ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 delves into literature on citizenship, identity and belonging, using three key events from Nicholaos’ story. This chapter theorises citizenship-as-practice by foregrounding how Nicholaos talks about citizenship in his narrative memoir, and how his identity shifts and changes over time. The rendering of identity that I use in this chapter is performative and I consider how citizenship identity is performed both in Nicholaos’ narration of his story and in the events he is describing. I situate this in a discussion of literature from citizenship studies. I distinguish citizenship identity from national identity and I linger on the complexity of (post)colonial citizenship, particularly in the British context between 1948 and 1962 when the rights of colonial citizens to immigrate to the UK were protected in law (if not in practice). I argue that the performative citizenship-as-practice theorised in the chapter shows a citizenship that is affective and responsive to place, time, circumstance and interaction. I argue that the relationship between population, territory, and sovereignty that is preserved in international relations theorising does not reflect a practical and experiential citizenship that can account for postcolonial, transnational and diasporic identities. Attending to a practice of citizenship offers an understanding of the nuances and interactions of legal, affective and perceived citizenships as they fit into extant conceptual understandings of citizenship.
