Decentering Citizenship and Belonging

In a time of perpetual global crises, it is necessary to re-examine the citizenship practices and rights-claims of people at the margins from a global perspective. Current social processes and crisis phenomena pose new challenges for citizenship: for example, new mobilities in the context of climate change, wars and the global rise of authoritarianism raise questions about the legitimacy of rights claims of people on the move and the impact on marginalized subjectivities. In addition, legal citizenship is increasingly being used by states in controlling functions, whether through the revocation of citizenship of racialized populations or by making its award contribution- rather than residence-based. This session will examine the relationship between citizenship and belonging, with a particular focus on current social and political developments, alongside colonial continuities and ruptures, from a global perspective. Considered thus, citizenship is not simply a status that determines political membership and access to rights, but one underpinned by various discursive practices anchored in everyday life. At the same time, these practices are determined by historically constituted inequalities and power relations that shape ideas of belonging and political membership. Exploring marginalized groups’ everyday practices of belonging and resistance and migrants' acts of citizenship can help to interrogate the limitations of traditional conceptions of citizenship. The proposed session will explore these processes, with the aim of Decentering perspectives on citizenship and belonging, moving away from the state to explore alternative modes and practices, and we invite papers that address these issues from global, ontological or practical perspectives.