Re-working everyday concepts of civic virtue and ethnic belonging among indigenous youth in Chile

Abstract

This article discusses Mapuche adolescents' everyday articulations of civic virtue and ethnic belonging by juxtaposing their participation in their communities, schooling and civil society at large. It situates the youth within the exclusionary practices of education and broader society, and in the context of Chile's recent history of expanding youth civic participation. Chile is a highly racialised country and indigenous pupils experience altogether different modalities of inclusion and belonging compared to non-indigenous peers. Focus groups and interviews conducted during 2007–2008 are drawn on to explore how ideals of civic belonging are negotiated by those on the margins of society as a result of their schooling experiences and exposure to worldwide youth cultures. The article questions the ability of national schooling to produce a consistent discourse regarding a culturally diverse citizenry given that its practices are on the whole exclusionary towards Mapuche pupils. I argue instead that Mapuche youth construct a notion of the ‘good citizen’ from their home communities which respond to, and discursively resist, society's exclusionary values.

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