Performing Citizenship ─ Social Movements across the Globe

In this book, Tamar Groves and Inbal Ofer explore the effects of social movements' activism on the changing practices and conceptions of citizenship. Presenting empirically rich case studies from the Middle East, Latin America, Asia and Europe, leading experts analyze the ways in which the shifting balance of power between nation-state, economy and civil society over the past half century affected social movements in their choice of addressees and repertoires of action. Divided into two parts, the first part focuses on citizenship as a form of political and cultural participation. The four case studies that make up this section look into the ways in which social movements' activism prompted a critical re-evaluation of two central questions: Who can be considered a citizen? And what forms of political and cultural participation effectively enable citizens to exercise their rights? The second section focuses on citizenship as a form of community building. The four case studies in this section address the ways in which activism fosters new forms of advocacy and communication, leading to the emergence of new communities, assigning qualities of fraternity to the status of citizenship.

Throughout most of the 20th century social movements' literature focused on the challenges these entities posed to the state, since it was the state that had the capacity and willingness to grant social and economic concessions. This situation started to shift in the late 1960s. By the 1980s the existing configuration between the state, civil society and the economy was increasingly challenged by market penetration. Accordingly, we witness a proliferation of social movements that no longer target state institutions, or do so only partially. Their repertoires of action interact continuously with everyday practices, re-shaping demands within specific organizational, legislative and political contexts. As a result, such activism expands the understanding of the concept of citizenship so as to include demands relating to livelihood; division of resources; the production and dissemination of knowledge; and forms of civic participation and solidarity.

Written for scholars who study social movements, citizenship and the relationship between the state and civil society over the past half century, this book provides a fresh insight on the true nature of citizenship; increasingly framing the condition of being a citizen in terms of performance and on-going practices, rather than simply in relation to the attainment of a formal status.

Tamar Groves obtained her Ph.D. degree from Tel Aviv University and the UNED, Madrid (awarded with a prize). She is currently a researcher and lecturer at the Institute of Science and Technology Studies, Salamanca University. She specializes in the history of educational innovation, social and political mobilization and scientific culture. The book based on her Ph.D. dissertation, titled:Teachers and the Struggle for Democracy in Spain has been recently published by Palgrave Macmillan. She has also published in journals such asPaedagogica Historica. International Journal of the History of Educaction, Journal of Social History,European Historical Quarterly and War and Society.

Inbal Ofer is a Senior Lecturer in Modern European History at the Open University of Israel. She specializes in 20^th Century Spanish history. Her work focuses on issues of migration and urban history, gender and political mobilization. Her publications include: Senoritas in Blue: The Making of a Female Political Elite in Franco's Spain. The National Leadership of the Seccion Femenina de la Falange (1936-1977) (Sussex Academic Press 2009). She has also published in leading journals such as the European Historical Quarterly, Journal of Urban History, Journal of Social History andHistoria y Politica.