Citizenship Utopias in the Global South

The Emergent Forms of Activism in an Era of Disillusionment
1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-1-032-45831-1
Verlag: Taylor & Francis

Buch, Englisch, 254 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 535 g

Reihe: Routledge Studies in Political Sociology

Citizenship Utopias in the Global South is an edited collection of empirical research that explores emergent forms of activism in Africa, Asia, and Latin America in times of multiple crises. At the intersection of hope and disillusionment, the diverse and thought-provoking chapters investigate emerging forms of activism in the Global South – including youth activisms, anti-racism struggles, feminist initiatives, online dissent, and Indigenous movements.

In the 2020s, many parts of the world are witnessing contradictory processes of popular claims to rights, livelihoods, and social justice, and subsequent forms of populist authoritarianism and the securitization of civil society. Previously hopeful calls for dignity, democracy, and social justice – through protesting, strikes, civil society campaigns, legal reforms, and elections, for example – have been met with disdain and civic disengagement. This book investigates the re-imagination and pursuit of citizen activism in such times of popular disillusionment. It explores citizenship utopias as social imaginaries that are enacted and that articulate an ideal social order or democratic polity with ideal forms of experiencing citizenship. Its chapters interrogate conventional approaches to citizenship by introducing a nuanced and empirically grounded exploration of the complex ways in which people experience, negotiate, and engage in the societal changes that they aspire towards. The examination of citizenship utopias outlines contemporary signals for transformative futures and their possibilities.

The book undertakes a fresh effort at contributing to the shifting terrain of critical development studies, political anthropology, political sociology, and decolonising scholarship by engaging in discussions about citizenship, activism, disillusionment, and future societal alternatives in times of multiple global challenges.

The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate

Autoren/Hrsg.

Onodera, Henri

Kaskinen, Martta

Ranta, Eija

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Theorie, Politische Philosophie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Citizenship utopias in the Global South: Emerging activisms, re-imagining citizenships

PART I: Activism in times of disillusionment

2. Activist contestations in contemporary socio-political change making in Kenya

3. Disavowing politics: An alternative way of doing politics for young Algerians

4. Communication in coronavirus crisis: A case study of communication practices of activists in Johannesburg in the COVID-19 pandemic

5. The Chilean awakening in a global decade of social movements

PART II: Decolonising the state

6. Everyday citizenship and decolonising utopias in Cotacachi county, Ecuador

7. Black feminist and anti-racist activism: Past and present of struggles for racial justice in Cuba

8. Higher education under neoliberalism: A perspective from South African student activists

9. Fighting for racial equality: Hope, disillusionment, and perseverance in post-revolutionary Tunisia

PART III: Re-imagining citizenships  

10. Governing through corruption: Young men, the state, and citizenship in interior Tunisia

11. Imaginaries of social change in Algeria: Nonviolent acts of citizenship of the autonomous trade union activists

12. “Carrot and stick”: Cooperative citizenship and the pedagogic state in Vietnam

13. Hindu nationalism or collaborative social justice? The role of queer communities in furthering democracy in India

14. Afterword: Citizenship Utopias in an Age of Polycrises?

Über Autor(innen)

Henri Onodera is a University Lecturer in Global Development Studies at the University of Helsinki.

Martta Kaskinen is a PhD Researcher in Global Development Studies at the University of Helsinki.

Eija Ranta is an Academy of Finland Research Fellow at the University of Helsinki.