Showing papers in "Citizenship Studies in 2012"
TL;DR: The authors explores the production of temporariness in Canada, and its implications for the citizenship rights of migrants, and argues that temporareiness is being institutionalized in new ways, producing a hierarchy of categories of migrants ranging from the temporarily temporary to the permanently temporary and temporarily permanent, shaped by entry category, legal residency status and socially recognized skills.
Abstract: This paper explores the production of temporariness in Canada, and its implications for the citizenship rights of migrants. It investigates the production of temporariness within three policy fields that are typically not examined together – security, work and settlement. Within these three fields, it considers public policies concerning: (1) security of presence; (2) access to paid employment for spouses of migrants; and (3) eligibility for settlement services. It argues that temporariness is being institutionalized in new ways, producing a hierarchy of categories of migrants ranging from the temporarily temporary to the permanently temporary and temporarily permanent, shaped by entry category, legal residency status and socially recognized skills. The paper advances a multidimensional conception of temporariness, and contends that the temporary-permanent divide is constructed through the enforcement of different entry categories and forms of legal residency status, which create ‘paper borders’ that are ...
104 citations
TL;DR: The sexual citizen has become the benchmark against which all sexual subjects are measured, and involves a particular liberal self that has been constituted against a myriad of "others" marked by cultural, religious and racialised differences as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Guided by the claims of the feminist and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender social movements and international human rights agendas, governments in late modern democracies have been implementing (or pressured to implement) new juridical frames to recognise sexual diversity. As a result, in the last two decades, gendered and sexual ‘others’ have been ‘included’ in citizenship leading to the formulation of what has been called ‘sexual citizenship’, propounding the formation of new sexual rights-bearing subjects. However, this seemingly respectable and progressive contemporary sexual citizen has become the benchmark against which all sexual subjects are measured, and involves a particular liberal self that has been constituted against a myriad of ‘others’ marked by cultural, religious and racialised differences. How has this ‘sexual citizen’ been constituted and how does it operate within the political field of struggles over sexual freedom and justice? This article explores to what extent the sexual ci...
86 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a postcolonial critique of the ostensible superiority or originality of Western political theory and one of its fundamental concepts, "citizenship", is presented, where the authors analyse the undoing, uncovering, and reinventing of citizenship as a way of investigating citizenship as political subjectivity.
Abstract: This collection offers a postcolonial critique of the ostensible superiority or originality of ‘Western’ political theory and one of its fundamental concepts, ‘citizenship’. The chapters analyse the undoing, uncovering, and reinventing of citizenship as a way of investigating citizenship as political subjectivity. If it has now become very difficult to imagine citizenship merely as nationality or membership in the nation-state, this is at least in part because of the anticolonial struggles and the project of reimagining citizenship after orientalism that they precipitated. If it has become difficult to sustain the orientalist assumption, the question arises; how do we investigate citizenship as political subjectivity after orientalism?
77 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the proliferation of migrant and refugee camps for governing populations challenges the contemporary politics of citizenship and argue that these spaces reproduce orientalist mappings of the world that deem some people incapable or unworthy of citizenship.
Abstract: The proliferation of migrant and refugee camps for governing populations challenges the contemporary politics of citizenship. This article explores the camp as a question of citizenship. How do camp spaces enable the reproduction of certain spaces as the proper sites of politics and the constitution of some subjects and not others as the proper political subjects of citizenship? Can we think about camps as spaces of politics and citizenship-making? Situating the camp within the context of the historical emergence of extraterritoriality in relation to citizenship, I argue that camps reproduce orientalist mappings of the world that deem some people incapable or unworthy of citizenship. Rather than a space of exceptionality, outside of and separate from the space of the citizen, the article investigates the camp as both a political and politicized space, in which artists, activists and migrants use the camp as a site of building de-orientalizing cartographies to politicize migrant rights and political subjec...
69 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyse a series of migrant mobilizations which took place in 2010 and 2011 throughout Italy: the unrest in Rosarno, the migrant general strikes on 1 March, the campaign and the strike against undeclared work in Nardo and the occupation of a construction crane in Brescia.
