Statelessness, Governance, and the Problem of Citizenship - Paperback

by Tendayi Bloom (Editor), Lindsey N. Kingston (Editor)

When a person is not recognised as a citizen anywhere, they are typically referred to as 'stateless'. This can give rise to challenges both for individuals and for the institutions that try to govern them. Statelessness, governance, and the problem of citizenship breaks from tradition by relocating the 'problem' to be addressed from one of statelessness to one of citizenship. It problematises the governance of citizenship - and the use of citizenship as a governance tool - and traces the 'problem of citizenship' from global and regional governance mechanisms to national and even individual levels.

With contributions from activists, affected persons, artists, lawyers, academics, and national and international policy experts, this volume rejects the idea that statelessness and stateless persons are a problem. It argues that the reality of statelessness helps to uncover a more fundamental challenge: the problem of citizenship.

Back Jacket

'This book manifests an extraordinary breadth of empirical and theoretical research emerging in the hiatus between social criticism, anthropology, international relations as well as domestic and international law.'
William E. Conklin, author of Statelessness: The Enigma of the International Community

'A remarkable compendium on a vastly under-researched topic, illustrating the complex ways through which one loses or never obtains a citizenship, a concept which used to signify emancipation and has become a tool of exclusion and a governance "problem".'
François Crépeau, McGill University and former Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants, OHCHR (2011-17)

'This important book critically explores the challenge of statelessness, while flipping the narrative, changing the point of departure, investigating deeper and engaging the reader through the wide-ranging perspectives, voices, and experiences on offer.'
Amal de Chickera, Co-founder and Co-director of the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion

'The editors have assembled a truly diverse, interdisciplinary, and global set of contributors, who together offer a deeply nuanced and pluralistic interrogation of the problems of citizenship.'
Kelly Staples, author of Reauthorising Statelessness

When a person is not recognised as a citizen anywhere, they are typically referred to as 'stateless'. This can give rise to challenges both for individuals and for the institutions that try to govern them. Statelessness, governance, and the problem of citizenship breaks from tradition by relocating the 'problem' to be addressed from one of statelessness to one of citizenship. It problematises the governance of citizenship - and the use of citizenship as a governance tool - and traces the 'problem of citizenship' from global and regional governance mechanisms to national and even individual levels.

With contributions from activists, affected persons, artists, lawyers, academics, and national and international policy experts, this volume rejects the idea that statelessness and stateless persons are a problem. It argues that the reality of statelessness helps to uncover a more fundamental challenge: the problem of citizenship.

Author Biography

Tendayi Bloom is an Associate Professor in Politics and International Studies at the University of Birmingham
Lindsey N. Kingston is Associate Professor of International Human Rights at Webster University in Saint Louis, Missouri