Unequally entitled citizens: towards a micro-situated and emotion-based model of social inclusion

This article illustrates a micro-situated and emotion-based model of social inclusion aimed to overcome current limitations of the concept of citizenship. A growing number of critical theorisations of care work, intimacy and citizenship from feminist, multicultural and global perspectives support the argument that nonconventional forms of intimacy and care represent an opportunity to explore possible sites of resistance against macro-structural forces while at the same time avoiding marginalisation. The theoretical contribution illustrated in this paper discusses the extent to which a micro-situated and emotion-based model of social inclusion can be applied to several types of unequally entitled citizens in different cultural contexts. Its overall objective is developing new perspectives to understand the relationship between individuals, local communities and political institutions and to grasp useful insights into how people across the globe resourcefully “do citizenship” and social inclusion through care practices and the emotional dynamics revolving around them. In other words, to explore and understand how new, creative ways to define citizenship and social inclusion can be activated at the local level of micro-interactions even when forms of institutional exclusion and racism persist at a structural and political level. The new perspective on citizenship and social inclusion emerging from the proposed theoretical model challenges common assumptions on the problematic nature of migration and reframes this latter as an integral part of the process of human, social and economic development.