'Seeing Like a Citizen' Re-claiming citizenship in a neoliberal World

Abstract

Five years ago this month, many of us gathered at the University of Sussex for the first time to Launch the Development Research Centre on Citizenship, Participation and Accountability. In a draft concept note developed at the time we had argued, 'if development assistance is to be effective in meeting the poverty targets, new approaches, which attempt to rebuild the concept of citizenship and the ways in which citizens influence and contribute to more responsive and accountable institutions, are absolutely critical. In the proposal for future work in March 2001 we went on to say: If poverty is to be alleviated, new attention must be paid to the relationships between poor people and the institutions which affect their lives. To do so requires re-examining in different development contexts contemporary understandings for rights and citizenship and their implications for related issues of participation and accountability