Citizenship, Time and Crisis

Abstract

Citizenship is a specific form of social and political closure, thus defining, in a dialectic relation, the changing “shape” of both political subjects and forms of government/statehood. Looking at citizenship as an institution of political subjectivity and statehood, I would like to raise two questions concerning its relation to (historical) time. How does the dual function of citizenship as a form of social closure and a tool for self emancipation change in times of crisis? What is the relationship between citizenship and moments of historical ruptures, be it wars, revolutions, or times of political transformation? Does citizenship contribute to shaping the temporal dimension of statehood on the one hand and of moments of collective or individual self-emancipation? Citizenship is simultaneously a discursive and a material structure. The hypothesis I want to bring forward is that it shapes our understanding of historical time according to these dimensions.