Call for papers: Post-pandemic transformations of citizenship

Organizers: Dr. Leandros Fischer, Assistant Professor of International Studies, Department of Culture and Learning; DEMOS research group.

Confirmed keynote speaker: Professor Dr. Engin Isin, School of Politics and International Relations, Queen Mary University, London; chief editor, Citizenship Studies.

An “institution in flux” (Isin 2009), citizenship has experienced major changes in the last decades. These include not just “acts of citizenship” by, and in solidarity with illegalized migrants, but also the monetization of citizenship in so-called “golden visa” schemes utilized by global elites.

The implicit context for this transformation in the meaning of citizenship – from a strictly legal category to what Michel Foucault once described as a bond of solidarity enabled by common governance – have been processes of growing global economic interdependence, accompanied by the seemingly decreasing relevance of the nation state.

The global Covid19 pandemic, the threat of climate disaster, as well as the war in Ukraine are challenging these premises. The closing of borders during the pandemic, as well as current geopolitical rivalries, are just two of numerous examples of a widely perceived return of the state in a world facing common environmental, biopolitical, and existential dangers.

In this two-day workshop, taking place in Aalborg on the 15th and 16th of June 2023, we would like to discuss the numerous contemporary breaks and continuities in the meaning of citizenship, especially – but not exclusively – under the impact of recent events.

We warmly invite researchers to submit abstracts dealing with one or more of the following aspects:

• Pandemic citizenships/social movements and citizenship in times of the pandemic
• Citizenship and climate change
• The impact of the Russian-Ukrainian war on global citizenship
• Citizenship and migrant solidarity
• Municipal approaches to citizenship in light of Europe’s “refugee crisis”
• Citizenship and the (post-)conflict subject
• “Golden passports”, “golden visas”, and the commodification of citizenship