Abstract: This article analyses a series of migrant mobilizations which took place in 2010 and 2011 throughout Italy: the unrest in Rosarno, the migrant general strikes on 1 March, the campaign and the strike against undeclared work in Nardo and the occupation of a construction crane in Brescia. Engin Isin's principles of investigating acts of citizenship provide a theoretical background for understanding them as a coherent, new cycle of struggles in the crisis of neoliberalism. As proved by those mobilizations, migrants can significantly contribute to open the boundaries of neoliberal citizenship, when they construct themselves as activist citizens. Moreover, the contestation of an exclusionary, racialized and competitive model of society can become a goal shared by migrants and nationals alike, opening up an alternative social model based on equal entitlements to rights, solidarity and real democracy.
55 citations
TL;DR: The authors investigates how colonial attitudes towards race operate alongside official multiculturalism in Canada to justify the legally exceptional exclusion of migrant farm workers from Canada's socio-political framework, one that continues uninterrupted in the present age of statist multiculturalism.
Abstract: This article investigates how colonial attitudes towards race operate alongside official multiculturalism in Canada to justify the legally exceptional exclusion of migrant farm workers from Canada's socio-political framework. The Canadian Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program is presented in this article as a relic of Canada's racist and colonial past, one that continues uninterrupted in the present age of statist multiculturalism. The legal continuation and growth in the use of non-citizens to conduct labour distasteful to Canadian nationals has provided an effective means for the Canadian state to regulate the ongoing flow of non-preferred races on the margins while promoting a pluralist and ethnically diverse political image at home and abroad. In the face of a labour shortage constructed as a political crisis of considerable urgency, the Canadian state has continued to admit non-immigrants into the country to perform labour deemed unattractive yet necessary for the well-being of Canadian citizens whil...
49 citations
TL;DR: The authors analyzed the complex relationships among economic development, democracy, and citizenship as they have been manifested in the South Korean context since the late 1980s, with a particular focus on the predominant bijeonggyujik (nonregular position) regime of employment.
Abstract: The purpose of this article is to analyze the complex relationships among economic development, democracy, and citizenship as they have been manifested in the South Korean context since the late 1980s. It begins by examining the structural relationship between economic development and political democratization in South Korea with an analytical focus on the substantive function of democratic politics in delivering various citizenship rights. Then, the citizenship ramifications of the national economic crisis of 1997–1998 are discussed with a particular focus on the predominant bijeonggyujik (nonregular position) regime of employment. This is followed by an account of the divergence between international and domestic perceptions on the current status of South Koreans' citizenship rights and a discussion of the political historical background to South Koreans' regression to developmentalism. Relatedly, the widespread symptoms of South Koreans' withdrawal from economic, familial, and even personal life are il...
48 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyze the citizenship of migrant workers in Korea from three dimensions, namely, immigration policies, access to long-term and permanent residency and national citizenship, and the rights of migrants.
Abstract: The inflow of migrant workers poses many challenges to an ethnically homogenous Korean society. They have different features with regard to citizenship. In this article, I analyze the citizenship of migrant workers in Korea from three dimensions – immigration policies, access to long-term and permanent residency and national citizenship, and the rights of migrant workers. First, I analyze requirements for employment and residency as stipulated in the Departures and Arrivals Control Act and the problems of differential application to target groups. Second, I discuss regulations in the Departures and Arrivals Control Act and the Nationality Act concerning the length of stay and requirements and process of applying for long-term and permanent residency, or Korean nationality. Third, I go over the basic rights of migrant workers: (1) civil rights; (2) social rights such as the rights to engage in work, the three primary rights of labor, social welfare rights, and the right to education of children of migrant ...
48 citations
TL;DR: Kim et al. as discussed by the authors examined the implications of Korean multiculturalism on multiple aspects of citizenship and found that migrants in Korea are critical of multiculturalism because the characteristics of their group identities as defined in multiculturalism are less than desirable.
