Bordered YouthAnalysing Citizenship and Identities in Post-Brexit Northern Ireland

Abstract

“Young people living in the North of Ireland are put into boxes which perhaps do not adequately represent their views and opinions – the Bordered Youth Project seeks to change that”. This project analyses how young people negotiate the complex and overlapping identities and citizenships produced by living in border regions. We are working with young people aged 18 to 24 living in Northern Ireland, using creative participatory methods to assess how their interpretations, imaginations and encounters with bordered spaces shape, or are shaped by, their everyday movements and cultural interactions. The question of citizenship in a Northern Irish context is of critical importance as it has significant implications for any future decision-making around the constitutional question of whether Northern Ireland should remain in the United Kingdom or become part of a united Ireland. Any change to the constitution - and potentially the very existence of Northern Ireland - will have far reaching ramifications for the nature and shape of both the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.