Skip to main content

Citizenship in flux: The figure of the activist citizen

Subjectivity volume 29, pages 367–388 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Throughout the twentieth century the figure of citizenship that has been dominant since the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries has begun to change. We have witnessed the emergence of new rights including ecological, sexual and indigenous rights as well as blurring of the boundaries between human and civil, political and social rights and the articulation of rights by (and to) cities, regions and across states. We have witnessed the birth of new ‘acts of citizenship’: both organized and spontaneous protests to include situationist and carnivalesque forms. We have also witnessed the emergence of ‘activist’ international courts (and judges), as well as new media and social networking as sites of struggles. How subjects act to become citizens and claim citizenship has thus substantially changed. This article interprets these developments as heralding a new figure of citizenship, and begins the important task of developing a new vocabulary by which it can be understood.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Access options

Buy single article

Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Price includes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

References

  • Aleinikoff, T.A. and Klusmeyer, D.B. (eds.) (2000) From Migrants to Citizens: Membership in a Changing World. Washington DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

    Google Scholar 

  • Archibugi, D. (2008) The Global Commonwealth of Citizens: Toward Cosmopolitan Democracy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Arendt, H. (1951) The Origins of Totalitarianism. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arendt, H. (1958) The Human Condition. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arendt, H. (1969) On violence. Crises of the Republic. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, pp. 105–198.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arendt, H. (2005) Understanding and politics. Essays in Understanding, 1930–1954: Formation, Exile, and Totalitarianism. New York: Schocken Books, pp. 307–327.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bakhtin, M. (1993) Toward a Philosophy of the Act. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Balibar, E. (2004) We, the People of Europe?: Reflections on Transnational Citizenship. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bassel, L. (2008) Citizenship as interpellation: Refugee women and the state. Government & Opposition 43 (2): 293–314.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bauböck, R. (1994) Transnational Citizenship: Membership and Rights in International Migration. Aldershot Brookfield, UK: E. Elgar.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beneduce, R. (2008) Undocumented bodies, burned identities: Refugees, Sans Papiers, Harraga – When things fall apart. Social Science Information 47 (4): 505–527.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Benhabib, S. (2004) The Rights of Others: Aliens, Residents and Citizens. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bennett, J.F. (1995) The Act Itself. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bigo, D. (2002) Security and immigration: Toward a critique of the government of unease. Alternatives, Special Issue: 63–92.

  • Black, A. (1984) Guilds and Civil Society in European Political Thought from the Twelfth Century to the Present. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Body-Gendrot, S. and Martiniello, M. (2000) Minorities in European Cities: The Dynamics of Social Integration and Social Exclusion at the Neighbourhood Level. Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Butler, J. (1988) Performative acts and gender constitution: An essay in phenomenology and feminist theory. Theatre Journal 40 (4): 519–531.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Castles, S. and Davidson, A. (2000) Citizenship and Migration: Globalization and the Politics of Belonging. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crosby, J.F. (1990) Speech act theory and phenomenology. In: A. Burkhardt (ed.) Speech Acts, Meaning, and Intentions: Critical Approaches to the Philosophy of John R. Searle. Berlin, Germany: W. de Gruyter, pp. 62–88.

