Field Relationalism versus Process Relationalism in Citizenship Studies

This article analyses the state-of-art literature in the field of citizenship studies based on relational approaches by focusing on theories of citizenship of three leading relationalist scholars in the field: Margaret Somers, Gurminder Bhambra and Engin Isin. We analyse each of these theories with differentiation between field relationalism and process relationalism as the metatheoretical axes of coordinates to make sense of their similarities and differences. The analysis focuses, first, on the ways in which they envisage overcoming the analytical dualisms responsible for social exclusion and hierarchies related to citizenship and, second, their ‘normative assumptions aimed at the emancipation of society. We demonstrate that the differences between the two metatheoretical assumptions have important implications for understanding their research objects and methodology, as well as normative assumptions in the study of citizenship. Keywords: relational approaches in social sciences, acts of citizenship