Being political: genealogies of citizenship

333 Pages·2002·2.346 MB·English

by  Isin, Engin F.

Being Political

Being Political
Genealogies
of
Citizenship
Engin F. Isin
University of Minnesota Press
Minneapolis / London
Copyright 2002 by the Regents ofthe University ofMinnesota
“Waiting for the Barbarians,”by Constantine P.Cavafy,from Collected Poems,
edited by George Savidis and translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard,is
reprinted as the epigraph to chapter 1 by permission ofPrinceton University Press.
Copyright 1975,1992 by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard.
All rights reserved.No part ofthis publication may be reproduced,stored in a
retrieval system,or transmitted,in any form or by any means,electronic,mechani-
cal,photocopying,recording,or otherwise,without the prior written permission of
the publisher.
Published by the University ofMinnesota Press
111 Third Avenue South,Suite 290
Minneapolis,MN 55401-2520
http://www.upress.umn.edu
Printed in the United States ofAmerica on acid-free paper
The University ofMinnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer.
12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To the memory ofmy mother,Gülten Silman Isçin (1929–1995)

Contents
Preface ix
1. City as a Difference Machine 1
Citizens, Strangers, Outsiders, Aliens
2. Polis 53
Women, Peasants, Slaves, Metics,
Mercenaries, Raiders, Traders
3. Civitas 93
Plebeians, Slaves, Clients, Freedmen
4. Christianopolis 113
Wayfarers, Knights, Merchants, Artisans
5. Eutopolis 153
Humanists, Vagrants, Poor, Colonists
6. Metropolis 191
Sansculottes, Savages, Flâneurs,
Intellectuals, Africans
7. Cosmopolis 231
Immigrants, Homeless, Squeegeers, Refugees
8. Becoming Political 275
Bibliography 287
Index 320

Preface
This book assembles a series ofgenealogical investigations on citizenship
as alterity.The “history”ofcitizenship has often been narrated by domi-
nant groups who articulated their identity as citizens and constituted
strangers,outsiders,and aliens as those who lacked the properties de-
fined as essential for citizenship.In every age since the Greeks,citizens
have narrated their own stories by establishing lineages between them-
selves and the glory and magnificence of ancient Greek citizens who are
thought to have originated citizenship.Yet,Greek citizenship was as in-
vented and inherited as any other:the Greek citizens also looked back-
ward to a heroic age of the Orient,and Greek citizenship was hardly as
original as they and subsequent generations claimed. Nevertheless,
European aristocracies during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
and the bourgeoisie in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries “revived”
the Greeks in their own image.Throughout centuries an unstable combi-
nation of solidaristic,agonistic,and alienating strategies and technolo-
gies of citizenship,such as stigmatization,marginalization,heroization,
ritualization,racialization,professionalization,universalization,confrat-
ernization,and mediatization,constituted citizens as those who man-
aged to inculcate virtues through others as strangers and outsiders.
Slaves,women,peasants,artisans,prostitutes,vagabonds,sansculottes,
workers,and squeegeers were constituted as problematized beings,inter-
pellated and enticed to conduct themselves in just and virtuous ways
conducive to social,political,and spatial orders envisioned by citizens.
ix