Researching Citizenship: Day School on Advanced Research Methods in Citizenship Studies
FRIDAY, 8 JULY 2016
The Researching Citizenship day school offers postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers an advanced introduction to fundamental theoretical
debates in citizenship studies; to methodological questions that ensue from these debates; and to tools for studying aspects of citizenship and
citizenship-related issues. The day school will be of interest to those already conducting research within the broad field of citizenship studies, as well
as to those interested in a critical introduction to the field and in expanding their methodological repertoires.
The day school is free of charge and open to all.
Please register online: http://www.open.ac.uk/ccig/events/researching-citizenship-day-school-on-advanced-research-methods-in-citizenship-studies
Programme
09:00
09:30 – 09:45
09:45 – 10:45
10:45 – 11:00
11:00 – 12:15
12:15 – 12:30
12:30 – 13:15
13:15 – 13:30
13:30 – 14:45
14:45 – 15:00
15:00 – 16:15
16:15 – 16:25
16:25 – 16:45
Registration, Tea &Coffee – Berrill Café (Ground Floor)
Introduction and Welcome - Berrill Lecture Theatre
Agnes Czajka
Plenary Session: Two Perspectives on Citizenship - Berrill Lecture Theatre
Engin Isin
Go to Workshop One or Two + Tea & Coffee
Library Seminar 1
Library Seminar 2
Workshop One: Social
Workshop Two: Theatre of the
psychology and citizenship
Oppressed
Eleni Andreouli
Umut Erel and Erene Kaptani
Go to Lunch
Lunch – Berrill Café (Ground Floor)
Go to Workshop Three or Four + Tea & Coffee
Library Seminar 1
Workshop Three: Researching
15MpaRato
Georgina Blakeley
Go to Workshop Five or Six + Tea & Coffee
Library Seminar 1
Workshop Five: Smartphones
and apps for migrants:
research challenges
Agnes Kukulska Hulme,
Mark Gaved, Andrew Brasher
Library Seminar 2
Workshop Four: “Your search
did not match any articles.”
Big Data research in
Citizenship Studies
Stephan Scheel
Library Seminar 2
Workshop Six: Problematizing
the Present: Genealogy as
Theory and Method
Agnes Czajka
Go to Conclusions and Closing Remarks
Conclusions and Closing Remarks - Berrill Lecture Theatre
followed by a Drinks Reception from 16:45hrs Berrill Café (Ground Floor)
PLENARY SESSION
Two Perspectives on Citizenship (Engin Isin): Two conflicting but also complementary perspectives on citizenship as status and practice have
been identified for some time as ways of studying citizenship. More recently, James Tully has provided an historical and philosophical account of
these two perspectives as civil and civic conceptions of citizenship. I will discuss in this lecture both theoretical and political implications of these two
perspectives on citizenship and illustrate how becoming aware of their differences helps studying citizenship as a critical and performative activity.
Suggested reading: James Tully. 2014. On Global Citizenship: James Tully in Dialogue. 3-100. London: Bloomsbury and Engin Isin. 2012. “Enacting
Citizenship.” In Citizens without Frontiers, 108-146. London: Bloomsbury.
WORKSHOPS
WORKSHOP ONE: Social psychology and citizenship (Eleni Andreouli): This workshop will first discuss what is meant by the term ‘citizenship’
from a social psychological perspective. It will argue that a social psychological approach departs from top-down and state-centric approaches to
citizenship and instead proposes a bottom-up approach that focuses on the perspectives of lay citizens themselves. A social psychological approach
studies what is often referred to as ‘everyday citizenship’, that is, the ways in which lay citizens construct, mobilise and negotiate the meanings of
citizenship in different micro and macro contexts. This approach to citizenship is embedded within a broader critical discursive approach and
prioritises the use of qualitative methods to study the ways in which citizenship is constructed in micro-interactional contexts as well as the ways in
which these are embedded within broader macro-ideological contexts. In the second part of the workshop, participants will work with recent focus
group data on European citizenship, giving them the opportunity to apply some of the ideas discussed in the first part of the session.
WORKSHOP TWO: Theatre of the Oppressed (Umut Erel and Erene Kaptani): This session explores participatory theatre as a method for
researching citizenship. Based on techniques of the Theatre of Oppressed (Boal 1979), the workshop explores theatre as a 'rehearsal' for social
intervention in real life. The workshop will present examples from research with migrant families, to look at how theatre methods can help to build
collective knowledges which challenge the marginalization of migrant mothers and begin to validate their caring and cultural work as citizenship
practices, or indeed 'acts of citizenship' (Isin 2008), contesting who can rightfully claim a subjectivity as citizen.
