Development Vol. 63.1 - Identities and Citizenship

This journal issue on ‘Identities and Citizenship, takes a critical look at the complex terrain that surrounds both identity and citizenship. It highlights the profound transformations that are unfolding in various countries around the world and their impact on governance and decision-making.

It is clear that the re-emergence of a more vehement brand of identity politics is bringing a new urgency to politics and political participation. In seeking to bring to the fore stories of the changes and how they are impacting and influencing political participation, this journal issue seeks to challenge its readers to reflect on the necessity of building just and fair societies. In examining the drivers that are fueling the outrage against ‘others’ it aims to shine a spotlight on the failures to tackle runaway inequalities and how this has contributed to disinterring old ghosts and giving them a new lease of life.

As several authors in this journal issue make explicit, the stakes have never been higher on issues around identity and citizenship. The quest for ‘pure nations’ as well as splitting legal hairs to define legal belonging in ways that displaces and renders millions homeless and stateless is advancing rapidly. Whilst for many, these might be events that are perhaps too distant and remote from our own realities and therefore not worthy of our attention, emergent trends suggest that we cannot be too sure betting that the same fate might not befall us—after all, the temptations to rewrite citizenship/residency laws are apparently more widespread than we might want to admit.

The contrbutions in this journal issue highlight how the concepts of identity and citizenship are being challenged and reshaped, for better or for worse in different parts of the world. Whilst the pendulum might be swinging more to the side of ‘worse’, they (authors) are also very clear in challenging us readers to think through the consequences of the situations that they have described, they also remind us that failing to act or being complacent is only emboldening those who would undermine the notions of community, of shared belonging and seek to create monolithic spaces (unrealistic in our view).

Table of Contents

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Editorial: Who Belongs?

Arthur Muliro

Upfront

Closing the Gap Between Legal and Social Citizenship for Roma People

Cristiana Grigore

Unwanted Identities: The ‘Religion Line’ and Global Islamophobia

Farid Hafez

Thematic Section

Climate Migration and Loss: Exploring the Conceptual Borders of Citizenship, Sovereign Authority, and the Deterritorialized State

Nicole Marshall

Indigenous Peoples Re-Membering Their Futures in Extraordinary Times

Carol Kalafatic

Deconstructing Transgender Identities in Pakistan, India, and Iran in Colonial and Post-colonial Context

Mahso Gichki

Enforcing Law and Norms for Good Citizens: One View of China’s Social Credit System Project

Xin Dai

Dialogue Section