Paper short abstract:

This ethnographic paper explores how young South Africans experience and interpret new norms of citizenship in a country where former ideals of ‘insurgent citizenship’ are replaced by a model of ‘active citizenship’ that insists on the duties of good citizens rather than on their critical thinking.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores the political paradox that characterizes South Africa since 1994: despite a romantic attachment to a political culture rooted in 'The struggle', practices of 'insurgent citizenship' inherited from anti-apartheid movements have been largely reinterpreted through a model of 'active citizenship' that insists on the duties of good citizens rather than on their critical thinking. This 'normalisation' of political life in the post-apartheid era is often criticized for growing a generation of young citizens marked by apathy and individualism. In contrast with the students movement that was already stirring at the time, the research focuses on less visible sites of civic engagement by following various youth projects led by NGOs across the city. Through in-depth interviews and participatory methods, it documents the fine grain of political subjectivities in the making. Neither post-political subjects nor revolutionary champions, the young people involved in this research highlight the unspectacular ordinariness of citizenship. They invite us to look beyond archetypes of 'good citizens', 'social entrepreneurs' or 'rebels' in order to reframe citizenship as a matter of sentiment mixing fun and violence, friendship and resentment, immediate engagement and structural racism.