WORKSHOP THREE: Researching 15MpaRato (Georgina Blakeley): The 15MpaRato network emerged in 2012 from within the wider 15M Spanish
social movement. This workshop examines the new ways in which people are becoming active citizens in Spain through the 15 MpaRato network, and
the mixed methods that can be used to research such networks. Using internet-based citizen action devices such as crowdfunding and mechanisms
that allow citizens to share information anonymously 15MpaRato filed a citizen lawsuit against the high-profile Rodrigo Rato (formerly Minister of
Economy and IMF Managing Director) for corruption. The workshop will examine how to research the 15MpaRato network to understand how, in
challenging corruption, it has encouraged new citizenship practices and discourses. Following a scene-setting presentation on the 15MpaRato and
some suggested ways of examining it, we will work in groups to discuss what mixed methods can be used to research the 15MpaRAto to understand
how, (a) it has challenged state impunity and has shaped public understanding of corruption, (b) what it reveals about the nature of the political and
economic crisis in Spain and Europe, and (c) what it reveals about the ways in which its participants are redefining the relationship between citizen
and state through new and diverse citizenship practices.
Suggested reading: 15MpaRato dossier
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WORKSHOP FOUR: “Your search did not match any articles.” Big Data research in Citizenship Studies (Stephan Scheel): This workshop will
discuss the ongoing hype about ‘big data analytics’ and how the latter might affect research agendas, epistemologies and practices in citizenship
studies and the social sciences more generally. A brief mini-lecture will introduce a working definition of big data before illustrating, through a set of
examples, what kind of research questions and methodological challenges ‘big data’ poses in relation to citizenship, understood as both status and
practice. Afterwards participants will discuss in small groups how they would conduct research on one of four fictive research projects that are all
related to questions of big data and citizenship.
Suggested reading: Cheney-Lippolt, John (2016): 'Jus Algoritmi': How the National Security Agency Remade Citizenship. International Journal of
Communication. Vol. 10:1, pp. 1721–1742; Taylor, Linnet (2016): No Place to Hide? The Ethics and Analytics of Tracking Mobility Using Mobile Phone
Data. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space. Vol. 34:2, pp. 319–336; Dalton, Russell J. (2016) The Potential of Big Data for the CrossNational Study of Political Behavior. International Journal of Sociology. Vol. 46:1, pp. 8-20.
WORKSHOP FIVE: Smartphones and apps for migrants: research challenges (Agnes Kukulska Hulme, Mark Gaved, Andrew Brasher)
MASELTOV and SALSA are recent mobile learning research projects that sought to explore how smartphones might be used to enable migrants’
social inclusion and language learning. In this workshop we will provide an overview of these projects and the mobile apps developed, and report on
challenges encountered when working with mobile technologies and potentially vulnerable audiences in the real world. Workshop participants will be
asked to identify issues around privacy, ethics, cultural barriers, data ownership and others, and consider how they may be overcome.
WORKSHOP SIX: Problematizing the Present: Genealogy as Theory and Method (Agnes Czajka)
Not to be confused with the tracing of a pedigree, genealogy as conceptualized by Friedrich Nietzsche and deployed by Michel Foucault enables us to
historicize and denaturalize the present, and explore the manner in which what we take for granted emerges as an effect of power, and as a product
of historical contingency and struggle. As such, genealogical thinking enables us to understand the present and existing subjectivities and identities –
including that of ‘the citizen’ – as contingent. The workshop will introduce participants to the theory and method of genealogy, and will explore the
contributions that genealogical thinking can make to understanding and researching citizenship.
Suggested reading: Guess, Raymond. 1994 (2001). “Nietzsche and Genealogy.” In John Richardson and Brian Leiter (Eds.) New York: Oxford
University Press. 322-40; Nietzsche, Friedrich.1887 (1994). “Second Essay: ‘Guilt’, ‘Bad Conscience’ and Related Matters.” On the Genealogy of
Morality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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PLEASE NOTE: (a) For sessions that run concurrently audio recordings will be made available following the day school to enable interested
participants to listen to the sessions they were unable to attend; (b) PDFs of suggested readings will be made available to participants one week
before the day school.
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