Abstract: South Korea has experienced transformations in both discourse and policy regarding multiculturalism in recent years. The new discourse on multiculturalism implies that Korea is becoming, or should become, a multicultural society. This development can be viewed as an opportunity for migrants to take advantage of the dialogue about multiculturalism. However, migrants in Korea are indifferent to, and even critical of, the new discourse. The goal of this article is to explain this apparent paradox by examining the implications of Korean multiculturalism on multiple aspects of citizenship. Migrants in Korea are critical of multiculturalism because the characteristics of their group identities as defined in multiculturalism are less than desirable. To a certain extent, this unfair representation discourages migrants in Korea not only from welcoming multiculturalism but also from seeking formal membership. In this sense, the Korean case suggests the relationship between the status and identity aspects of citizen...
46 citations
TL;DR: The threat that immigration poses to the so-called Western democratic values is increasingly the subject of public discourses, especially regarding Muslim migrants as discussed by the authors, and these discourses are labelled as neo-orientalist because of their willingness to refer to the (often Muslim) migrant as a savage, uncivilized, terrorist "other"; in the words of Sartori, as an "anti-citizen".
Abstract: The threat that immigration poses to the so-called Western democratic values is increasingly the subject of public discourses, especially regarding Muslim migrants. We could label these discourses as neo-orientalist because of their willingness to refer to the (often Muslim) migrant as a savage, uncivilized, terrorist ‘other’; in the words of Sartori, as an ‘anti-citizen’. This article reflects how citizenship, following a contemporary logic of orientalism, has become a set of guidelines, discourses, practices and policies for the governance of migration. Indeed, these are the guidelines through which neoliberal globalization liberalizes the free movement of citizens and ‘westernized’ foreign persons while deploying technologies of citizenship and border control against different subjects, regarded as eternal outsiders, or even aliens, because of their supposed incivility, threat or un-integrability. The ultimate purpose of this article is to argue that if we are to arrive at a model of citizenship beyond...
45 citations
TL;DR: The problem of identifying, and of determining the status of ethnic Korean migrants who assert membership in the Korean national community has been studied in this article, where the authors present a legal framework for identifying and determining the membership status of Korean migrants in South Korea.
Abstract: This study brings to light the problem of identifying, and of determining the status of, ethnic Korean migrants who assert membership in the Korean national community. The influx of members of the ethnic diaspora in China and the former Soviet Union has posed challenges to South Korea's legal definition of national membership and its practice of keeping the boundaries of nationhood. In response to the challenges, South Korea has calibrated its administration for admitting those coethnics and devised novel categories of membership. It has enacted executive rules and guidelines for the acquisition of citizenship by members of Korean minorities in China and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries, and extended ethnizenship (non-citizen ethnonational membership) to members of the kin-minorities by way of two immigrant status categories (F-4 and H-2). This study gives an account of these legal strategies and inquires into the administrative practices of identifying and recognising applicants for cit...
TL;DR: In this article, the notion of environmental citizenship in the context of climate change and migration discourse is discussed, and it is argued that postcolonial theory is inadequate for fully coming to terms with the way in which the figure of the climate change migrant works as an oppositional referent to the environmental citizen.
Abstract: This article theorises the notion of environmental citizenship in the context of climate change and migration discourse. The central claim of the article is that postcolonial theory is inadequate for fully coming to terms with the way in which the figure of the climate change migrant works as an oppositional referent to the environmental citizen. This is because postcolonial theory tends to trace how the colonial past animates the present, whereas climate change and migration discourse is written almost exclusively in the future-conditional tense. The resulting analysis focuses on the consequences the future-conditionality of climate change and migration discourse has for conceptualising environmental citizenship in the context of climate change. One such consequence is that the category ‘race’ must be reconceptualised as a future potential of bodies rather than the effect of historical signification.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that this process of abjection was dependent on earlier processes that first categorised the Roma as "nomads" and relegated them to the abject space of the "nomad camp" and conclude by arguing that the constitution of the Romanian Roma as abject citizens does not only occur through the act of expulsion, but through the condition of deportability induced by the threat of expulsion.
