Citizenship and Civic Life in the 21^st Century

Globalization and Citizenship

Reading: Schattle, Hans. 2012. “A Dual Dynamic between Globalization and Citizenship.” Globalization & Citizenship. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield (C) (read first section through bottom p. 5; then p. 10 Section on Allegiance, etc., through end of chpt.)

Alba, Richard D. 1995. Review of “Limits of Citizenship: Migrants and Postnational Membership in Europe and Ausländer--Aussiedler--Asyl: Eine Bestandsaufnahme” (Books). Contemporary Sociology 24(4): 326-329. (C) (recommended)

Globalization and Citizenship: A Dual Dynamic

How so?

What is the relationship between these two concepts?

What processes does globalization entail

and

How, according to Schattle, does this affect the practice of citizenship, political life?

Globalization defined

“A series of processes in which the world becomes more intensely and extensively interdependent and interconnected and at faster and faster rates over time” (bottom p. 12)

David Held changes in “‘extensity, intensity, velocity and impact” of the “transformation in the spatial organization of social relations and transactions’ flowing across international borders but also affecting matters within nation-states.” (top p. 13)

A complex of processes

Affecting the cultural, economic, sociological, economic, political organization of human beings

Facilitated by technological change

The Internet, cellular phones

and social media are most commonly cited

BUT ALSO

Transportation, transport infrastructure, mass media (tv, film, radio, newspapers, magazines)

That link the members of global diasporas

Creating global “communities”

Think about word “community”

How it has multiple meanings

My community

The “immigrant community”

The LGBTQ “community”

The “international community”

Globalization, i.e., the processes associated with it, makes, makes many of these meanings of the word “community” possible

Globalization is a short-hand for the world “getting” or feeling smaller

Because it is more easily, densely, and intensely connected

Which brings us back to citizenship

Citizenship is normally construed as a STATIC concept

A condition

A set of legally binding rights and duties

*But we have started to think otherwise

To see citizenship as a dynamic relationship

Growing out of specific historical and geographical conditions and patterns

i.e. SPATIO-TEMPORAL relations

“a series of habits, dispositions, and practices in which the individuals situation themselves in all kinds of communities and immerse themselves in public initiatives, as well as public debate and often public controversy and struggle” (14)

Barber

“a dynamic relationship among strangers who are transformed into neighbors, whose commonality derives from expanding consciousness rather than geographical proximity” (14)

Hence, “cosmopolitanism” suggests the “global citizen”

Civic republicans, Hannah Arendt, communitarians would BALK at the idea of “global citizens”

Why?
Because for them, citizenship is an OFFICE

Rooted in self governance, conducted face-to-face in a COMMUNITY of one’s actual, physical neighbors

It is TERRITIORIALLY bounded

And exclusive

Like the STATE or POLIS

It has clearly defined limits

How is globalization challenging this exclusive notion of citizenship?

On all three “definitional frames” he lays out, i.e.,

1. Rights and duties (our liberal model of citizenship)

2. Democratic empowerment and participation

3. Sentiments of allegiance, belonging, loyalty and identity (6)

Rights and duties

Rights granted to whom?

Human rights revolution makes most liberal democracies want to extend many rights

Esp. civil and social but sometimes also political to non-citizens – i.e., long term residents,

Resident aliens, landed immigrants, migrants, refugees, etc., etc.

Duties to whom?

Today the “cosmopolitan”

Many concerned with social justice, ameliorating poverty are concerned about people everywhere, the most afflicted

Global village

Democratic empowerment, participation

photo: http://foreignpolicyblogs.com/author/kimberlycurtis/

**Global Civil Society

Citizen activists

NGOs

Transnational advocacy networks

Examples?

Nobel prize winning campaign to ban land mines

Doctors Without Borders

Journalists Without Borders

Engineers Without Borders

Chinese literature scholar and political dissident Liu Xiaobo

Julian Assange, WikiLeaks

Allegiance, belonging

Complicated by

**Movement of people

Migration

150 mln in 2000

214 mln in 2010

equal to the world’s 5^th largest country

nearly half are women

about 23% of workforce in Switzerland

40% of workforce in Gulf oil states

>80% in UAE

Circular migration

Move back and forth between home and host societies, numerous times

Maintain connection, community at home

Remittances - $400 bln yr!

“Privileged homeless”

children of business executives, diplomats, missionaries working abroad who grew up “global nomads” (12)

The DUAL Dynamic

“Globalization is opening up new forms of political activity and civic engagement, often tied to networks rather than territory, thereby challenging, if not uncoupling, the ties of citizenship that bind individuals together with nation-states. However, even as public recognition of global interdependence continues to expand, the institution of national citizenship is now tightening and national identities are hardening in many countries.”

“Many governments are cracking down on immigration and ethnic and cultural minority groups as a way of trying to reassure anxious and seemingly insecure publics that they retain some level of territorial control as globalization otherwise continues apace. Globalization continues to open up new opportunities for citizens to move across borders and get involved in political and social causes – for new voices to be heard in public debate, and for more established voices to resonate more widely. National citizenship, meanwhile, is becoming an increasingly powerful lever for governments seeking to control the destinies of the countries and assert authority and advance their perceived interests alongside globalization. These two key points – illustrating a dual dynamic, with more opportunities for citizens on the one hand, but more restrictions on the other – serve as the main propositions for inquiry and analysis in this book” (5).

Gauges of the “hardening of national identity” and nationalist reactions

US: The Tea Party

esp. its opposition to “birthright citizenship” and immigration

Anti-immigrant parties and politics throughout Europe

British Nationalist Party (UK), Front National (France), Pim Fortuyn (Netherlands), The Swedish Democrats, New Dawn (Greece)

France removing the ‘automaticity’ of its jus soli, making children of non-citizens born and raised in France declare their intention to take French citizenship between the ages of 16 and 18