Unequal institutions in the longue durée: citizenship through a Southern lens

Abstract

This article argues that focussing on issues of citizenship highlights the relationality of North/South dynamics and that doing so through a ‘Southern lens’ reveals two complementary and otherwise neglected aspects of North/South relationality: the coloniality of the institution of citizenship, and the lasting impact that (de)colonial contestations and reinterpretations of citizenship rights have had on this institution from its emergence in the context of colonial empires until its most recent global reconfigurations. In order to show how the coloniality of citizenship has played out in a particular region of the Global South, the article focuses on the Caribbean as the region with the longest history of colonial entanglements with Europe and one that captures the very dialectics of modernity/coloniality today.