Meso-Discourses, State Forms and the Gendering of Liberal-Democratic Citizenship
In: Citizenship studies, Band 1, Heft 2, S. 223-242
ISSN: 1362-1025
Builds on Michel Foucault's fleeting observation that "the state consists in the codification of a whole number of power relations," & "a revolution is a different type of codification of these same relations" (Held, D., et al, 1983). Specifically, the case of Canada is used to argue that distinct state forms rest on particular mesodiscourses that inform a logic of governance, historical configurations of the public & private, & gendered citizenships. The mesodiscourses of separate spheres, liberal progressivism, & performativity (the logics of governance for the laissez-faire state, the Keynesian welfare state, & the neoliberal state, respectively) have coded & recoded gendered citizenships, thereby providing women & men with differential access to the public sphere & to citizenship claims. The neoliberal state's mesodiscourse of performativity is especially challenging for women & other equity-seeking groups, because it prescribes the ascendency of market relations over political negotiation or ethical considerations, as well as the attrition of social & political citizenship rights. Social citizenship is being eclipsed by market citizenship. 69 References. Adapted from the source document.