Abstract

This chapter provides an interpretation of Balibar’s concept of citizenship introduced in his major philosophical works Citizenship (2015) and Equaliberty: political essays (2014). It is an effort to bring up a positive shape of citizenship out of Balibar’s philosophy even though it resists a positive conceptualization as a critique. This chapter departs from the meaning of negativity and antinomy in Balibar’s oeuvres, continues via interpretation of historical events which have shaped citizenship in Balibar’s perspective, and finally results in a positive assumption about citizenship defined as a form of historical practice which opposes the institutionalized realms in order to install an equal community in changing historical conditions. Balibar’s reflections on citizenship occur especially in relation to a universal community, an envisaged aim of modernity and a condition of possibility of a contemporary globalized world.