Citizenships, Contingency and the Countryside Rights, Culture, Land and the Environment

About this book

Citizenship has become a buzzword in British politics during the 1990s, and, under the Blair administration, has established itself as part of political rhetoric. This use of 'citizenship' however, ignores the lack of formal engagement of the public in politics and obscures how narrow actual state definitions of 'good' or appropriate citizenship are. Citizenships, Contingency and the Countryside defines citizenship in relation to the rural environment. The book expands and explores a widened conceptualization of citizenship and sets out a range of examples where citizenship, at different scales, has been expressed in and over the rural environment. Part of the analysis includes a review of the political construction and use of citizenship rhetoric over the past 20 years, alongside an historical and theoretical discussion of citizenship and rights in the British countryside. The text concludes with a call to recognise and incorporate the multiple voices and interests in decision-making, who all affect the British countryside. Gavin Parker argues that citizenship should be viewed more expansively and that an understanding of the role of culture and global change should be incorporated into thinking about citizenship. For example, a citizens activities or actions, such as a consumer protest, should be seen as expressions of alternative or post-modern citizenship. This splintering of action and conceptualization should involve government and other institutions in rethinking how they recognize political action, prepare policy and themselves engage with citizens.

Contents

Part 1: Society, Culture and Rural Land 1. Citizenship and the Countryside 2. Culture, Citizenship and Rural Policy 3. Imagining the Rural 4. Book Structure: Towards Citizenship of the Rural Part 2: Unpacking Citizenship 1. Introduction: Considering Citizenship 2. Citizenship: Status, Identity and Activity 3. Citizenship Theory and Legitimation 4. Globalization and the Fragmentation of Citizenship 5. (Re)spatialising Citizenship 6. The Land and the Citizen: Citizenship and Private Property Rights 7. Conclusion: Towards Fluid, Post-national Citizenship? Part 3: UK Politics and the Citizenship Debate 1. Introduction 2. Society, State and Citizenship 3. Political Projects and Citizenship Rhetoric 4. Citizenship and Globalization 5. Conclusions: Alternative Agendas and Citizenship Part 4: On Being Modern: Consolidating Citizenship in the Countryside 1. Ordering the Countryside, Ordering Citizens 2. The Agricultural 'Revolution' and the Redistribution of Rights 3. Land, Conflict and Citizenship Definition Part 5: Enacting and Contesting Rights through History 1. Political Action and Citizenship 2. Citizenship, Destabilization and Dissent 3. Citizenship as Manipulating Space and Time 4. Diggers and Invaders 5. Conclusion Part 6: Political Expediency, Localness and Active Citizenship 1. Introduction 2. Modern State, Postmodern Citizenship? 3. Citizenship and Activity: (Re)mapping and Weaving 4. 'Active' Citizenship: Status, Identity and Activity Revisited 5. Active Citizenship and the State Part 7: Citizenship and the Countryside as Consumer Space 1. Introduction 2. Postmodern Politics, Media-tion and Communities of Interest 3. Citizenship, Consumers and Space/Place 4. Conclusion: Mobile Politics, Consumerism and the Rural Part 8: Citizenship, Contingency and the Countryside 1. Multiple, Contingent and Inclusionary Citizenships? 2. Projects and Practices of Citizenship

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