Who are ‘The People’?: Gender, Citizenship, and the Making of the American Nation

Abstract

Although theorization about the role of the state and nation building has been a key element in the revitalization of human geography in recent years, very little attention has been paid to the concept of citizenship and its relationship to the state and the nation. This paper is an attempt to draw arguments about citizenship, particularly as they relate to gender, into the current human geographic discourse on theories of the state and nationalism. An examination of some of the historical research on how cultural ideals about the natural roles of men and women interacted with the construction of the early American national community is undertaken. The focus is upon seventeenth-century and eighteenth-century liberal bourgeois notions about public and private life and the way in which the problematic relationship between gender and nationhood undermined republican claims to universal membership. Geographers interested in issues of state formation and nationalism are encouraged to consider the importance of feminist approaches to citizenship.

The Annihilation of Space by Law: The Roots and Implications of Anti‐Homeless Laws in the United States

“…Citizenship is based on notions of volunteerism in contemporary democracies. Private citizens meet (if only ideally) in public to form a (or the) public (Habermas, 1989;Fraser, 1990;Marston, 1990;Mitchell, 1995). But they always have the option of retreating back into private, into their homes, into those places over which they presumably have sovereign control.…”

The bio-politics of bodies politic: nature and intertextuality in classic US geopolitical discourse

“…The social exclusions perpetuated by the intertextuality of geopolitical and bio-medical discourse are similar to those illuminated by Marston's (1990) and Anderson's (1991) discussions of the social construction of 'the people' and 'imagined communities,' respectively. As I explain further in the penultimate section, authors such as Campbell (1992) and Olwig (2002) have discussed the importance of organic or bodily metaphors to the social construction of the state, while Martin (1994) has shown the importance of military metaphors in bio-medical discourse.…”

Security and citizenship in the global South: In/securing citizens in early republican Turkey (1923–1946)

“…One such instance of in/securing can be found in the early experiences of the United States, as analysed by Marston: Although citizenship has been a conceptual foundation in the building of the American state, it is a category of status whose historical (and contemporary) access has been mediated through deep-seated prejudices, such as racism and sexism, and moulded by strongly held beliefs about the 'natural' roles of men and 'others'. 33 Among others, women's experiences in different parts of the world has shown that the removal of legal barriers is only a necessary first step -important but not enough in itself so long as other barriers remain and/or are instituted in the transitory process. 34 Indeed, as Secor underscored, over the years:…”