Parenting as Civic Action: A Relational Framework for Citizenship

This article conceptualizes parenting as a form of civic action. Identifying a relational turn in theories of citizenship, we propose an analytical framework for examining civic meanings in everyday parental acts. Foregrounding the intersubjective and intergenerational nature of state-citizen relations, the framework expands existing theories to account for parental actions that are not readily recognized as political. Moving beyond a predominant focus on parents at the margins of civic life, we incorporate both privileged and shifting positionalities to capture multiple forms of civic parental action. The model outlines six dimensions for further study: how positionality shapes citizenship; visions of childhood, parenting, and state roles; trajectories into adulthood; parental views of the state; conceptions of the common good; and forms of civic action. We argue that citizenship is shaped through a broad range of everyday parental actions and call on scholars to use this theoretical toolkit to better understand state-citizen relations.