Page 62 - Communication Cultural and Media Studies The Key Concepts

CULTURAL CITIZENSHIP

. civil rights from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (primarily
legal rights);
. political rights from the nineteenth century (whereby rights were
institutionalised through the parliamentary system);
. social rights which developed in the twentieth century (education,
health and pensions brought about through the emergence of the
welfare state);
and, a recent addition to understandings of citizenship rights,

. cultural citizenship.

The social movements of the twentieth century brought increasing
demands for rights based on identity and group cultures into the
political arena: feminism, gay rights, Indigenous rights and the black
civil rights movement in the US, to name a few. Marshall’s notion of a
unified and homogenous citizenry, dedicated to a single cultural and
political project was contested. The political community consisted of
fragmented, competing and culturally diverse groups. Citizenship had
to be conceived within the realities of contemporary democracies:
namely that ‘the security provided by the authorities cannot just be
enjoyed; it must itself be secured, and sometimes against the
authorities themselves’ (Walzer, 1989: 217). Where democracy
consisted of a changing cultural landscape under a continual process
of negotiation and dispute, citizenship could no longer be seen as the
possession of a common culture and heritage.
‘Differentiated citizenship’, as Young (1990) named it, entailed
certain groups being recognised not simply as individual citizens, but
as possessing rights as a result of their status within a group. Although
as individuals, members of minority groups may possess the same
rights as others, they may have less political power. Only by
recognising such groups is it possible to actively pursue a diverse
and equal society. Claims for Indigenous land rights, quota systems to
encourage more women in political or executive positions or the
institution of multiculturalism as a government strategy, are
concessions to the need for cultural rights.
However, cultural citizenship has not survived without criticism.
Some maintain that cultural groups are in a constant state of change
owing to political, economic and social forces (Kukathas, 1995).
Although people may gather together collectively to influence political
structures, it is their rights as individuals that must ultimately be
protected. And protection of the group may be at the expense of those

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