ABSTRACT
What are the prospects for children to learn new forms of citizenship that will better equip them in troubling times? To begin to answer this question this chapter details a typology of three forms of citizenship, described as the FEARS model of non-citizenship; the thin model of SMART environmental citizenship, and the SEEDS model of strong, communitarian ecological citizenship. Each of the three theoretical models of citizenship is accompanied by a social handprint image. Like an ecological footprint, our social handprint is a conceptual tool that encourages us to think about the consequences of the actions we take as citizens. In identifying these three broad approaches to citizenship, the typology is not mutually exclusive. Young people may identify with more than one model of how to be a citizen. The typology is a tool for highlighting the differing democratic and environmental implications of young citizens’ expectations about their political agency, environmental experiences, democratic decision-making, experiences of justice and political imagination. In comparing these three broad forms of environmental citizenship, discussion argues that the SEEDS models of ecological citizenship provides the strongest support for children learning to exercise their capability for citizenship in ways that also promote a just, sustainable, common future.
