Judith Vega

The agendas of cultural citizenship: a political-theoretical exercise

Cultural citizenship has been receiving quite some attention for over a decade now. The concept has appeared in fields like migration studies, media studies, arts education, museology, cultural policy, and at times in general cultural studies and sociology. One might even be tempted to speak of a new ‘cult on cit’, if one allows such American shorthand, but we will not be flippant. We think that the concept has elicited interesting debates, and has pertinent contributions to offer to the theory and practice of citizenship. This special issue will place the concept specifically within a politicalphilosophical context, which allows us to probe into a range of analytical as well as normative issues that the concept raises. The articles collected here elucidate how the concept fares in different political-philosophical milieus, among which the liberal, Marxist, Arendtian and (otherwise) republican ones. In this introduction, we reconstruct a brief history of the intellectual discussions that led up to the current, explicit concept. We will identify several pertinent questions and tensions in the debates. We will furthermore argue our own angle, pleading a politicaltheoretical approach beyond the, according to us, too narrow conceptualisation of cultural citizenship that ensued from its elaboration in a liberal theoretical framework. We finally explain how such an angle is illustrated by the various contributions to this special issue. To talk about cultural citizenship means to articulate some kind of link between culture and citizenship. The concept thus broaches a very general problematic, as it is not too difficult to bring several such links to mind. But it also broaches a very specific problematic. It brings citizenship into a new area of concerns, compared to its classic conceptualisations – it infers that citizenship has other than merely political connotations. Such an extended meaning constitutes a challenge for political philosophy. How do we deal with an originally typical political concept as citizenship suddenly going cultural? It is not self-evident that this would be an easy endeavour. Brian Turner (2001, p. 12) was aware of this challenge when he wrote: ‘The absence of a robust tradition of political theory on culture and citizenship is problematic.’ The articles in this issue, however, beg to differ. They evidence the ways in which various political theories and philosophies have reflected on some conception of cultural citizenship, if not the concept, and explore a number of angles – both historical and contemporary ones. What do the many conceivable links between culture and citizenship look like? From what debates and practices did the concept of cultural citizenship result? Let us survey the sundry options, as ‘cultural citizens’ actually appear in many guises. They may be citizens

Feminist republicanism. Etta palm-aelders on justice, virtue and men☆

(1989). Feminist republicanism. Etta palm-aelders on justice, virtue and men. History of European Ideas: Vol. 10, No. 3, pp. 333-351.

A neorepublican cultural citizenship: beyond Marxism and liberalism

The idea of cultural citizenship is often associated with a present-day context of multiculturalism, and seen as a novel issue for political philosophy. Within political philosophy it has been mainly conceptualised within a liberal tradition focusing on (cultural) rights. The concept also features in cultural studies, to articulate the importance of artistic and media practices to citizenship. This article aims to orient the debate to wider theoretical concerns, and to a long-standing political-philosophical interest in the relation of politics and culture. It proposes a ‘broad view’ of cultural citizenship, which moreover locates cultural citizenship in concerns about the public sphere. It revisits historical philosophical positions on the relation of politics and culture, viz those of Karl Marx and John Stuart Mill. The distinct conceptual models ensuing from their work both expound ‘broad views’, which take the relation between politics and culture to impact on all citizens. The article subsequently discusses a recent Dutch policy report on cultural citizenship, which shows that these models still have topical relevance. Next, a fourfold grid is elaborated of weak and strong, positive and negative views on how citizenship is to be related to issues of culture. The article concludes by arguing for a neorepublican approach of cultural citizenship that adopts a ‘weak positive’ view and may repair the conceptual drawbacks of both the liberal and Marxist views.

