‘Us and them’: Community-building and Citizenship Legitimation through Collective Identity

Abstract

The role of collective identity in shaping community-building processes and in legitimising citizenship has been highlighted by scholars of identity (Tilly, 1975), citizenship (Isin and Turner, 2002), and nationalism (Smith, 1995), time and again. Whether or not an ‘imagined community’ (Anderson, 1986) separating ‘us’ (those who belong) from ‘them’ (the others) manifests, and the extent to which this community then leads to public participation in politics (Karolewski, 2010) (via formal and, more recently, alternative forms of engagement), illustrates the depth and breadth of collective identity. Albeit by no means a new development, perhaps never before have these dynamics been as exposed as they are today in the context of European and American ‘post-truth’ politics, where emotionally charged debates about independence, migration and (un)democratic decision-making dominate media headlines and policy-making. Against this backdrop, this panel addresses the issue of collective identity in shaping community-building processes and in legitimising citizenship from empirical and theoretical perspectives. Its main objective is to present a set of contributions which draw on current and/or historical evidence that can feed into a learning curve and assist in formulating expert responses to today’s events.