subjectivity (that challenges adultcentric approaches) and social justice.

Citation

Sanghera, G., Botterill, K., Hopkins, P., & Arshad, R. (2018). ‘Living Rights’, rights claims, performative citizenship and young people – the right to vote in the Scottish independence referendum. Citizenship Studies, 22(5), 540-555. https://doi.org/10.1080/13621025.2018.1484076

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 31, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Jun 18, 2018
• Publication Date: Jun 18, 2018
• Deposit Date: Jun 5, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 26, 2018
• Journal: Citizenship Studies
• Print ISSN: 1362-1025
• Electronic ISSN: 1469-3593
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 22
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 540-555
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13621025.2018.1484076
• Keywords: Citizenship; claims-making; living rights; performativity; referendum; right to vote
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/1196637
• Contract Date: Nov 26, 2018