Beyond Citizenship: Feminism and the Transformation of Belonging

The language of citizenship has, in recent years, been mobilized by feminists
to articulate a wide range of claims and demands. The notions of economic,
political, social, cultural, sexual/ bodily, and intimate citizenship, for example,
have all been developed and explored in terms of their normative potential and
their actual realization. In Europe, in particular, there has been a strong steer
from research funders and policy makers towards research agendas which
address the question of citizenship in the context of increasingly diverse and
multicultural societies.

But, can the concept of citizenship encompass the transformations that
feminist politics seek? What are the restrictions and exclusions of
contemporary forms and practices of citizenship? How does the concept of
citizenship deal with power, inequality, and difference? What are the problems
with framing our desires and visions for the future in terms of citizenship in a
globalizing world of migration, mobility, armed conflict, economic crisis and
climate change? Does the concept of citizenship restrict our imaginations and
limit our horizons within nation-state formations? Can it ever really grasp the
complexity of our real and longed-for attachments to communities, networks,
friends and loved ones? Is it able to embrace the politics of embodiment and of
our relationships with the non-human world? How have feminists historically
and cross-culturally imagined and prefigured a world beyond citizenship? Is a
feminist, queer or global citizenship thinkable, or should we find a new
language for new forms of belonging?

We invite proposals for papers that address these questions and the broad
theme of the conference. We particularly welcome papers which explore the
interface between the feminist academy and feminist activism, and which are
interdisciplinary and innovative in method and approach.

Individual paper proposals (max. 200 words) or proposals for panels of three or
four related papers (max. 300 words) should be submitted by 1st December
2009 to: abstracts.beyondcitizenship@bbk.ac.uk

The conference will take place in central London.

A limited number of bursaries will be available.

For further information about the conference, visit:
http://www.bbk.ac.uk/bisr/beyondcitizenship/

Beyond Citizenship: Feminism and the Transformation of Belonging is organised
by FEMCIT, an EU FP6 integrated research project on “Gendered citizenship in
multicultural Europe: the impact of contemporary women’s movements”, in
collaboration with the Birkbeck Institute for Social Research, at Birkbeck,
University of London, Rokkansenteret, at the University of Bergen, and is
sponsored by the Norwegian Research Council.