Situated Citizenship: A Theoretical and Methodological Intervention

Abstract

Abstract In this essay, I ask: Who has the power to theorize? And how do we challenge narrow understandings of what counts as theories, theorists, and theorizing? I draw on alternative intellectual histories—feminist, intersectional, interpretive, and decolonial—that are attentive to expanded definitions of the political within and beyond the Western world and to the internal diversity of often taken-for-granted categories of analysis. Next, I show how these intellectual histories open up the space for Gendered Citizenship by briefly outlining the main concepts of the book and their significance for political science. In this section, I also respond to the contributors to this symposium. I am grateful to Dipali Anumol, Lisa Beard, and Denise Walsh for their thoughtful and careful commentaries.