Facing up to complexity again: author’s reply to critics

ABSTRACT

This author’s reply responds to the commentary of Shuk Ying Chan, Stephanie Collins, Anna Stilz, and Ashwini Vasanthakumar on my 2021 book, Citizenship in a Globalised World. The response is structured around two broad themes: first, the choice to focus on the state and state-based citizenship in an argument that seeks a more just world order, and second, the attribution of moral responsibility to citizens – the question of to whom and how we attribute responsibility, both individual and collective. The reply also draws attention to the role of method and the starting points of this method in shaping the arguments of the book and how they should be received. In particular, I re-emphasize that Citizenship in a Globalised World argues for a re-orientation of how we think about state-based citizenship and its responsibilities. While the right action in complex spaces may not always be searingly clear, this collective, state-based but globally oriented conception of citizenship offers valuable theoretical resources to guide our navigation.

KEYWORDS:

• Citizenship
• collective responsibility
• global justice
• author’s reply

Acknowledgments

I am very grateful to Stephanie Collins for her diligence and insight in editing this review symposium, and to Shuk Ying Chang, Anna Stilz, and Ashwini Vashanthakumar for their generous and rigorous engagement with Citizenship in a Globalised World. Thanks are also owed to the two anonymous peer reviewers of the symposium for their comments. This symposium was developed through an online roundtable discussion in September 2021: thanks to the audience for their contributions and to Wits School of Governance for hosting.

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Christine Hobden

Christine Hobden is a senior lecturer in ethics and public governance at Wits School of Governance, University of Witwatersrand. Her research focuses on the intersections between democratic citizenship and international justice. She is the author of Citizenship in a Globalised World (Routledge, 2021), and publications on the brain drain, duties between states, citizen participation in unequal societies, and South African citizenship law.