Introduction: Performance and Citizenship

[First paragraph] This special issue is concerned with the possibilities that the performative turn opens up for the study of spaces, practices and processes of citizenship and the problematization of political culture as a space of appearances and performances. The special issue brings together different approaches to performance in the social sciences and the humanities to examine the intersection between citizenship and performance. The contributors examine how cultural and political performances can become key sites for struggles about and around the recognition of difference, values, and identity, in social, cultural and political spheres. As part of this endeavour, the articles in the issue extend the application of the concepts and analytical tools of performance studies to the study of political communication, activism and political culture.