Citizenship designates a status as well as a role. Status refers to the civil, political and social rights for the citizen guaranteed by the state.
Role refers to the identity and mental representations which each indi-vidual designs for her/himself. The concept of membership, as already discussed, indicates that the issue of citizenship is also concerned with inclusion and exclusion. Our experience shows that societal position and roles tend to determine these rules of inclusion and exclusion in the designated sphere. These roles are then dictated by social relations of unequal power formed on the basis of race, ethnicity, caste, class and gender. Therefore, side by side with the image of equality in citizenship this study indicates that there exists another picture where discrimination and exclusion are the rule.
This line of argument brings us to the concept of gendered exclu-sion from citizenship. The term ‘citizenship’ is embedded in power relations; it cannot be regarded as a neutral concept. Citizenship, as representative of social and political relations, is invested with the same power hierarchies that identify social structure and dynamics (Yuval-Davis, 1997; Prokhovnik, 1998; Vogel-Polsky, 2000). This situation points to the fundamental inequalities in the organisation of the society and these inequalities play a crucial role in their being subject to violence. Citizenship, viewed in this light, carries differential meaning for women and men. The issue of violence against women needs to be addressed as a means to advance women’s citizenship and to give full meaning to ‘A Life Free of Violence’ (Correa, 2002).
Since citizenship implies not only rights but obligations as well, in other words, these rights and duties are rights and duties vis-à-vis others (Banks, 2004). Citizen, in this sense, has been termed as a co-citizen that is somebody who lives with others (Korsgaard, Walters and Anderson, 2001). It would be relevant here to refer to Oldfi eld’s (1990) view who has termed the community of which one may be a citizen as the political community. He has identifi ed three constitu-tive characteristics of an individual within this community. These are autonomy of the individual citizen, friendship or ‘concord’ and judgement or practical wisdom (Oldfi eld, 1990). Autonomy can be explained as the potential for self-determination or the ability to decide and act independently. Concord has been explained as a sense of responsibility towards fellow citizens and a sense of mutual interde-pendence. Judgement has been referred to as the decisions that people make regarding the rules that are to be authoritative and binding on the community as also the decisions which give the community its identity, a term referred to as the ‘we’ judgements (Oldfi eld, 1990). A democratic culture is to be devised where individuals in the capacity of citizens can develop these attitudes and behaviour patterns in line with the democratic order.
Three fundamental, mutually dependent categories have been identifi ed in the following fi gure as the didactic triangle – knowledge, value and skill (Korsgaard et al., 2001). It implies an order where the personal and collective dimensions get merged together thereby indicating an ethical move towards striving a negotiation of confl icts in order to live in harmony with others to the possible extent. There-fore citizenship is more than a status; a societal guarantee of rights.
Whether this societal guarantee of rights is being equally applicable to all present in society is a matter of serious concern. Attempts to resolve this matter would certainly have to deal with the question of how equal are the equal rights.
Figure 1. The Didactic Triangle (Korsgaard et al., 2001).
The key areas that can be related to knowledge, skills and understand-ing are as follows:
Developing self-confi dence and responsibility and making the most of abiliti es;
Preparing to play acti ve role as citi zens; and
Developing good relati onship and respecti ng the diff erences be-tween people.
Knowledge Understanding
Skills Competencies Values
Dilemmas
Scholars like Kymlicka (1995), Castles and Davidson (2000), Gutmann (1987), Rosaldo (1999 cited in Banks, 2004) are of the opinion that citizens of democratic, multicultural societies are required to be committed to the maintenance and perpetuation of the ideals of justice, equality and the like. We shall proceed with the defi nition of a citizen given by Goncalves e Silva (2004): ‘a citizen is a person who works against injustice not for individual recognition or personal advan-tage but for the benefi t of all people. In realizing this task – shattering privileges, ensuring information and competence, acting in favour of all – each person becomes a citizen’ (Silva, 2004 cited in Alberta Education, 2005, p. 197) By saying this, citizen’s roles have been clearly spelt out in controlling social, cultural, racial and economic inequality. Becom-ing a citizen is a process and workBecom-ing for the betterment of the society is also a process that requires continuous effort. And education has a very important role to play in this process of becoming a citizen.
Education transmits far more than mere knowledge; it inculcates a set of values and ideas in the minds of the learners. According to the UNESCO report (1996) titled ‘Education for the Twenty-First Century’, education throughout life is based on four pillows: learning to know, learning to do, learning to live together and learning to be (UNESCO report, 1996 cited in Korsgaard, Walters and Andersen, 2001). The broader our knowledge, the better we can understand the world around us.