Performing Belonging in Public Space

M. Victoria Quiroz Becerra

Politics & Society, 2014, vol. 42, issue 3, 331-357

Abstract: Playing soccer in public parks, participating in parades, or marching in religious processions are public performances that express membership in a political community. When these practices are performed by noncitizens, they highlight how the public space—in its physical and symbolic character—is not a space exclusive to members of the political community. Rather, public space is a terrain subject to contestation. In this article, I explore the ways Mexican migrants in New York City use and appropriate public spaces and in doing so expand the boundaries of the political community. I argue that by gaining access to public spaces, appropriating them, and then transforming them, noncitizens claim recognition as members of the political community and thus unsettle its boundaries.

Keywords: citizenship; undocumented migrants; public space; recognition; membership (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:polsoc:v:42:y:2014:i:3:p:331-357

DOI: 10.1177/0032329214543257

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