Gender, Race and Inclusive Citizenship as a Momentum Concept: An Introduction

Kleinschmidt M, Natarajan R, Peeck-Ho C, Sielert D, Supik L. Gender, Race and Inclusive Citizenship as a Momentum Concept: An Introduction. In: Supik L, Kleinschmidt M, Natarajan R, et al., eds. Gender, Race and Inclusive Citizenship . Dialoge zwischen Aktivismus und Wissenschaft. 1st ed. Wiesbaden: Springer; 2022: 3–37.In this introduction to the edited volume, we argue that citizenship is a “momentum concept” (Hoffman 2004, Citizenship Beyond the State, Sage, Thousand Oaks) which encompasses the potential to build up spaces for equality and inclusion. We aim to further develop the concept of inclusive citizenship, which is a common working base at the Centre for Inclusive Citizenship (CINC) at Leibniz University, Hannover. Gender and race are two pivotal dimensions of inequality which have received public attention in recent years, for example, within debates on racist police violence in the USA and Europe, and in the care crisis, not only during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this introduction, we elaborate on our understanding of acts of inclusive citizenship, linking debates on migration and racism in Germany with concepts from citizenship studies, explain the focus on gender and race of this collaborative publication project and embed it in the field of intersectionality research. We also present the four fields of discussion of inclusive citizenship in this volume: care, institutional racism, language and the digital sphere

Gender, Race and Inclusive Citizenship. Dialoge zwischen Aktivismus und Wissenschaft

Supik L, Kleinschmidt M, Natarajan R, et al., eds. Gender, Race and Inclusive Citizenship. Dialoge zwischen Aktivismus und Wissenschaft. 1st ed. Wiesbaden: Springer; 2022

Recalibrating the Narrative on Multilingualism and Citizenship in Germany. A Study in the Simultaneity of Contradiction

Natarajan R. Recalibrating the Narrative on Multilingualism and Citizenship in Germany. A Study in the Simultaneity of Contradiction. In: Supik L, Kleinschmidt M, Natarajan R, et al., eds. Gender, Race and Inclusive Citizenship. Dialoge zwischen Aktivismus und Wissenschaft. 1st ed. Wiesbaden: Springer; 2022: 291–313.This chapter seeks to identify and disentangle some of the strands knotted and tied together, loosely or otherwise, regarding languages and citizenship in Germany. Two laws that were debated and passed around the turn of the century pertain to citizenship for children and immigration policies for adults, respectively. What interests me is the changing perception of the German language and multilingualism that the legal framework and institutionalised structure seem to have initiated. Instead of this being simply a matter of legislative interest and juridical interpretation, there appears to be a vast discursive and affective potential with seemingly everyone having an opinion on the need for ‘Sprache’. One would be led to believe that all those who allegedly do not yet speak German (and that too in a manner fitting middle-class and academic norms) are bereft of the ability to communicate or are even speech-impaired. This bias affects not merely children, ‘otherised’ in and through the educational system, but also adults, who are infantilised and muted under the guise of inclusion and access while being systematically excluded within society

Cybercolonialism and Citizenship

Tuzcu P, Kleinschmidt M, Natarajan R. Cybercolonialism and Citizenship. In: Supik L, Kleinschmidt M, Natarajan R, et al., eds. Gender, Race and Inclusive Citizenship. Dialoge zwischen Aktivismus und Wissenschaft. 1st ed. Wiesbaden: Springer; 2022: 431–448.After digitalisation was seen as a great opportunity for the emancipation of subjects in the 1990s and early 2000s (Block and Dickel 2020), it has become increasingly apparent in recent years that even supposedly neutral algorithms perpetuate and reinforce social inequalities, e.g. with regard to race and gender. Thus, the continuity of colonial discourse is becoming the focus of the debate on these processes. In conversation with Radhika Natarajan and Malte Kleinschmidt, Pinar Tuzcu explains how colonialism is reproduced in the digital world, and discusses political strategies to address this issue

Studentische Rechtsberatung in der Refugee Law Clinic Hannover e. V.

von Horn K, Widdascheck M, Natarajan R. Studentische Rechtsberatung in der Refugee Law Clinic Hannover e. V. In: Supik L, Kleinschmidt M, Natarajan R, et al., eds. Gender, Race and Inclusive Citizenship.Dialoge zwischen Aktivismus und Wissenschaft. 1st ed. Wiesbaden: Springer; 2022: 351–366

Monolingual Citizenship? Unequal Multilingualisms and Ambiguous Acts

Ní Mhurchú A, Natarajan R, Kleinschmidt M. Monolingual Citizenship? Unequal Multilingualisms and Ambiguous Acts. In: Supik L, Kleinschmidt M, Natarajan R, et al., eds. Gender, Race and Inclusive Citizenship. Dialoge zwischen Aktivismus und Wissenschaft. 1st ed. Wiesbaden: Springer; 2022: 315–350.Aoileann Ní Mhurchú and Radhika Natarajan discuss vibrant issues of mono- and multilingualisms in terms of how certain language regimes are linked to a system of belonging in nation states. These regimes are challenged by the practice of migrant or alleged migrant communities. Focusing on the fields of education and cultural practice, both provide deep insights into the contexts of—among others— relationships with indigenous language in Ireland, the German education system in school and adult education, language mixing in Germany and Tamil-speaking women in Germany. Despite the range of contexts analysed, both agree and complement each other, theorising language as highly political and connected to questions of power, belonging and acts. The latter is analysed in its multi-faceted forms, avoiding simplistic binaries, and instead taking into account language practice and policies in their ambiguities and contradictions