Rethinking the concept of citizenship: ideology, agency and resistance from the margins

Abstract

This essay aims to rethink concepts such as ideology, agency and resistance in order to problematise how these are being instrumentalised by nation states to create hierarchical differentiating categories under the umbrella of citizenship. In order to address the idea of otherness that sustains the discourses that have been generated around citizenship as an element that not only legitimises the existing system, but also the identities and subjectivities that may or may not form part of the enunciated norm. Through this journey, other ways of approaching these concepts from and for the identities of the margins will be presented, with the intention not to enunciate new truths or definitions of the concepts addressed, but to try to make visible the existing gaps in the system and how we can build on and thanks to these „borders”. Keywords: ideology, agency, resistance, citizenship, margins