The Intersectionality of Good Citizenship: Insights from Germany

In the face of digitization, research on good citizenship in the past decade has been particularly interested in how digital media—and especially social media—affect the normative expectations and the practices of citizenship by providing new ways for citizens to engage in politics. Current findings point to a pluralization of traditional notions of good citizenship. For example, the concept of “discursive citizenship norms” has emerged, which underpins citizens’ engagement in discourse-based activities such as information seeking, sharing, and political self-expression (Gagrčin et al., 2022). Nevertheless, and despite initial optimism, new technologies seem to exacerbate existing inequalities in participation (Kümpel, 2020; Xenos et al., 2014). Accordingly, people’s social position in society and their different social realities continue to have a significant impact on how they think about their role as citizens and how they engage politically (Walsh et al., 2004). We follow existing research on citizenship norms across different social groups (Bolzendahl & Coffe, 2013; Reichert, 2017) and add an intersectional perspective to it. This perspective, coined by legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw (1989), is interested in how different forms and structures of discrimination—such as race, gender, and class—overlay and interact with each other to result in a specific and distinct form and structure of discrimination itself. In contrast to research that focuses on the effects of individual socio-demographic variables on citizenship norms and political participation, this perspective is interested in the effects of the discriminatory realities of distinct, often multiply marginalized groups. Accordingly, we ask how such realities of intersectional discrimination affect (a) one’s citizenship norms and (b) political participation. To address these questions, we analyze data from a 2021 representative survey in Germany that covers a wide range of citizenship norms and forms of political participation both online and offline. We identify groups likely to have experienced intersectional discrimination using sociodemographic variables such as gender, class, age, and immigration history (as a proxy for race in Germany; see Will, 2019). Our analysis focuses on six theoretically derived groups: (1) immigrants from lower-class backgrounds, (2) immigrants from upper-class backgrounds, (3) young male immigrants, (4) women from lower-class backgrounds, (5) older women, and—as the most privileged group—(6) men from upper-class background with no immigration history. Our study reveals notable differences in citizenship norms and political engagement among the different groups compared to all other respondents. These differences suggest different perceptions of good citizenship, likely influenced by different experiences of discrimination. Specifically, immigrants and women from lower-class backgrounds have lower expectations of citizenship, while individuals from upper-class backgrounds without a history of immigration have higher expectations. These findings are consistent with our theoretical expectations and highlight the value of an intersectional approach to understanding social inequalities in citizenship and political participation.