Valuing flexible citizenship

Producing Surinamese Hindu citizens at a primary school in The Hague

Bibliographic Data

ID4525569
AuthorsPriya Swamy (Tilburg University, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume21
Issue8
Pages1052-1066
Publication date2017-11-17
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCitizenship Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1362-1025 • E-ISSN: 1469-3593
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13621025.2017.1361905
OpenAlexW2749743080
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited14

This article is an ethnographic exploration of flexible cultural citizenship among a Surinamese Hindu community in the Netherlands. Rather than focus on the relationship between mobility and transnationalism, it revisits the notion of cultural flexibility in order to demonstrate how diasporic actors belonging to a transnational moral community construct their position as model citizens. This includes an appeal to aspects of difference rather than notions of sameness or integration. By introducing what the author calls ‘value flexibility’ in asserting a diasporic community’s belonging, this article draws attention to the ways in which citizenship and belonging in diasporic contexts hinges on culturally specific, orientalized notions of what it means to be Hindu. Such notions ultimately translate into flexibility across cultural and moral worldviews. It illustrates this through interviews with Surinamese Hindus across the Netherlands and a case study of a Hindu primary school in The Hague. This article focuses upon discursive constructions of the use of religious images, the circulation of moral stories and the performance of mythological narratives as productive domains of value flexibility

Appeal · Citizenship · Hinduism · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Transnationalism · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · Gender Studies · Law · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Religious studies · Socioeconomic Development in Asia

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Open DOISci-HubOpen Access