Political geographies of citizenship (Introduction to special issue)

This special issue on political geographies of citizenship originates from the Norwegian Research Network in Political Geography (based at the University of Oslo), which includes geographers working within a broad array of research topics, approaches and contexts. Thematically, it reflects the increased interests in spatiality in citizenship studies and the parallel attention paid to citizenship within political geography. The present special issue explores the notion of citizenship as a potential convergence point for geographical research in migration, development, democratization, social movement and labour studies concerned with questions about power, agency and spatiality in state–society relations. Our proposition is that citizenship may provide an integral framework for common concerns among human geographers regarding cultural, juridical, social and political inclusion – in other words, cultural identity and recognition, legal status and protection, social rights and redistribution, and political participation and representation.