The agendas of cultural citizenship: a political-theoretical exercise: INTRODUCTION

Cultural citizenship has been receiving quite some attention for over a decade now. The concept has appeared in fields like migration studies, media studies, arts education, museology, cultural policy, and at times in general cultural studies and sociology. One might even be tempted to speak of a new ‘cult on cit’, if one allows such American shorthand, but we will not be flippant. We think that the concept has elicited interesting debates, and has pertinent contributions to offer to the theory and practice of citizenship. This special issue will place the concept specifically within a politicalphilosophical context, which allows us to probe into a range of analytical as well as normative issues that the concept raises. The articles collected here elucidate how the concept fares in different political-philosophical milieus, among which the liberal, Marxist, Arendtian and (otherwise) republican ones. In this introduction, we reconstruct a brief history of the intellectual discussions that led up to the current, explicit concept. We will identify several pertinent questions and tensions in the debates. We will furthermore argue our own angle, pleading a politicaltheoretical approach beyond the, according to us, too narrow conceptualisation of cultural citizenship that ensued from its elaboration in a liberal theoretical framework. We finally explain how such an angle is illustrated by the various contributions to this special issue. To talk about cultural citizenship means to articulate some kind of link between culture and citizenship. The concept thus broaches a very general problematic, as it is not too difficult to bring several such links to mind. But it also broaches a very specific problematic. It brings citizenship into a new area of concerns, compared to its classic conceptualisations – it infers that citizenship has other than merely political connotations. Such an extended meaning constitutes a challenge for political philosophy. How do we deal with an originally typical political concept as citizenship suddenly going cultural? It is not self-evident that this would be an easy endeavour. Brian Turner (2001, p. 12) was aware of this challenge when he wrote: ‘The absence of a robust tradition of political theory on culture and citizenship is problematic.’ The articles in this issue, however, beg to differ. They evidence the ways in which various political theories and philosophies have reflected on some conception of cultural citizenship, if not the concept, and explore a number of angles – both historical and contemporary ones. What do the many conceivable links between culture and citizenship look like? From what debates and practices did the concept of cultural citizenship result? Let us survey the sundry options, as ‘cultural citizens’ actually appear in many guises. They may be citizens

The agendas of cultural citizenship

Cultural citizenship has been receiving quite some attention for over a decade now. The concept has appeared in fields like migration studies, media studies, arts education, museology, cultural policy, and at times in general cultural studies and sociology. One might even be tempted to speak of a new ‘cult on cit’, if one allows such American shorthand, but we will not be flippant. We think that the concept has elicited interesting debates, and has pertinent contributions to offer to the theory and practice of citizenship. This special issue will place the concept specifically within a politicalphilosophical context, which allows us to probe into a range of analytical as well as normative issues that the concept raises. The articles collected here elucidate how the concept fares in different political-philosophical milieus, among which the liberal, Marxist, Arendtian and (otherwise) republican ones. In this introduction, we reconstruct a brief history of the intellectual discussions that led up to the current, explicit concept. We will identify several pertinent questions and tensions in the debates. We will furthermore argue our own angle, pleading a politicaltheoretical approach beyond the, according to us, too narrow conceptualisation of cultural citizenship that ensued from its elaboration in a liberal theoretical framework. We finally explain how such an angle is illustrated by the various contributions to this special issue. To talk about cultural citizenship means to articulate some kind of link between culture and citizenship. The concept thus broaches a very general problematic, as it is not too difficult to bring several such links to mind. But it also broaches a very specific problematic. It brings citizenship into a new area of concerns, compared to its classic conceptualisations – it infers that citizenship has other than merely political connotations. Such an extended meaning constitutes a challenge for political philosophy. How do we deal with an originally typical political concept as citizenship suddenly going cultural? It is not self-evident that this would be an easy endeavour. Brian Turner (2001, p. 12) was aware of this challenge when he wrote: ‘The absence of a robust tradition of political theory on culture and citizenship is problematic.’ The articles in this issue, however, beg to differ. They evidence the ways in which various political theories and philosophies have reflected on some conception of cultural citizenship, if not the concept, and explore a number of angles – both historical and contemporary ones. What do the many conceivable links between culture and citizenship look like? From what debates and practices did the concept of cultural citizenship result? Let us survey the sundry options, as ‘cultural citizens’ actually appear in many guises. They may be citizens