Abstract: In May 2008, Berlusconi's newly elected coalition introduced new measures to facilitate the expulsion and repatriation of European community citizens, simultaneously declaring a ‘State of Emergency with regards to the Settlement of Nomadic Communities in Lazio, Campania and Lombardy Regions’. Through an analysis of these laws and their material effects, this article will show how they constituted Romanian Roma as abject European citizens. In the process, it will argue that this process of abjection was dependent on earlier processes that first categorised the Roma as ‘nomads’ and relegated them to the abject space of the ‘nomad camp’. The article will conclude by arguing that the constitution of the Roma as abject citizens does not only occur through the act of expulsion, but through the condition of deportability induced by the threat of expulsion.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the nascent citizenship regime in Kosovo since the country's declaration of independence in 2008 and argue that the defining characteristics of the Kosovan citizenship are: (1) adoption of the new-state model (i.e. inclusion into its citizenship of all Kosovo residents); (2) tension between civic and multicultural conceptions of citizenship on the one side, and ethno-national conceptions on the other; and (3) contested nature and overlapping jurisdictions.
Abstract: This paper examines the nascent citizenship regime in Kosovo since the country's declaration of independence in 2008. It argues that the defining characteristics of the Kosovan citizenship are: (1) adoption of the ‘new-state’ model (i.e. inclusion into its citizenship of all Kosovo residents); (2) tension between civic and multicultural conceptions of citizenship on the one side, and ethno-national conceptions on the other; and (3) contested nature and overlapping jurisdictions. In addition, it claims that the present legal, political and territorial dispute in Kosovo seriously undermines the consolidation of Kosovo's citizenship regime and has turned Kosovo into a territory of de facto shared sovereignties (condominium-like constellations).
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the development and impact of German citizenship policy over the past decade, focusing particularly on its quantitative impact, asking why the number of naturalisations has been lower than originally expected.
Abstract: This article examines the development and impact of German citizenship policy over the past decade. As its point of departure, it takes the 2000 Citizenship Law, which sought to undertake a full-scale reform and liberalisation of access to German membership. The article discusses this law’s content and subsequent amendments, focusing particularly on its quantitative impact, asking why the number of naturalisations has been lower than originally expected. The article outlines current challenges to the law’s structure operation and identifies potential trajectories for its future development.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the state management of religion in Indonesia with focus on state regulations promulgated during the New Order period, focusing on four regulations, namely the Presidential Decree in 1965 on the state-recognised religions, the Joint Ministerial Decree on Houses of Worship in 1969 and 2006, the National Marriage Law in 1974 and the Ministerical Decrees on mission activities in 1978.
Abstract: Every state manages religion in one way or another, and religious violence often justifies state intervention to control how a religion should be presented, preached and, most importantly, limited. This paper examines the state management of religion in Indonesia with focus on state regulations promulgated during the New Order period. The Indonesian state has managed religion by making religious practices less focused on spirituality but more a matter of state administration. Four regulations in particular exemplify the state's attitude toward religion, namely the Presidential Decree in 1965 on the state-recognised religions, the Joint Ministerial Decree on Houses of Worship in 1969 and 2006, the National Marriage Law in 1974 and the Ministerial Decrees on mission activities in 1978.In brief, this state management of religion has been enabling Indonesia, which has the world's largest Muslim population, to be governed as neither an Islamic state like Saudi Arabia nor an outright secular state like Turkey a...
TL;DR: This article examined the texts of the "local welcome" which is given by a local dignitary at every citizenship ceremony as a moment of invention of tradition and of narrating citizenship and thereby narrating the nation state.
Abstract: In 2004, the first citizenship ceremony was conducted in the London Borough of Brent. These compulsory ceremonies for those who have been granted British citizenship had been proposed in the government white paper and then in the 2002 Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act. They were designed to celebrate the moment of achieving citizenships and were one response to a perceived ‘crisis of citizenship’ in Britain. This study examines the texts of the ‘local welcome’ which is given by a local dignitary at every ceremony as a moment of invention of tradition and of narrating citizenship and thereby narrating the nation-state. The study explores how and what the speeches tell us about understandings of citizenship and its relationship to diversity. It explores how history is also represented within the speeches. Finally, the study interrogates the texts' telling of a multi-cultural story.
TL;DR: For instance, this article set out the four notions of citizenship that I encountered during interviews and participant observation across two contrasting regions of Mexico in 2007-2010. And they took particular forms in the Mexican context, but they did still entail a relationship with nation-states.
