Abstract

In response to the polarisation and environmental crises of our times, relationally oriented vocabularies have arisen to challenge the ideal of an autonomous rational subject central to traditional humanism and liberal individualism. This chapter contributes to the theme of the book by linking citizenship to the new materialist philosopher Rosi Braidotti’s relational view of agency. The authors introduce two Braidotti-inspired modes of agency—sustainable citizenship and reactivity—and elucidate the latter in the context of populism. In sustainable citizenship, subjects are driven by affirmative relations, which form the basis for diverse and sustainable communities. Reactivity appears as its counterforce, where negative affects and discursive power—tied to unitary identities and fixed representations—diminish the subjects’ capacity to connect and relate to others. The chapter argues that sustainable citizenship calls for educational practices that allow for the critical examination of self-representations and offer tools to overcome habitual, dialectical modes of meaning-making.