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To Be or Not To Be Political: An Investigation of Active Youth Citizenship Among Young, Educated Syrians in Beirut to Question International Development Discourse
JOURNAL OF YOUTH RESEARCHES
active in and important to the international aid sector for refugees in Lebanon, but rarely
noticed. The focus lay on what Geertz (1973) has called ‘thick’ understanding of the inter-
locutors’ experiences and interpretations.
A general paucity in terms of empirical research on the opinions of young Syrians – in
particular when it comes to politics – already renders such anthropological investigation
relevant (Mitchell, 2010). Pearlman (2016) has rightfully recognised that the uprisings in
2011 opened up truly new opportunities to access “the reflections of ordinary [Syrian]
citizens”, formerly unattainable “due to their reluctance to speak about politics”, despite
the bitterness of this statement in light of the devastating war (21). While the amount of lit-
erature on citizenship is overwhelming, empirical studies of substantive active citizenship
are rare (Kenny et al., 2015, 13). In that sense, little attention has been paid to “instances
of participation as situated practices” (Cornwall, 2002, ii). Academic scholarship on un-
derstanding constructions of citizenship in the Arab world remains particularly scarce
(Kiwan, 2014).
The research explores the relevance of the theoretical concept of active citizenship from
the perspective of a purposefully sampled group of research respondents. The subse-
quent two paragraphs will briefly condense the underlying theoretical framework and
provide details on the process of data collection and analysis.
2.1 Theoretical Framework
A vast and growing body of literature is concerned with questions of citizenship. It is
therefore crucial to define the central concepts for this research, namely the concept of
active citizenship and the concept of citizen identity. The latter is closely intertwined with
citizenship theory, and of particular relevance to this study. This is owed to the fact that
‘identifications’ emerged as a central foundation for the engagements under investigation
from the data analysis. The section ends with the study’s definition of the term ‘refugee’.
The introduction already introduced the conception of active youth citizenship as individ-
ual obligation in mainstream international development discourse. This reflects a defini-
tion of active citizenship by Kenny et al. (2015). The authors view activism as one of two
subsets of active citizenship, which is based in intention, method and outcome on the
actors’ awareness for the (violated) rights of a certain group. Activism consists in explicit-
ly claiming these rights, and thereby tackling existing power relations. The defining factor
does not lie in the activism’s scope or ambition, but rather in a certain consciousness for
the political demand. This runs contrary to the second form of active citizenship as obli-
gation, or civil commitment. The authors elaborate that “this type of active citizenship is
not about political activism but rather about preserving important assets and services in
the community, generating social capital and encouraging social cohesion. [...] [These cit-
izens] often avoid confrontation and ‘things political’” (Kenny et al., 2015, 79). As a matter
