Citizenship Utopias in the Global South

The research project Citizenship Utopias in the Global South received a 4-year funding (2019-2023) from the Finnish Academy. Why is this project needed now?

In the 2010s, many parts of the Global South have witnessed contradictory processes of popular claims to rights, livelihoods and social justice and subsequent forms of authoritarian populism and securitization of civil society. In the context of the so-called Arab Spring, or of the indigenous movements in Latin America, or the youth mobilizations in Sub-Saharan Africa, widespread calls for systemic transformations are now met with popular disillusionment, disdain, and civic disengagement. The initial expectations for positive change have been overrun by deep structures of state governance, fragile economies and extractivist models of development coupled with the changing landscape of the global development infrastructure, the latter referring to  the expansion of the role of private sector in international development cooperation and the influence of the so-called ‘resource rush’ by new emerging economies, such as China, India and Brazil. 

In countries like Bolivia, Tunisia, and Kenya, the public authorities promote populist versions of social contracts that promote rather narrow imageries of ‘good citizen’ and her possibilities to civic action, while confirming the central role of state institutions, re-adjusting her personal aspirations and goals with those of public welfare. Consequently, corporate-state-society boundaries have become contentious and blurred. Restricting allocation of foreign funds to non-governmental organizations (NGOs), silencing activists, journalists and researchers on the basis of terrorism charges, and co-opting labor unions, peasant organizations and indigenous movements to governing regimes are examples of the pressures exerted on citizen’s activism in such post-2000 contexts where popular uprisings and mobilizations raised expectations for the exercise of ‘people’s democracy’. While populist politics may have expanded the access to public arenas for some new actors, thus widening the exercise of active citizenship, parallel processes of shrinking spaces for autonomous action outside the sphere of state are becoming ever more widespread. Consequently, enthusiasm towards political engagement is decreasing. In this situation, more imaginative and creative activism, collaborations and articulations aiming at societal change are needed amongst a wide civil society formation. This complex phenomenon calls for research on the potentials and difficulties of new emerging citizen’s activism in times of populist authoritarianism, securitization, and resource conflicts. 

This research project investigates the re-imagination and pursuit of transformative alternatives and civic activism in times of disillusionment. Its aim is to enhance the understanding of the ways in which intertwining processes of populist authoritarianism, securitization of civil society and extractivist models of development shape citizens’ fields and imaginations of transformative action in an era of popular disillusionment towards state promises of social justice and representative democratization. It asks: How to reimagine the state, and people’s possibilities to influence it, in such conditions? Furthermore, it explores the emergence of new forms of activism that challenge the deep structures of state governance and economy, while re-considering their stance towards the ideals and promises that proliferate in the public rhetoric of the incumbent authorities. It does so through deep and detailed scrutiny of three ethnographic case studies in the Global South: 1) fluctuating positionalies of indigenous activists in Evo Morales’ Bolivia, 2) the initiatives of young black rights activists to fight racial discrimination and the cultural legacy of slavery in post-revolutionary Tunisia and 3) feminist and sex positive activism in Kenya. Main focus is on such autonomous collective activism that aim at blurring, negotiating and transforming the content and boundaries of citizenship by contesting intersectional exclusions and unequal experiences with it.   

This research project examines ‘alternatives within alternatives’ – or what we call ‘citizenship utopias’ – by actors who share the formative experience of “popular mobilization gone astray”. It argues that alternatives to state-led projects and populist politics do exist; they are just not so easily visible; they emerge and mutate at the margins, mix with disappointment and hope, and take the form of depoliticization under disguise.

The project contributes to transformative alternatives literature by developing new conceptualizations of societal change outside exclusivist and extractivist paradigms of contemporary neoliberal globalization. Consequently, we undertake a fresh effort at contributing to critical development studies, engaging in discussions about future alternatives. 

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