Nira Yuval-Davis, The Politics of Belonging: Intersectional Contestations.

Abstract

Nira Yuval-Davis, The Politics of Belonging: Intersectional Contestations. Los Angeles: Sage, 2011, 252 pp. $46.00 paper (9781412921305), $108.00 hardcover (9781412921299) Nira Yuval-Davis's book is an original contribution to ongoing scholarly debates on intersectionality, belonging, and citizenship. She seeks to expand theories of intersectionality beyond women and gender studies, and presents a remarkable intersectional analysis of politics of belonging. The main argument of the book can be summarized as follows: In the context of neoliberal globalization, multiple political projects of belonging have emerged as alternatives to hegemonic forms of and nationalism. She takes a closer look at political projects that are centred around religion, cosmopolitanism, feminist ethics of care, as well as alternative discourses of nationalism, and argues that it is no longer possible to fully understand formal state without examining how it intersects with these multilayered projects at sub-state, cross-state, and supra-state levels. In other words, individuals simultaneously engage in these multiple political projects of belonging, and they are affected and positioned differently by each one. And, the author believes that these complexities of belonging can be best approached through the perspective of intersectionality. The book consists of six chapters, plus the conclusion. Each chapter is devoted to a major contemporary political project of belonging, where the author presents an extensive overview of theoretical debates and a set of examples. In chapter 1, Yuval-Davis introduces her theoretical framework. She first engages in a detailed analysis of theories of intersectionality, belonging, and politics of belonging, and then examines the interlocking processes of globalization and glocalization, with a special emphasis on neoliberal capitalism and transnational migration. In chapter 2, the author continues with a rigorous discussion of state citizenship. She maps out the rights and obligations associated with state and then looks at the set of technologies through which states define and control citizenship, such as official statistics and the use of passports. Moreover, she pays special attention to some contemporary constructions of other than formal state citizenship, such as active/ist citizenship, intimate citizenship, consumerism as citizenship, multicultural citizenship, and multilayered citizenship. It is remarkable that Yuval-Davis goes beyond the framework of the nation-state in her definition of citizenship: As opposed to formal state citizenship, she believes, citizenship encompasses a diverse set of memberships in local, regional, national, cross and supranational political communities (p. 61). That is, state is now being interlocked with or implicated in these multiple forms of people's citizenships. However, while state is being contested by these alternative projects of belonging, the author is careful enough to acknowledge the persisting importance of state as well as the increasing state control in the everyday life of many people. In chapter 3, Yuval-Davis turns her gaze to alternative nationalist discourses. After a summary of theories of nation and nationalism, she carefully investigates alternative nationalist projects of autochthony, indigeneity, and diasporism, and she ends the chapter with a brief analysis of feminism and nationalism. Chapter 4 offers a useful examination of another major contemporary political project of belonging, religious fundamentalism. The author examines the collapse of the secularization thesis and argues that religion has become a key principle of political mobilization in our current era of neoliberal globalization. She goes on by discussing notions of secularism, fundamentalism, and multifaithism, and finishes up the chapter with an overview of religious and antifundamentalist feminisms. …