Abstract: Social scientists generally begin with a definition of citizenship, usually the rights-bearing membership of nation-states, and have given less attention to the notions of citizenship held by the people whom they study. Not only is how people see themselves as citizens crucial to how they relate to states as well as to each other, but informants' own notions of citizenship can be the source of fresh theoretical insights about citizenship. In this article I set out the four notions of citizenship that I encountered during interviews and participant observation across two contrasting regions of Mexico in 2007–2010. The first three notions of citizenship were akin to the political, social and civil rights of which social scientists have written. I will show that they took particular forms in the Mexican context, but they did still entail a relationship with nation-states – that of claiming rights as citizens on states. But the most common notion of citizenship, which has been little treated by social scienti...
TL;DR: In this context, there is an increasing awareness of the limitations of the Westphalian constitutional solution, the Hobbesian social contract and Lockean liberalism as political strategies to manage conflicting religious traditions.
Abstract: When we refer to the ‘management of religions’, we are primarily referring to the ways in which modern liberal states have responded to ‘public religions’ and in particular to the revival of Islam. The specific issues surrounding Muslim minorities in non-Muslim secular states can be seen as simply one instance of the more general problem of state and religion in modern societies. In this context, there is an increasing awareness of the limitations of the Westphalian constitutional solution, the Hobbesian social contract and Lockean liberalism as political strategies to manage conflicting religious traditions (Spinner-Halevy 2005). Unfortunately, Richard Hooker's ecclesiastical polity (1594–1597) and his plea that we should concentrate on those doctrines that unite rather than divide us has little relevance in societies that are deeply divided by cultural difference. This situation typically confronts the state because religion is often inseparable from ethnic identity, so that debates about secularization...
TL;DR: The creation of a minority group, the Ahmadiyya, from within the putative Muslim majority by the state in Pakistan, is thus a useful prism through which to understand the ways in which a specific kind of citizen has been created in Pakistan as mentioned in this paper, one who is increasingly impatient with the idea of doctrinal difference even as she is confronted by a proliferation of different Islam in everyday life.
Abstract: This paper looks at the paradoxical creation of a Muslim minority by the Pakistani state to cast a light on the processes of secularism, citizenship and minoritization. The paper argues that contrary to the concerns articulated in academic debates about citizenship and minorities, it is in fact the majority that is managed most assiduously. Critically, these debates assume readymade groupings; this paper discusses how the creation of both a minority and a majority is an ongoing, fractured process. The creation of a minority group, the Ahmadiyya, from within the putative Muslim majority by the state in Pakistan, is thus a useful prism through which to understand the ways in which a specific kind of citizen has been created in Pakistan, one who is increasingly impatient with the idea of doctrinal difference even as she is confronted by a proliferation of different Islams in everyday life.
TL;DR: Singapore's marketing strategy as a 'gateway' between East and West, a project developed at the end of the 1990s, is based on the city-state's re-positioning in the knowledge-based economy between an emerging China and Western societies as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Singapore's marketing strategy as a ‘gateway’ between East and West, a project developed at the end of the 1990s, is based on the city–state's re-positioning in the knowledge-based economy between an emerging China and Western societies. This project targets elite populations whether they are locals or migrants to frame a citizenship design combining mobility and talent. I will critically assess the impacts of Singapore's gateway strategies on the formation of citizens–subjects through the notion of un/desirability. By focusing on stories of desirable subjects, I will stress the everyday tensions arising in the production of neo-liberal citizens. I argue that desirable subjects are struggling with the neo-liberal pressures to become ‘self-governed entrepreneurs’ at the gateway, which is symptomatic of schisms between the city–state's citizenship project and their own practice. I especially target the crucial role of community associations in mediating these tensions and supporting the city–state's citizen...
TL;DR: This paper examined the legal construction of social rights within federal, provincial, and municipal law in Toronto, Ontario, focusing on rights related to education, access to safety and police protection, and income assistance.
