Practicing Citizenship Locally: Identity, Belonging, and Exclusion in Everyday Life

In times of political polarization, scholars often focus on partisan identity as a primary driver of division among citizens. Recent European research, however, reveals that citizens not necessarily invoke parties or partisan labels. Instead, other social identities too seem to be at play in shaping how people perceive other citizens, politics and society at large. This paper contributes to this growing body of work by examining the role of people’s attachment with their municipalities and neighbourhoods and how this shapes their perceptions of their place of living as well as their perceptions of society at large. Drawing on focus group data from citizens across Belgium, conducted in suburban and rural municipalities, we analyse how local identity and attachment intersects with broader concerns about belonging, distrust, resentment and the formation of in- and out-groups. Our data reveals three interconnected dimensions of citizen concern. First, participants express serious concern about macro-level polarization driven by populist discourse, misinformation, and the deliberate pitting of groups against one another. Second, at the local level, some participants describe their neighbourhoods as threatened by demographic change and the arrival of 'newcomers' with different lifestyles and values. Often, this is a proxy to refer to people with a migration background but also to autochthone residents who do not take an interest in strengthening the local social fabric, such as participating in local organizations or community activities. As such, citizens who do feel attached with their neighbourhood experience threat and instability as well as a sense of autochthony. Third, despite these perceived threats to local cohesion as well as larger societal problems, participants largely reject institutional politics as a solution and instead emphasize individual responsibility and grassroots community action. These findings reveal a paradox: citizens view their local communities simultaneously as a source of belonging and identity, as well as spaces under threat by other citizens. Yet, they do not rely on formal politics for solutions. This suggests that to tackle affective polarization among citizens as well as growing xenophobia and racism, the local level plays an important role in shaping and therefore re-shaping these believes. Taken together, these findings contribute to debates on citizenship in turbulent times by showing how citizens set boundaries of belonging and the limits of participation at the local level, outside formal political institutions. This highlights how local attachments can simultaneously create everyday belonging while also producing conditions and exclusionary boundaries.