Citizenship After Orientalism ― Transforming Political Theory

The word 'citizen' evokes a particular legacy that is inexorably associated with 'European' values that define especially Euro-American states, such as secularism, democracy, law, and rights. However, since 1945, these very values have been increasingly placed under question from various perspectives, so much so that to call them solely European values is to encounter skepticism. This edited volume takes as its subject the vexed relationship between citizenship and orientalism, each author contemplating ways of re-articulating or re-imagining this relationship. It explores the ways in which we may begin to think differently about citizenship as political subjectivity by presenting the research outcomes of studies conducted at the Open University as part of the Citizenship after Orientalism (Oecumene) project (2010-2014). Collectively, these chapters constitute a critique of citizenship as exclusively and even originally a European institution.

Professor Engin Isin holds a Chair in Citizenship and is Professor of Politics in the Department of Politics and International Studies at The Open University. He is also a past director (2007-2009) of the Centre for Citizenship, Identities and Governance.