    Google Scholar 

  • DuBois, J.M. (1995) Judgement and Sachverhalt: An Introduction to Adolf Reinach's Phenomenological Realism. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Dubois, L. (2000) La République Métissée: Citizenship, colonialism, and the borders of French history. Cultural Studies 14 (1): 15–34.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fahrmeir, A. (2007) Citizenship: The Rise and Fall of a Modern Concept. New Haven, CO: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Falk, R. (2000) The decline of citizenship in an era of globalization. Citizenship Studies 4 (1): 5–17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ferrera, M. (2003) European integration and national social citizenship changing boundaries, new structuring? Comparative Political Studies 36 (6): 611–652.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Flores, W.V. and Benmayor, R. (1997) Latino Cultural Citizenship: Claiming Identity, Space, and Rights. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freeden, M. (2005) What should the ‘Political’ in political theory explore? Journal of Political Philosophy 13 (2): 113–134.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frug, G.E. (1980) The city as a legal concept. Harvard Law Review 93 (6): 1057–1154.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • García Canclini, N. (2001) Consumers and Citizens: Globalization and Multicultural Conflicts. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gardner, J.F. (1993) Being a Roman Citizen. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hansen, R. and Weil, P. (2000) Towards a European Nationality: Citizenship, Immigration and Nationality Law in the EU. Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heater, D.B. (1990) Citizenship: The Civic Ideal in World History, Politics, and Education. London: Longman Group.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hutchings, K. and Dannreuther, R. (eds.) (1999) Cosmopolitan Citizenship. New York: St. Martin's Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Huysmans, J. (2006) The Politics of Insecurity: Fear, Migration, and Asylum in the EU. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huysmans, J., Dobson, A. and Prokhovnik, R. (eds.) (2006) The Politics of Protection: Sites of Insecurity and Political Agency. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Isin, E.F. (2002a) Being Political: Genealogies of Citizenship. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Isin, E.F. (2002b) Citizenship after orientalism. In: E.F. Isin and B.S. Turner (eds.) Handbook of Citizenship Studies. London: Sage, pp. 117–128.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Isin, E.F. (2005) Engaging, being, political. Political Geography 24: 373–387.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Isin, E.F. (2007) City.State: Critique of scalar thought. Citizenship Studies 11 (2): 211–228.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Isin, E.F. (2008) Theorizing acts of citizenship. In: E.F. Isin and G.M. Nielsen (eds.) Acts of Citizenship. London: Zed Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Isin, E.F. and Rygiel, K. (2007) Abject spaces: Frontiers, zones, camps. In: E. Dauphinee and C. Masters (eds.) Logics of Biopower and the War on Terror. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave, pp. 181–203.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Isin, E.F. and Siemiatycki, M. (2002) Making space for mosques: Claiming urban citizenship. In: S. Razack (ed.) Race, Space and the Law: The Making of a White Settler Society. Toronto, Canada: Between the Lines, pp. 185–209.

    Google Scholar 

  • Isin, E.F. and Turner, B.S. (eds.) (2002) Handbook of Citizenship Studies. London: SAGE.

    Google Scholar 

  • Isin, E.F. and Wood, P.K. (1999) Citizenship and Identity. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jacobson, D. (1996) Rights Across Borders: Immigration and the Decline of Citizenship. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Linklater, A. (1998) Cosmopolitan citizenship. Citizenship Studies 2 (1): 23–41.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mann, M. (1987) Ruling class strategies and citizenship. Sociology 21 (3): 339–354.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Manville, P.B. (1990) The Origins of Citizenship in Ancient Athens. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marshall, T.H. (1949) Citizenship and social class. In: G. Shafir (ed.) The Citizenship Debates: A Reader. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 93–111.

    Google Scholar 

  • McNevin, A. (2006) Political belonging in a neoliberal era: The struggle of the San-Papiers. Citizenship Studies 10 (2): 135–151.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nietzsche, F. (1881) Daybreak: Thoughts on the Prejudices of Morality, Translated by R.J. Hollingdale. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nyers, P. (2003) Abject cosmopolitanism: The politics of protection in the anti-deportation movement. Third World Quarterly 24 (6): 1069–1093.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • OECD. (2009) International migration outlook 2009, Paris, http://www.oecd.org/els/migration/imo, accessed 6 July 2009.

