Practices of Citizenship and the Politics of Insecurity

With Xavier Guillaume from the University of Geneva Jef Huysmans organised a workshop Practices of Citizenship and the Politics of (In)security for the Joint Sessions of Workshops of the ECPR, Lisbon 14-19 April 2009 (the workshop report is attached below).

The workshop was the start of a research line in the Research Programme Securities, that will be developed in cooperation with Xavier Guillaume. Its main aim is to examine political constructions of interstices between citizenship and security and the theoretical as well as political stakes that are involved. In doing so, it seeks to address important contemporary empirical, theoretical and normative issues that emerge at the nexus between security and citizenship in areas such as immigration, cultural and ethnic minority rights, civil rights and liberties, terrorism and counter-terrorism, and global mobility.

Citizenship and security are not only two words that are pervading contemporary discussions around the globe but two central concepts in political science. More particularly, central fields within political theory and international relations have made each of these concepts the heart of their reflections. In that regard, it is interesting to note that both citizenship studies and security studies are actually constantly touching upon one another’s concepts as both have come to bear on the other in their analysis of the political and of contemporary political processes. Yet, while touching upon one another, they often fail to question and engage the other’s central concept – i.e. “security” or “citizenship”. As a result, the interplays between citizenship and the politics of (in)security, which have become an extremely central question in contemporary politics, are not well understood.

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ECPR Joint Session 2009 Directors Report.pdf	65.45 KB