Citizenship, Critique and Communication. An Inquiry into the Repoliticization of Social Interactions

Abstract

This dissertation elaborates on a critical concept of citizenship departing from a theoretical reconstruction of the normative idea developed in the history of philosophy and displays a critical analysis of the problems implicated in the political exercise of citizenship in the times of neoliberal capitalism. It is assumed that citizenship has suffered from an ongoing phenomenon of depoliticization in modern times, which blocks the political capacities of citizens to submit to their power the social world. Accordingly, the dissertation submits to scrutiny the phenomenon of depoliticization, claiming that it is a social pathology that affects the political interactions and suggests a critical interpretation of how those problems could be overcome. Following the methodological guidance of contemporary critical theory, the analysis is carried out in two parts that reflect two types of analytical reconstruction: a normative-theoretical and a social-critical. By virtue of that, it is claimed that the autonomy of subjects, seen as the essence of a sustainable normative concept of citizenship, is partially realized in the practices of claiming rights and proposing social conflicts by the agendas of political actors and social movements that oppose the perceived problems taking place in our form of life currently facing many crises. As a conclusion, the dissertation suggests that the pathology of depoliticization affects the quality of the communication performed in claims that political actors and social movements perform today as representations of their needs, interests and desires. Because of this, a process of argumentation is proposed for political interactions that points out how exactly some political struggles may be more legitimate than others in terms of the type of deliberation they trigger publicly.