Introduction to the special issue on transnational lived citizenship
Published online on March 02, 2016
Abstract
Thinking about citizenship in the context of transnational flows and global actors gives us opportunities to consider new possibilities for politics and human agency in the contemporary era. By joining the interdisciplinary discussions that adopt these approaches, in this special issue on ‘transnational lived citizenship’ we set out to challenge fixed notions of citizenship and to call for its respatialization and repoliticization. Specifically, we stress the importance of the non‐state based material and locatable situated practices, memories and imaginings of particular actors. Importantly, we do not limit the forms of political agency associated with citizenship to individuals, or to the positions, practices and acts related to polity memberships. Rather, we identify how the actors collectively construct and act out citizenship in various socio‐spatial contexts. Moreover, the authors of the individual articles propose new ways of understanding how people, as political subjects, are positioned differently in their communities and societies and how they pursue new political stances and actions in their transnationalizing worlds. Centring ‘the geographical’ as the basis of enquiry, the issue as a whole seeks to provide spatial–theoretical contributions to the interdisciplinary debates on relational and contested citizenship.