Title: The participatory web as space for 'mediated' and 'transnational' citizenships: UK asylum seekers/refugees' 'deterritorialisation' of identity, political participation and claims making

Authors: Amadu Wurie Khan

Addresses: Research Associate, ECA, University of Edinburgh and Postgraduate Researcher, School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

Abstract: This article draws from an empirical study conducted among asylum seekers/refugees residing in Scotland, the UK, to demonstrate that the participatory web (or Web 2.0) provides spaces for migrants' mediated and transnational citizenships. It considers how these citizenship formations are realised through online deliberation, political mobilisation, networking and claims making for social, cultural and political recognition and human rights. Therefore, the article has four subtexts that offer insights into the role played by the participatory web in migrants' mediated and transnational citizenship formations in the West. First, the participatory web offers possibilities for facilitating asylum seekers/refugees' mediated politics and inclusion into some democratic processes of the host country. Second, by using the web for networking, political mobilisation and cultural production, asylum seekers/refugees demonstrate a belonging to and identification with their homelands. Third, this kind of mediated politics, multiple belongings and identities contests the cultural homogeneity and territorial construction of the state. Fourth, the mediated processes demonstrate the intersection between mediated citizenship and transnational citizenship. The article is an attempt to provide an empirically grounded cultural approach in understanding the role of new media technology in non-citizens' mediated citizenship in multicultural democracies.

Keywords: participatory web; Web 2.0; mediated citizenship; transnational citizenship; networking, political mobilisation; cultural production; asylum seekers; refugees; new media technology; claims making; belonging; identity; mediated politics; UK; United Kingdom; multicultural democracies.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEG.2012.049805

International Journal of Electronic Governance, 2012 Vol.5 No.2, pp.116 - 133

Received: 16 Aug 2011
Accepted: 12 Jul 2012
Published online: 15 Oct 2012 *

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