SIGNIFICACIONES Y PRÁCTICAS DE CIUDADANÍA ENTRE JÓVENES EN EL URUGUAY ACTUAL

Abstract

Which different meanings and practices of citizenship do we encounter among Uruguayan youth nowadays? Specialized literature shows that not only are there different ways of understanding citizenship but also that different ways are related to citizen support or dissatisfaction with the political system. The present paper seeks and analyses the meanings youngsters give to citizenship. To accomplish this objective we interviewed 34 youngsters between 18 and 29 years old. From a thematic analysis of the interviews and referencing of relevant bibliography on the issue four categories of citizen significance were identified: cooperative citizens, critical citizens, skeptical-anti systemic citizens and skeptical-alienated citizens. Criticisms youngsters have about the Uruguayan democratic system are varied. Meanwhile critical citizen focus on the public policies which reproduce inequalities; the skeptical-anti systemic citizen criticizes democratic principles; and eventually, the skeptical-alienated citizen criticizes “politics” in general terms. Although the content of the interviews cannot be simplistically reduced to these categories, it allows us to point out some of the challenges of Uruguayan contemporary democratic citizenship.