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CHAPTER 22
Culture and Citizenship
Theresa Alviar-Martin
INTRODUCTION
Culture and citizenship are inextricably linked (Ladson-Billings 2004).
Historically, the political legitimacy of nation-states was built upon the con-
joining of the political entity of a state with the cultural identity of a nation
(Couldry 2006). Culture was mobilized as a means of strengthening citizens’
national identities by emphasizing shared values, territories, histories, and
beliefs (Kymlicka 1995). Conditions of globalization, however, raise ques-
tions regarding the ways nationalistic constructions of culture and citizenship
refect dominant groups’ agendas while diminishing the entitlement of cul-
tural minorities to attain the full spectrum of social and political rights. Trans-
national fows of ideas and capital, furthermore, have compelled examination
of how individuals’ af fliations based on class, gender, race, religion, or lan-
guage complicate notions of cultural identity and inform emerging concep-
tions of citizenship unanchored from the nation-state (Banks 2008).
The fuidity of culture and citizenship in the era of globalization implicates
the historical role of schools as sites of institutionalized learning where poli-
cies, curriculum, and pedagogies are strongly associated with nations’ cultural
and political traditions (Hahn and Alviar-Martin 2008). Thus, schools today
face questions regarding how to welcome students from diverse cultural back-
grounds, acknowledge and develop their multilayered identities, and cultivate
national values while recognizing young citizens’ potential to build af fni-
ties to the shared human community of common argument and aspiration
(Nussbaum 2002).
© The Author(s) 2018
I. Davies et al. (eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Global Citizenship and
Education, https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59733-5_22
T. Alviar-Martin (*)
Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China
e-mail: tpbalviar@ied.edu.hk