‘Globalisation, Cosmopolitanism and Ecological Citizenship’

‘Moral Offset’

“…However, one emerging discourse, or discourse set, environmental (/ecological/green/ sustainability) citizenship, seems to straddle some of the building blocks of both categories, framing the individual as an active citizen who would naturally, but out of a normative sense of civic responsibility, arising, often but not necessarily, from internalising enough information about environmental issues rather than from any obligation through regulation, make the correct ethical pro-environmental lifestyle and procedural political choices (Barry, 2005;Bell, 2005;Hobson, 2002;Sáiz, 2005). A popular approach in bottom-up and environmental awareness-raising initiatives, it is interesting because it brings ethical choices, reminiscent of normative obligation discourses, into the rationalisation argument at the heart of sustainable consumption discourses, even employing some of the tools of neo-liberal discourses -little regulation and personal choices (Hobson, 2002).…”

“…The discourse employed, then, is that of (global) environmental citizenship which frames carbon reduction as an ethical choice achievable through democratic power and individual agency that does not necessarily reject capitalism (Bell, 2005) but draws on the ideas of obligation and responsibility associated with citizenship as well as a cosmopolitan duty to society and nature (Sáiz, 2005). This supranational responsibility is evident from Harvey's comparison of the Scottish person's footprint to that of other nationalities:…”

Biosecure citizenship: politicising symbiotic associations and the construction of biological threat

“…Distinct approaches to citizenship have emerged, including liberal, republican, contractualist and, more recently, feminist, post‐colonial, cosmopolitan and post‐cosmopolitan citizenships. These approaches accord different importance to citizen rights or responsibilities, to the public or private sphere as the site of citizen activity, and to the nation state or the global community as the signifier of citizenship identity (Dobson 2003; Delanty 1997; Valencia Saiz 2005; Gabrielson 2008). Viewed through a geographical lens, citizenship is the unstable outcome of ongoing struggles over how constructed categories of people come to be politically defined in space .…”

In search of the ecological citizen

“…The theoretical work on ecological citizenship represented by the British political theorist Andrew Dobson (2003;also see Dobson andValencia Saiz 2005, Valencia Saiz 2005) is of particular interest here. His conceptualisation of 'ecological citizenship' amalgamates key functions within both republican and liberal citizenship ideals.…”