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Anxious vigilance and the production of (il)legitimacy in the UK citizenship regime : “it’s how you sift them out, y’know?”
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Lewis, Rachel (2022) Anxious vigilance and the production of (il)legitimacy in the UK citizenship regime : “it’s how you sift them out, y’know?”. Conflict and Society, 8 (1). pp. 125-141. doi:10.3167/arcs.2022.080108 ISSN 2164-4543.
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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.3167/arcs.2022.080108
Abstract
This article examines the navigation and enactment of vigilance in the UK citizenship regime. Drawing on data from a four-year research project in a UK city, including observations of citizenship ceremonies and interviews with institutional actors and citizen-candidates, it sees vigilance as a central feature of the naturalization process, with watchfulness oriented toward three key areas: the bureaucratic precision, the linguistic proficiency, and the commitment to the nation evidenced by the citizen-candidate. It sees the navigation of anxious vigilance among all actors—state, institutional, and citizen-candidates—but argues that this is directed unevenly, with the state’s securitizing gaze particularly maintained upon those racialized as Other. Reading citizenship in domopolitical terms as a technology through which the securitized state can enact its bordering practices, it sees the vigilance enacted in the naturalization process as productive: as working to realize the legitimacy of the state and the Good citizen, to articulate and exclude from membership those deemed illegitimate, and, ultimately, to curtail possibilities for solidarity.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
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Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BJ Ethics H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform J Political Science > JC Political theory J Political Science > JN Political institutions (Europe) > JN101 Great Britain K Law [Moys] > KF Common Law, British Isles |
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Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Law | ||||||
SWORD Depositor: | Library Publications Router | ||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Citizenship , Citizenship -- Great Britain, Allegiance , Responsibility , Marginality, Social -- Political aspects, Naturalization | ||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Conflict and Society | ||||||
Publisher: | Berghahn Journals | ||||||
ISSN: | 2164-4543 | ||||||
Official Date: | 1 June 2022 | ||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 8 | ||||||
Number: | 1 | ||||||
Page Range: | pp. 125-141 | ||||||
DOI: | 10.3167/arcs.2022.080108 | ||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Open Access (Creative Commons) | ||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 5 January 2023 | ||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 5 January 2023 |
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