Imagining and Practising Citizenship in Austere Times
A central issue in the reform of welfare systems concerns the citizenship relationship. Citizenship is critical in three ways: • It has been the focus of political struggles to redraw the boundaries of citizenship: who counts as a citizen? • It has been the focus of reforms seeking to redraw the ba...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Social Work & Society
2019-04-01
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| Series: | Social Work and Society |
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| Online Access: | https://ejournals.bib.uni-wuppertal.de/index.php/sws/article/view/567 |
| Summary: | A central issue in the reform of welfare systems concerns the citizenship relationship. Citizenship is critical in three ways:
• It has been the focus of political struggles to redraw the boundaries of citizenship: who counts as a citizen?
• It has been the focus of reforms seeking to redraw the balance of ‘rights and responsibilities’ between the state and the citizen, making citizenship more conditional; and
• It remains the focus of desires and demands for support and solidarity.
Drawing on recent collaborative research with advice agencies (Citizens Advice in the UK), I explore how citizenship is imagined and practiced in different settings – from the policing of nationality to state welfare – contrasting the growing conditionality and exclusiveness of state-centric definitions with alternative imaginaries that celebrate expansive and horizontal forms of identification.
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| ISSN: | 1613-8953 |