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Journal article 1151 views

Politics through a web: citizenship and community unbound

Angharad Closs Stephens Orcid Logo, Vicki Squire

Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, Volume: 30, Issue: 3, Pages: 551 - 567

Swansea University Author: Angharad Closs Stephens Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1068/d8511

Abstract

What happens to citizenship when the nation and the state are no longer assumed to be the inevitable starting points from which politics is defined? This paper considers how a refusal of the nation as political community and a questioning of the state as guarantor of rights and responsibilities reco...

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Published in: Environment and Planning D: Society and Space
Published: 2012
Online Access: http://epd.sagepub.com/content/30/3/551.abstract
URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa28133
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spelling 2016-06-30T09:48:48.0136600 v2 28133 2016-05-20 Politics through a web: citizenship and community unbound b949e66c7338fbd3f328eaf5b3f944a1 0000-0002-7765-7276 Angharad Closs Stephens Angharad Closs Stephens true false 2016-05-20 SGE What happens to citizenship when the nation and the state are no longer assumed to be the inevitable starting points from which politics is defined? This paper considers how a refusal of the nation as political community and a questioning of the state as guarantor of rights and responsibilities reconfigure our understandings of citizenship. We do this by taking as a metaphor and analytical entry point an art installation developed by artist Tomás Saraceno titled 14 Billions (Working Title). Forming an exaggerated version of a black widow spider's web, this installation offers us a way of engaging politics in relational terms. Inspired by this installation, we ask: how are the categories of citizenship and community troubled or reconfigured when we address sociality and politics from a relational perspective? In which ways does 14 Billions prompt us to address questions of spatiality, power, coexistence, and contestation differently from those accounts of citizenship that remain wedded to the state as a contained geographical unit and to the nation as an imaginary of political community? And finally, how might this web installation suggest an intervention into the broader problematic of ‘citizenship without community’ that forms the focus of this theme issue? We address these questions by way of an engagement with the ‘lines’, ‘gaps’, and ‘tension points’ presented by 14 Billions and argue that an understanding of citizenship as based upon membership appears inadequate when we address politics through a web. In so doing, we contend that the provocation of citizenship without community presents a challenge that does not simply demand a shift from the nation to the state or the reaffirmation of a rights-bearing subject; rather, this provocation leads us to argue that politics involves more than a search for inclusion and recognition, whilst the web installation offers us a way in to thinking about politics through heterogeneous sites and moments of encounter. Journal Article Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 30 3 551 567 31 12 2012 2012-12-31 10.1068/d8511 http://epd.sagepub.com/content/30/3/551.abstract COLLEGE NANME Geography COLLEGE CODE SGE Swansea University 2016-06-30T09:48:48.0136600 2016-05-20T11:57:10.0701543 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Geography Angharad Closs Stephens 0000-0002-7765-7276 1 Vicki Squire 2
title Politics through a web: citizenship and community unbound
spellingShingle Politics through a web: citizenship and community unbound
Angharad Closs Stephens
title_short Politics through a web: citizenship and community unbound
title_full Politics through a web: citizenship and community unbound
title_fullStr Politics through a web: citizenship and community unbound
title_full_unstemmed Politics through a web: citizenship and community unbound
title_sort Politics through a web: citizenship and community unbound
author_id_str_mv b949e66c7338fbd3f328eaf5b3f944a1
author_id_fullname_str_mv b949e66c7338fbd3f328eaf5b3f944a1_***_Angharad Closs Stephens
author Angharad Closs Stephens
author2 Angharad Closs Stephens
Vicki Squire
format Journal article
container_title Environment and Planning D: Society and Space
container_volume 30
container_issue 3
container_start_page 551
publishDate 2012
institution Swansea University
doi_str_mv 10.1068/d8511
college_str Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchytype
hierarchy_top_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
department_str School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Geography{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Geography
url http://epd.sagepub.com/content/30/3/551.abstract
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description What happens to citizenship when the nation and the state are no longer assumed to be the inevitable starting points from which politics is defined? This paper considers how a refusal of the nation as political community and a questioning of the state as guarantor of rights and responsibilities reconfigure our understandings of citizenship. We do this by taking as a metaphor and analytical entry point an art installation developed by artist Tomás Saraceno titled 14 Billions (Working Title). Forming an exaggerated version of a black widow spider's web, this installation offers us a way of engaging politics in relational terms. Inspired by this installation, we ask: how are the categories of citizenship and community troubled or reconfigured when we address sociality and politics from a relational perspective? In which ways does 14 Billions prompt us to address questions of spatiality, power, coexistence, and contestation differently from those accounts of citizenship that remain wedded to the state as a contained geographical unit and to the nation as an imaginary of political community? And finally, how might this web installation suggest an intervention into the broader problematic of ‘citizenship without community’ that forms the focus of this theme issue? We address these questions by way of an engagement with the ‘lines’, ‘gaps’, and ‘tension points’ presented by 14 Billions and argue that an understanding of citizenship as based upon membership appears inadequate when we address politics through a web. In so doing, we contend that the provocation of citizenship without community presents a challenge that does not simply demand a shift from the nation to the state or the reaffirmation of a rights-bearing subject; rather, this provocation leads us to argue that politics involves more than a search for inclusion and recognition, whilst the web installation offers us a way in to thinking about politics through heterogeneous sites and moments of encounter.
published_date 2012-12-31T03:34:13Z
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score 11.037581

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