Abstract
Recent theoretical discussions have indicated that citizenship is not only a way of being, but also a way of behaving. This article aims to show how attempts to regulate the behaviour of the citizenry can introduce a new topography of inclusion and exclusion, thereby exercising a direct effect on particular ethnic minorities. We investigate the issue in Antwerp, the largest city of the Flemish Region in Belgium. With his slogan ‘Antwerp belongs to everyone’ former mayor Patrick Janssens gained significant international attention for Antwerp’s supposedly inclusive conception of urban citizenship. In this article, we argue that the universality of Antwerp’s city slogan has nevertheless veiled the introduction of new exclusionary prescriptions centred around citizens’ conduct. Drawing on a Foucauldian account of power, three different modes of policing are discussed that have rearticulated the boundaries of urban citizenship in Antwerp. The disciplinary, bio-political and etho-political techniques of power each show in a different way attempts by the state to steer and effectively regulate what counts as appropriate conduct. As a corollary of governmental power, particular ways of behaving have been labelled as deviant and abnormal, thus rendering full citizenship conditional on a set of substantial expectations on how to perform as a citizen. As these expectations are only apparently neutral with respect to ethnic identities, a tension arose between the city’s universal and inclusive rhetoric and its particular and exclusionary policies.
Highlights
In 2008 Patrick Janssens, the mayor of Antwerp, Flanders’ largest city, was shortlisted for the World Mayor Award
We argue that the universality of Antwerp’s city slogan has veiled the introduction of new exclusionary prescriptions centred around citizens’ conduct
We argue that the universality of Antwerp’s slogan has veiled the introduction of a set of new exclusionary prescriptions that define what citizenship is and who belongs to the city
Summary
In 2008 Patrick Janssens, the mayor of Antwerp, Flanders’ largest city, was shortlisted for the World Mayor Award. In the field of Urban Politics many authors have approached the issue of contemporary societal exclusion from the perspective of who factually runs the city (Smith & McQuarrie, 2012). Even though the Urban Politics approach is valuable in its own right, it has overemphasized the question of who is responsible for exclusionary policies, at the expense of understanding how these policies factually exclude people. This article will draw on a Foucauldian reading of power techniques to complement the dominant perspective on who is responsible for exclusionary citizenship policies. We will discuss three different case studies that each illustrate a distinct power technique regulating the boundaries of urban citizenship. We will show how the different power techniques are interconnected and add up to a new urban topography of in- and exclusion
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