  • Ossman, S. (2007) Introduction. In: S. Ossman (ed.) Places We Share: Migration, Subjectivity, and Global Mobility. Lanham, MD: Lexington, pp. 1–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parsons, T. and Shils, E.A. (eds.) (1959) Toward a General Theory of Action. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Penninx, R. (2004) Citizenship in European Cities: Immigrants, Local Politics and Integration Policies. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Poggi, G. (1978) The Development of the Modern State: A Sociological Introduction. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Poggi, G. (1990) The State: Its Nature, Development, and Prospects. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rancière, J. (2004) Who is the subject of the rights of man? The South Atlantic Quarterly 103 (2/3): 297–310.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reinach, A. (1983) The apriori foundations of civil law. Aletheia 3: 1–142.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reynolds, S. (1997) Kingdoms and Communities in Western Europe, 900–1300, 2nd edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rodríguez, E.G. (2003) ‘We need your support, but the struggle is primarily ours’: On representation, migration and the Sans Papiers movement. Feminist Review 77: 152–156.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sartre, J.-P. (1957) Being and Nothingness: An Essay on Phenomenological Ontology, Translated by H.E. Barnes. London: Methuen.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sassen, S. (1996) Whose city is it? Globalization and the formation of new claims. Public Culture 8: 205–223.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schattle, H. (2008) The Practices of Global Citizenship. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scholtz, C.S. (2006) Negotiating Claims: The Emergence of Indigenous Land Claim Negotiation Policies in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States. New York; London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schuck, P.H. (1998) Citizens, Strangers, and in-Betweens: Essays on Immigration and Citizenship. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Searle, J.R. (1969) Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Sherwin-White, A.N. (1973) The Roman Citizenship, 2nd edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, B. (1990) Towards a history of speech act theory. In: A. Burkhardt (ed.) Speech Acts, Meaning, and Intentions: Critical Approaches to the Philosophy of John R. Searle. Berlin, Germany: W. de Gruyter, pp. 29–61.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, R.M. (1997) Civic Ideals: Conflicting Visions of Citizenship in US History. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Soysal, Y. (1994) Limits of Citizenship: Migrants and Postnational Membership in Europe. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Soysal, Y. (1997) Changing parameters of citizenship and claims-making: Organized Islam in European public spheres. Theory and Society 26 (4): 509–521.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stout, R. (2005) Action. Montreal, Canada and Kingston, UK: McGill-Queen's University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strayer, J.R. (1970) On the Medieval Origins of the Modern State. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Torpey, J.C. (2000) The Invention of the Passport: Surveillance, Citizenship, and the State. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tully, J. (2002) Political philosophy as a critical activity. Political Theory 30 (4): 533–555.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turner, B.S. (1990) Outline of a theory of citizenship. Sociology 24 (2): 189–217.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turner, B.S. (1993) Contemporary problems in the theory of citizenship. In: B.S. Turner (ed.) Citizenship and Social Theory. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ware, R. (1973) Acts and action. The Journal of Philosophy 70 (13): 403–418.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weber, M. (1921a) Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology, Translated by G. Roth and C. Wittich. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1978.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weber, M. (1921b) The City. New York: Free Press, 1958.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yegenoglu, M. (2005) Cosmopolitanism and nationalism in a globalized world. Ethnic and Racial Studies 28 (1): 103–131.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Young, I.M. (1989) Polity and group difference: A critique of the ideal of universal citizenship. Ethics 99 (January): 250–274.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Young, I.M. (1990) Justice and the Politics of Difference. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Žižek, S. (2005) Against human rights. New Left Review 34 (July – August): 115–131.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

I thank the audiences at Central European University, Loughborough University, Durham University, Leeds University and Oxford University who provided challenging responses to earlier drafts of this article. The two anonymous reviewers provided insightful and helpful comments. I also thank Rutvica Andrijasevic who was a superb editor and, beyond discovering an early version of this article languishing in my hard disk, she provided a perceptive reading and precise comments. I am also grateful to Bridget Anderson for her close reading of an earlier draft and very useful comments. I am most grateful to Vicki Squire who provided insightful and incisive criticisms of a late draft. Responding to her comments made it undoubtedly a much stronger article.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Politics and International Studies (POLIS), The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK

    Engin F Isin

Authors
  1. Engin F Isin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Isin, E. Citizenship in flux: The figure of the activist citizen. Subjectivity 29, 367–388 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1057/sub.2009.25

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/sub.2009.25

Keywords

  • activist citizenship
  • sites
  • scales
  • rights