This presentation deals with the issue of citizenship, inspired by Appadurai whose work always bears as a starting point the stamp of social inequalities, exploring how the contents of citizenship broaden and to a point are even negotiated in the various spaces of large cities. Based on preliminary data, from a survey in process, we will focus attention on the students from two universities in Mexico City. The four programs dealt with in our samples are: Law, Engineering for Computer Systems, Administration and Social Science. We have the socio-economic and educational data of the subjects, as well as data on the university and the program in which the students are enrolled. But the focal point of our research is related to 1) the aspects tied to citizenship which are of most interest to the young people; 2) their participation in social organizations and political parties; 3) the obstacles they face in their participation; 4) the way in which they appraise the freedom they exercise as citizens and 5) their vision of the future with respect to various related fields. The presentation will take up a subset of data from the survey, represented by the students from the National Autonomous University of Mexico and the Ibero-American University (Santa Fe Campus). The first is the largest and most important public university in the country and the latter is one of the most prestigious private universities. Both are considered to have high academic standards. There is a marked difference in issues related to citizenship and participation between students from the two schools. While the National Autonomous University of Mexico has always been governed by the values of the classic citizenship of Republicanism, the Ibero-American University is a Jesuit university, adhering to humanism which has recently introduced a series of policies aimed at actively combating various kinds of discrimination. When possible, we shall use interviews to delve deeper into the issues we have mentioned. We believe these elements may provide keys which might help us explain the ways in which the students conceive, live and to a point negotiate broadening their rights as citizens in the broader context of a large city.

Appadurai, A. 2004. The capacity to aspire: culture and the terms of recognition. R. Rao and M. Walton (eds), Culture and Public Action. Stanford, Calif., Stanford University Press, pp. 59–84. Appadurai, A. 2013. The Future as Cultural Fact. Essays on the Global Condition. London and Brooklyn, N.Y., Verso. Appadurai, Arjun, (2015), El futuro como hecho cultural, Fondo de Cultura Económica Arnot, Madeleine (2009). Coeducando para una ciudadanía en igualdad. (España: Ediciones Morata). Augé, Marc (2015): The Future. London: Verso