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The Government of Moral Community: Practices of Citizenship in the UK

The Government of Moral Community: Practices of Citizenship in the UK. Joe Turner. Overview. The nation as a ‘moral space’ The government of community/practices of citizenship Inclusion/Exclusion – the focus on the ‘Non-Citizen’ Structure: ‘Moral Community’ – some reflections

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The Government of Moral Community: Practices of Citizenship in the UK

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  1. The Government of Moral Community: Practices of Citizenship in the UK Joe Turner

  2. Overview • The nation as a ‘moral space’ • The government of community/practices of citizenship • Inclusion/Exclusion – the focus on the ‘Non-Citizen’ Structure: • ‘Moral Community’ – some reflections • Two examples of practices of citizenship which manifest this complex – The Border/Worklessness • Concluding thoughts…

  3. Moral Community • Community is reproduced and constituted in a number of sites – always a partial/incomplete process (Butler 2006; Campbell 1993; Connolly 1991) • Government must imagine and act upon ‘the community’ – rationalities/practices become integral • ‘Race’, ‘Culture’, ‘Ethnicity’ reframed under contemporary government • ‘Conduct’, ‘Virtue’, ‘Civic duty’, ‘Contribution’ ways of framing belonging (?) • The language of advanced liberalism is never far away – individual, autonomous, responsible agents…

  4. At the UK Border • Elements of changing practices – Point system, Citizenship test, Spouse visas • Practices built on assumptions regarding the subject who can be included/excluded • E.g. Spouse Visa changes: New Financial requirement (£18,000) • Implications for Citizen/Non-citizen • Moral inclusion/exclusion? Economic solvency, independence (image of welfare state), contribution. • The proof of worth before authorities (before rights) • The ‘Best and Brightest’ (Theresa May, 2012).

  5. The ‘Workless’ Subject • Moral stratification/ Image of the ‘good’/’bad’ also problematises those with citizenship • The ‘workless’ is imagined as beyond the national space. Failed citizens. • This is a moral failure – they fail to reveal the character of the ‘true’/’ideal’ citizen: independence, autonomy, responsibility. ‘9-5 Britain’. • The Politics of disgust: they have not proved their worth (they can thus be acted upon differently) • Community Work Programme (punishment, retribution)

  6. Concluding thoughts • Examples of practices of inclusion/exclusion which constitute/manifest the moral space • We can see how this works on both the citizen/non-citizen (questions how citizenship is made/unmade) • A vision of the ‘nation’ yet constituted in micro-political sites • No less violent – this is not situated as ‘progressive’. Produces new possibilities for inclusion/exclusion • Advanced liberal government – yet not reducible to it

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