PO 497V
Theories of Int& 39 l Relations
Citizenship is commonly understood as a modern liberal institution conferring legal status, rights and duties, and membership in a political community (usually the nation-state). It also involves the practices and subjectivities that constitute the citizen-subject as the quintessential political subject. But citizenship has also been a part and parcel of the more violent aspects of nation-building and state-making processes, involving the exclusion and elimination of various groups of people from the polity. The boundaries of citizenship are challenged when those lacking rights, status, and belonging make demands for greater inclusion. This course examines this contested politics of citizenship through several recent debates within the field of critical citizenship, border and migration studies that include questions such as: Who is, and historically has been, considered the citizen? What are the boundaries of citizenship? Must citizenship be located within the nation-state? What challenges do concepts of cosmopolitan and transnational citizenship pose for understanding citizenship? If the history of expanding the boundaries of citizenship has been made by those groups previously excluded from it, what potential do new social movements (such as youth activism, migrant/refugee rights-based, sexual and other cultural social movements) offer for contesting and expanding the parameters of our understandings about the relationship between belonging, identity and the boundaries of political community? Can they contribute to fostering more equitable, inclusive and just societies? What are the limits of citizenship politics?
Prerequisite: Year 4 Honours Political Science
Citizenship is commonly understood as a modern liberal institution conferring legal status, rights and duties, and membership in a political community (usually the nation-state). It also involves the practices and subjectivities that constitute the citizen-subject as the quintessential political subject. But citizenship has also been a part and parcel of the more violent aspects of nation-building and state-making processes, involving the exclusion and elimination of various groups of people from the polity. The boundaries of citizenship are challenged when those lacking rights, status, and belonging make demands for greater inclusion. This course examines this contested politics of citizenship through several recent debates within the field of critical citizenship, border and migration studies that include questions such as: Who is, and historically has been, considered the citizen? What are the boundaries of citizenship? Must citizenship be located within the nation-state? What challenges do concepts of cosmopolitan and transnational citizenship pose for understanding citizenship? If the history of expanding the boundaries of citizenship has been made by those groups previously excluded from it, what potential do new social movements (such as youth activism, migrant/refugee rights-based, sexual and other cultural social movements) offer for contesting and expanding the parameters of our understandings about the relationship between belonging, identity and the boundaries of political community? Can they contribute to fostering more equitable, inclusive and just societies? What are the limits of citizenship politics?
Prerequisite: Year 4 Honours Political Science
Citizenship is commonly understood as a modern liberal institution conferring legal status, rights and duties, and membership in a political community (usually the nation-state). It also involves the practices and subjectivities that constitute the citizen-subject as the quintessential political subject. But citizenship has also been a part and parcel of the more violent aspects of nation-building and state-making processes, involving the exclusion and elimination of various groups of people from the polity. The boundaries of citizenship are challenged when those lacking rights, status, and belonging make demands for greater inclusion. This course examines this contested politics of citizenship through several recent debates within the field of critical citizenship, border and migration studies that include questions such as: Who is, and historically has been, considered the citizen? What are the boundaries of citizenship? Must citizenship be located within the nation-state? What challenges do concepts of cosmopolitan and transnational citizenship pose for understanding citizenship? If the history of expanding the boundaries of citizenship has been made by those groups previously excluded from it, what potential do new social movements (such as youth activism, migrant/refugee rights-based, sexual and other cultural social movements) offer for contesting and expanding the parameters of our understandings about the relationship between belonging, identity and the boundaries of political community? Can they contribute to fostering more equitable, inclusive and just societies? What are the limits of citizenship politics?
Prerequisite: Year 4 Honours Political Science
