Conditional cosmopolitanism? The Limits of Youth Cosmopolitan Identities

• In Event: Is There a Global Understanding of Global Citizenship Education? Comparative Perspectives on Policies and Practices

Abstract

Over the past twenty years, traditional conceptions of citizenship have been challenged as we have sought to come to terms with the theoretical and practical implications of globalisation, technological innovation, and increased mobility and migration. It is often suggested that these changes are most likely to be apparent among young people, as it is this generation are more likely to report cosmopolitan attitudes and identities and to have been socialised into this post-national world (Norris and Inglehart, 2009; Woodward et al, 2008).
In this paper, I will critically examine this claim using qualitative and quantitative data from young people in Britain. Survey data (such as ICCS 2009) suggest that young people are indeed more likely to report cosmopolitan attitudes and identities than their elders or indeed, than previous generations of youth. However, in a series of in-depth interviews with young people, we found that for many, these attitudes and dispositions were contradictory, conditional, and strategic. For example, many young people expressed support for freedom of moment, but only when it facilitated their own goals (e.g. to travel or work abroad and gain work or cultural experience). Furthermore, this often contrasted sharply with their attitudes towards inward migration, which was viewed very critically by many. These in-depth interviews shed light on these contradictions of supposedly cosmopolitan youth, and point to ways in which we should develop our understanding of how cosmopolitanism is practised, and not just how it is conceptualised in policy and theory.

Author

• Avril Keating, University College London