Act up against citizenship: a plea to citizenship studies

ABSTRACT

In this short essay, Brandzel cautions scholars as to how their scholarship might inadvertently reproduce the violent operations of citizenship. Focusing on over thirty articles from this journal that deploy Engin Isin’s framework of ‘acts of citizenship’ as an example, Brandzel points towards a troubling trend of calling practices, identities, or behaviors as an ‘act of citizenship’ without qualifying why citizenship is the appropriate framework. In the end, Brandzel appeals to citizenship studies scholars to be more selective of their uses of citizenship, and to consider focusing their work on ways to disrupt or ‘act against citizenship’.

KEYWORDS:

• Acts of citizenship
• intersectionality
• coalitional politics
• act up
• against citizenship

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Due to my own ethical practice, I do not bother describing the ways in which various identities or practices are granted different levels of citizenship (as it ‘partial’ or ‘second-class’ citizenship). For my purposes, I consider any identities or practices outside of full access as ‘non-citizens.’

2. The phrase ‘united in anger’ comes from the Jim Hubbard documentary, United in Anger: A History of ACT UP (2012).