An individual's sense of belonging and inclusion within their wider community and nation state is bound up in and contingent upon their citizenship status and practice; on the rights and responsibilities that come with being, and acting as, a citizen (Lister, 2003). Whether we conceive of citizenship as a status that brings with it a bundle of rights and responsibilities or as a practice that demands the fulfilment of particular duties if one is to be a responsible engaged citizen, citizenship focuses attention on questions of inclusion and exclusion – on who is and who is not included within the citizenry and on what basis (Dwyer, 2010).

Citizenship is of value precisely because there are necessarily and always some that it excludes: advantages and rewards are attached to those, but only those, who are considered citizens (Lister, 2003). The ways in which explicit and implicit decisions are made around who is and who is not included as a citizen are fundamental to the nature of the society in which we live and the basis on which it operates. Close attention to these decisions and the more subtle processes that operate to drive inclusionary and exclusionary forces can illuminate the values and social norms that underpin a society, as well as improving our understanding of the bureaucratic, political and societal domains and how these feed into and affect individuals’ everyday politics and lived citizenship realities.

This book adopts social citizenship as a theoretical and analytical lens for better understanding how individuals in receipt of out-of-work benefits experience social welfare and welfare reform. In this chapter, an introduction to ideas of social citizenship is provided, including T. H. Marshall's (1950) classic liberal theory of citizenship. This is followed by a summary of the intersection between citizenship, poverty and participation. The second part of the chapter is concerned with excavating the dominant citizenship narratives evident in the thinking and policy statements of recent UK governments. This analysis focuses on the period from 1997–2016, which includes New Labour as well as the Coalition and Conservative governments led by David Cameron. This exploration highlights the extent to whichrecent UK governments have drawn upon liberal and civic republican ideas of social citizenship, often in tandem, to construct an argument that positions welfare reform as a tool of social inclusion.