Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/261201 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Citation: 
[Journal:] Citizenship Studies [ISSN:] 1469-3593 [Issue:] Latest Articles [Publisher:] Taylor & Francis [Place:] London [Year:] 2022 [Pages:] --
Publisher: 
Taylor & Francis, London
Abstract: 
The global COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates how states and companies mobilise new sociotechnical systems to track, trace, evaluate, and modulate the behaviour of citizens. This development illustrates an already-existing transformation of citizenship governance, which this article captures as the move to ‘cybernetic citizenship’. First, the article explores the concept of cybernetic citizenship, providing an overview of the concepts of ‘cybernetic’ and ‘citizenship’ and synthesising these in a discussion of the cybernetic modulation of citizenship. Second, it presents the rise of cybernetic citizenship in the urban realm, zooming in on the case of the Chinese social credit system and the way it affects civic life in the urban realm. Third, it turns into the normative implications of cybernetic citizenship, arguing that it confronts the idea of citizens as equal, free, and vigilant. It challenges equality by turning rights into ends, freedom by turning status into process, and civic virtue by turning excellence into effectiveness.
Subjects: 
citizenship
cybernetic citizenship
COVID-19
social credit system
China
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Article
Document Version: 
Published Version

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