Citizens but not adults? Injunction to be responsible and citizens in official coming of age rituals in Switzerland
Swiss municipalities organize ceremonies for their residents reaching the official age of full citizenship. In the six studied municipalities, local authorities invite them to a municipal council’s meeting, offer them a dinner or an aperitif, or organize them a show and a debate with role models. Speeches are central to these ceremonies, and authority representatives encourage their audience to be “good” citizens. Call to vote is the leitmotiv, but discourses reveal broader definitions of citizenship, insisting sometimes on a local commitment and volunteering, and sometimes on the necessity to fight climate change and inequalities. Comparing officials’ speeches to statements of young people participating in these events reveals “tensions”. Indeed, authority representatives address young citizens without considering them as fully adult, and they do not consider themselves as such neither. However, some of them are already involved in forms of vernacular citizenship, and are progressively leaving the municipality to study, work or travel. Ultimately, these ceremonies allow officials to stage their interest in the youth, which they consider as both uncompleted and essential to the renewal of democracy.