Abstract: Devolutionary trends in immigration and social welfare policy have enabled different levels of government to define membership and confer rights to people residing within the political boundary of a province or municipality in ways that may contradict federal legal status. Drawing upon theories of postnational and deterritorialized citizenship, we examined the legal construction of social rights within federal, provincial, and municipal law in Toronto, Ontario. The study of these different policy arenas focuses on rights related to education, access to safety and police protection, and income assistance. Our analysis suggests that the interplay of intra-governmental laws produces an uneven terrain of social rights for people with precarious status. We argue that while provincial and municipal governments may rhetorically seek to advance the social rights of all people living within their territorial boundaries, program and funding guidelines ensure that national practices of market citizenship and the pol...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the dissonance between Indian secularism in theory and the practice for India's largest religious minority of Muslims and find that despite the failure of state secularism to protect the Muslim minority from discrimination and facilitate their realisation of equal citizenship, these Muslims did not reject the principle of secularism nor seek an alternative.
Abstract: This article examines the dissonance between Indian secularism in theory and secularism in practice for India's largest religious minority of Muslims. Marginalised and discriminated against in everyday life, India's Muslims are frequently constructed simply as victims without recourse to agency. This article challenges this narrative by documenting how Muslims living in Varanasi in North India actively sought to realise their citizenship and a sense of meaningful participation in society. The empirical insights illustrate that despite the failure of state secularism to protect the Muslim minority from discrimination and facilitate their realisation of equal citizenship, these Muslims did not reject the principle of secularism nor seek an alternative. To the contrary, the rhetoric of secularism offered spaces of opportunity through which Muslims could become political, challenge normative narratives and articulate themselves as citizens. The article develops an understanding of multiple and plural Muslim c...
TL;DR: South Korea experienced a rapid educational development after 1948 driven in large part by a broad-based public demand for education, often referred to as "education fever" (kyoyuky l) as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: South Korea experienced a rapid educational development after 1948 driven in large part by a broad-based public demand for education, often referred to as ‘education fever’ (kyoyuky l). The drive for education resulted in South Korea becoming one of the world's most literate societies and was a major contributor to its transformation from an impoverished to a prosperous, highly industrialized nation. South Korea's ‘education fever’ also played a key role in the development of a democratic society based on active citizen involvement in public affairs. The high rates of literacy brought about by this drive for education, the establishment of a universal and uniform school system, and the intensity of the educational experience all contributed to a common sense of community. This educational transformation took place under a series of authoritarian governments that made use of the school system to promote a sense of loyalty and legitimacy to the state while promoting liberal democratic values linked with the...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the writing of Chinese academics on internal migrants in China and argue that contrary to the popular understanding of "post-oriental" as resistance to the West, it is the process of the boundary-transgression between rural and urban, rather than non-Western ideas of citizenship, that opens space for citizenship after orientalism in China.
Abstract: In this article I enquire into the possibility of citizenship ‘after orientalism’ by examining the writing of Chinese academics on internal migrants in China. The popular narratives on migrants represent them as ‘peasant workers in need of becoming urban citizens’. These representations are based on an understanding of citizenship as necessarily urban and modern, which is reminiscent of Weber's theory of citizenship, and is based on mechanisms of ‘internal orientalism’. I argue that contrary to the popular understanding of ‘post-oriental’ as ‘resistance to the West’, it is the process of the boundary-transgression between rural and urban, rather than non-Western ideas of citizenship, that opens space for citizenship ‘after orientalism’ in China. This process of boundary-transgression can be mapped through new practices of naming and narrative-setting in the literature on internal migrants, which emphasise subjective character of group boundaries and appeal for recognition of rural and migrant identities. It is through these instances of boundary-transgression between urban and rural that the orientalism embedded within the notion of citizenship in China is challenged.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the complex citizenship regime in contemporary Bosnia and Herzegovina, its historical origin and social implications, and argue that the Bosnian citizenship regime, established in Dayton in 1995, actually implies existence of a plurality of regimes and conceptions of citizenship in this country.
