ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the question of how the public works out which bit of a person is a citizen, or which part of a person's life is citizenship. Citizenship talk is found in all sorts of policy at all sorts of levels. There is continuity between, say, UK and EU language of citizenship. In the context of UK government policy, the theme of participation has resurfaced frequently, and was a central theme in much of the New Labour government's policy from 1997, and continues today. One such statement consolidates the notion of the active citizen as interlocutor of the state. The Council of Europe Committee of Ministers published a recommendation which laid out a position on participative policy making in 2001. In particular, the statements in the excerpt are helpful in relation to the British context, as they reiterate statements made before and after this time in British policy documents, particularly those relating specifically to local government in England.
