Reconstructing Citizenship for the Future of Polity

Abstract

Globalization trends have resulted in the proliferation of actors who shape politics worldwide, from national governments to various inter- national political and economic actors, global civil society proponents and alter-globalization movements. The transnational patterns of living pose several challenges to the structural organization of contempo- rary societies deeply embedded in notions of ethnicity and national identity/culture. Some theorists identify the transformation of national states in the context of trans nationalism and denationalization pro- cesses that challenge ideologies of national states. Ong (2006), for example, speaks of ‘mutations of citizenship’ when heterogeneous populations claim diverse rights across transnational communities. Cer- tainly, the transformation of societies globally shakes the ideologies of national states, but it is migration issues, in particular, that remind us of their persistence. The claim that ‘the difference between having and not having citizenship is becoming blurred’ (Ong, 2006, p. 500) is con- testable. Indeed, the contrary seems to be true; it is precisely in current times of denationalization that we are witnessing the strengthening of the difference between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ and increasing forms of social exclusion.