Civil citizenship enabled capitalism while reinforcing its inequalities

Evidence

Citizenship is anyway paradoxical. On the one hand, it organizes the formal equality of all citizens in the face of the law. They all theoretically enjoy the same rights and duties. Citizenship is thus a form of social incorporation and a necessary condition for social integration. But on the other hand, persistent social and economic inequalities hinder the exercise of citizenship rights for those social classes located at the lower end of the class structure. This paradox can engender frustration and lead to social conflict when formally recognized rights cannot be satisfactorily exercised by all social groups (Turner, The Main Challenges to Modern Citizenship Political, social, economic, and cultural conditions which characterized the context in which modern citizenship developed have largely been altered in the last decades. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 824 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

But even more to the point, we have seen that the generic terms “the English working class” or “the English proletariat” mask the social and historical realities that accompanied the introduction of industrial capitalism in England and its Empire. Social divisions and habits of life and attitude that predated capitalist production continued into the modern era and extended to the working classes located in Britain specific social sensibilities and consciousness. The English working class was never the singular social and historical entity suggested by the phrase. An even closer study of its elements—for we have merely reviewed the more extreme case with the Irish—would reveal other social divisions, some ethnic (Welsh, Scottish, and more recently West Indian and Asian), some regional, and others essentially industrial and occupational. The negations resultant from capitalist modes of production, relations of production, and ideology did not manifest themselves as an eradication of oppositions among the working classes. Instead, the dialectic of proletarianization disciplined the working classes to the importance of distinctions: between ethnics and nationalities; between skilled and unskilled workers; and, as we shall see later in even more dramatic terms, between races. The persistence and creation of such oppositions within the working classes were a critical aspect of the triumph of capitalism in the nineteenth century. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 267 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Until recently citizenship studies did not pay much attention to gender and even less to sexual orientation. Citizenship was a gendered notion that did not take into account the various forms of discrimination and inequalities faced by women. According to feminist thinking, citizenship was in a way a tool of male domination. After World War II, the position of women improved in terms of civil rights, economic autonomy, and political power. But historically the unequal social position of women has been a challenge to the universalistic ideal of citizenship and any discussion on the evolution of citizenship now tends to avoid gender-biased views. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 831 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Civil rights victories secured legal gains that coexist with deepened material inequality — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 106; Capitalism reproduces itself by drawing civil and cultural life into conformity with its needs; Racialization results from capitalism’s mobility need conflicting with citizenship boundaries — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2186 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Formal citizenship equality coexists with inequality that provokes social conflict #corroborates (0.94) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 824
• Capitalism triumphed by cultivating divisions rather than erasing them within the working class #complicates (0.92) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 267
• Citizenship functioned historically as an instrument of male domination #complicates (0.82) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 831