Statelessness and citizenship: camps and the creation of 'political space'
Dr Victoria Redclift (LSE)
Public Seminar Series
Wednesday, 20 February 2013, 5pm to 6.30pm
Seminar Room 1, Oxford Department of International Development, University of Oxford, 3 Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3TB
What does it mean to be a citizen? In-depth field research with a stateless population in Bangladesh reveals that, despite liberal theory’s restrictive vision, the limits of political community are not set in stone. The Urdu-speaking population in Bangladesh exemplify some of the key problems facing uprooted populations. Set in a site of camp and non-camp based displacement, their experiences illustrate the nuances of political identity, and lived spaces of statelessness, that Western political theory has too long hidden from view.