Abstract: This paper examines the complex citizenship regime in contemporary Bosnia and Herzegovina, its historical origin and social implications. It argues that the Bosnian citizenship regime, established in Dayton in 1995, actually implies existence of a plurality of regimes and conceptions of citizenship in this country, which frames political outcomes and affects the status of human rights. This paper provides an analysis of the legal structure of Bosnian citizenship, its bifurcated nature and corresponding political effects. It also analyses different visions and conceptions of citizenship and examines their relation to country's ethnic politics. In addition, this paper looks at not only Bosnian citizenship through the prism of post-conflict arrangements, but also regional influences and policies that determine citizenship's various dimensions.
TL;DR: The authors discuss the complex figure of the "Hijra", a sexually dissident actor in Indian politics that might offer inroads into thinking through sexual citizenship after orientalism, and suggest that the embodied and confrontational performances of Hijras in public space might offer an affront to such narratives.
Abstract: In this article I discuss the complex figure of the ‘Hijra’, a sexually dissident actor in Indian politics that might offer inroads into thinking through sexual citizenship after orientalism. This article aims to trouble spectacles of vulnerability that often apprehend sexed/gendered bodies in the global south as consummate victims, seen to be perpetually grieving on world stages. I suggest that the embodied and confrontational performances of Hijras in public space might offer an affront to such narratives. I point to examples of sexual politics articulated by Hijras that gesture to a sexual citizenship after, beyond, and outside orientalism. This article questions occidentalist frameworks that undercut contemporary sexual/gendered politics and suggests that there should perhaps be a scholarly prerogative to reframe the concepts of desire.
TL;DR: In this article, Brubaker et al. analyzed the phenomenon of "fractured citizenship" in the Macedonian model of multi-ethnic democracy and concluded that in the future the fractures will either "heal" through a weakening of the ethnic dimension, or progress towards a new form of fragmented citizenship.
Abstract: This article discusses some of the salient features of the post-2001 Macedonian citizenship model, understood not only as a legal formula, but also as a social and cultural fact (Brubaker, R., 1994. Citizenship and nationhood in France and Germany. Cambridge/London: Harvard University Press). By using the analytical lens of two competing conceptions of nationhood and citizenship (political vs. ethno-cultural), the article analyses the phenomenon of ‘fractured citizenship’, as reflected in the apparent tension between an official, elite-driven discourse of the Macedonian model of multi-ethnic democracy on the one hand, and diverging ethno-culturally coded initiatives, ideologies and perceptions, on the other. The article concludes that in the future the fractures will either ‘heal’ through a weakening of the ethnic dimension, or progress towards a new form of fragmented citizenship.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that John Dewey's theory of experience makes two key contributions toward answering this question: first, their situational understanding of experience directs us to concrete conditions of everyday life as the necessary groundwork and starting point for civic engagement; and second, his concept of reflective experience helps us understand how taken for granted assumptions about political and social life can be transformed into more active forms of engagement.
Abstract: Research on youth civic engagement often sees the everyday lives of young people as barriers to civic engagement. Recent qualitative approaches have drawn attention to the civic and political dimensions of young people's everyday lives. This is a crucial insight, but cannot – by itself – answer a key question: just how is it that everyday experience can be transformed into civic engagement? I argue that John Dewey's theory of experience makes two key contributions toward answering this question. First, Dewey's situational understanding of experience directs us to the concrete conditions of everyday life as the necessary groundwork and starting point for civic engagement. Second, his concept of reflective experience helps us understand how taken for granted assumptions about political and social life can be transformed into more active forms of engagement. I illustrate this argument by drawing on selected findings from a qualitative study of young people's experience in Public Achievement, a civic engageme...
TL;DR: In this paper, the potential contribution of Amartya Sen's capabilities approach (CA) for studying citizenship is discussed, where the CA cannot be described as a genuine citizenship theory, but it has informed recent attempts to reformulate social citizenship.
Abstract: This article deals with the potential contribution of Amartya Sen's capabilities approach (CA) for studying citizenship. Although the CA cannot be described as a genuine citizenship theory it has informed recent attempts to reformulate social citizenship. Moreover, it shares important aims and assumptions with radical citizenship approaches, which emphasise democracy, voice, and difference. Especially, Sen's ideas can help formulate positive notions of equality. However, a fruitful dialogue between those perspectives has to lead over some controversial issues. In this context, this article suggests more substantive notions of agency and interaction as well as integrating rights and rights language.