Canal-U

Citizenship as conceptual flow: Asia in comparative perspective

"Citizen-making" is a prime function of the modern state and a sine qua non for effective governance and administration in any society. Tracking the core concept of citizenship as it travelled from Europe to Asia, the collaborative project explores translingual and transcultural facets of this flow. Examining the process comparatively across Asia, the project emphasises institutions, political processes and symbols used to profile a "model" citizen. This complex process of acculturation through which the imported becomes "indigenised" and hybridized, involves agency and strategy, inevitably producing an asymmetry reflecting the uneven nature of such flows, the cultural context and balance of power. A collation of etymologies and visual evidence of how the citizen is imagined, along with a database of laws and descriptions of the elites governing citizenship promise basic research and policy recommendations.