1st Edition

The Social Psychology of Citizenship Critical Advances and Interdisciplinary Insights

Edited By Eleni Andreouli, Lia Figgou, Irini Kadianaki Copyright 2026
254 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

254 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

254 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This book develops a social psychology of citizenship, pushing the boundaries of the discipline to articulate a theoretically rich social psychological framework for the study of citizenship. Featuring contributions from established and up- and- coming global researchers, this book draws attention to the micro- politics of everyday life. This volume is divided into four parts, considering... Read more

Chapter 1. Mapping the social psychology of citizenship: State of the art and ways forward
Lia Figgou, Irini Kadianaki, and Eleni Andreouli 

Part 1: GOVERNING CITIZENSHIP

Chapter 2. Mediocrity as method and resistance: Sexual citizenship and the limits of deservingness and respectability
Francesca Romana Ammaturo

Chapter 3. The datafied citizen: Debating the issue of privacy and participation
Emma Brice

Chapter 4. ‘Accidental parenting’ and ‘responsible citizenship’: Exploring advice around baby sleep from a Critical Health Psychology perspective
Abigail Locke

Part 1 Commentary

Chapter 5. The global colonial politics of liberal democratic citizenship
Shona Hunter

Part 2: BORDERING CITIZENSHIP

Chapter 6. Citizenship and immigration in social psychology: The discursive construction of cultural hierarchy
Nikos Bozatzis, Maria Xenitidou, and Antonis Sapountzis

Chapter 7. Conditional citizenship: How neoliberalism fuels the restriction of civil, social, and political rights of subordinate groups
Emanuele Politi, Lola Girerd, and Christian Staerklé

Chapter 8. Precarious migration and cultural nuance in re-articulations of active citizenship
Sarah Kapeli, Shiloh Groot, Eun-Hye Shin, Lisiua Havili, and Darrin Hodgetts

Part 2 Commentary

Chapter 9. Citizenship processes and migration phenomena in Europe
Francesco Della Puppa

Part 3: LOCATING CITIZENSHIP: REFLECTIONS ON PLACE AND YOUTH

Chapter 10. Citizens in the making: Exploring social psychological perspectives on youth citizenship
Debra Gray and Rachel Manning

Chapter 11. Citizenship, spatial (in)justice, and the social psychology of place dispossession
Cristina Pradillo Caimari, and Andrés Di Masso

Chapter 12. The ‘problem’ of strengthening youth citizenship in Latin American countries in times of regression: The case of education in Brazil
Marina Valentim Brasil and Angelo Brandelli Costa

Part 3 Commentary

Chapter 13. Interdisciplinary approaches to the role of place and resistance in citizenship research
Bronwyn Wood

Part 4: RE-IMAGINING CITIZENSHIP

Chapter 14. Energy citizenship as socio-ecological practice: Towards a recognition of the socio-political and psychological relevance of energy
Susana Batel

Chapter 15. Cultural citizenship through radio-making: Counter-storytelling and creating alternative narratives of identity and belonging within Brimbank LIVE
Roshani Janya Jayawardana and Christopher Sonn

Part 4 COMMENTARY

Chapter 16. Citizenship reimagined: Claiming the right to a future in a changing world
Eeva Puumala

Chapter 17. Rethinking citizenship: Theoretical tenets and emerging directions in social psychology
Irini Kadianaki, Lia Figgou, and Eleni Andreouli

Biography

Eleni Andreouli is Professor of Social Psychology at the Open University, UK, and the author of numerous publications exploring the links between politics and everyday life.

Lia Figgou is Professor of Social Psychology at the School of Psychology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. Her research interests lie in the field of immigration, citizenship, and intergroup relations. Influenced by the “turn to language” in social psychology, she employs rhetorical and discursive analysis to explore these topics in depth.

Irini Kadianaki is Associate Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Cyprus. Her research explores the interplay between social representations and identity among stigmatised groups – such as migrants, LGBT+ individuals, and people with mental illness.

'This groundbreaking volume explores how citizenship is enacted and contested in the routines of everyday life. From parenting and migration to digital activism and urban space, it reveals how citizens resist, rework, and reimagine belonging and political agency in the face of neoliberalism, precarity, and rising authoritarianism.'

John Dixon, Professor of Social Psychology, The Open University, UK

'Studying the lived experiences of people in struggles over citizenship rights is crucial. This groundbreaking and highly anticipated contribution to the social psychology of citizenship examines how people are struggling for citizenship as a right to a socially and ecologically just society and reveals acts of citizenship as affective politics of the everyday.'

Engin Isin, Professor Emeritus in International Politics, Queen Mary University of London

'What constitutes citizenship has become a pressing issue all over the world as nation states increasingly tighten restrictions on who should belong. Unlike abstract theories of citizenship, this book examines this contested concept from the ground-up: from everyday understandings, experiences, and practices of citizens themselves. The Social Psychology of Citizenship provides a refreshing human dimension to the field of citizenship studies.'

Martha Augoustinos, Professor Emerita at the University of Adelaide, Australia

'The Social Psychology of Citizenship convincingly establishes social psychology’s potential to illuminate the subtle relational processes through which citizenship is experienced and enacted in the course of everyday life.  Drawing from a range of interdisciplinary perspectives, the contributors to this edited collection address a wide range of contemporary issues, documenting the various ways in which citizens strategically handle competing demands of neoliberal ideology in the course of their mundane social activities. In so doing, the authors shed new light on the political agency and subversive potential inherent in routine social interactions. This exciting and thought-provoking book will be essential reading for all social and political scientists concerned with the processes through which the lived experiences of citizenship are being shaped and transformed in the first quarter of the twenty first century.'

 Susan Condor, Professor Emeritus of Social Psychology, Loughborough University, UK