Constitutionalism, sovereignty, and the troubled category of social citizenship

Wickham, G. (2011) Constitutionalism, sovereignty, and the troubled category of social citizenship. In: The Australian Sociological Association (TASA) Conference , 29 November - 1 December, Newcastle, New South Wales.

Preview

PDF - Published Version Download (309kB) | Preview

Abstract

In a recent paper Martin Loughlin laments the fact that during 'the last 20 years or so' a serious misunderstanding of constitutional authority has found its way into a great deal of social, legal, and political thinking. Loughlin contends that this misunderstanding is a reaction to 'the growing range of governmental functions now being exercised through supra- or transnational institutional arrangements'. In a not-unrelated set of papers, Grahame Thompson highlights the way this problematic thinking about constitutionalism has infected discussions about the role of global corporations, especially those that attempt to grant to some global corporations the status 'global corporate citizen'. After setting out a distinctive understanding of 'the social', this paper explores some aspects of these interventions by Loughlin and Thompson. The paper then builds on their insights to develop an argument that the category of social citizenship is unsustainable.