Being Citizens Yesterday and Today: State, Democracy and Constitution in Chile and the World

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This course is based on the following observation: although the concept of "citizenship" is widely used today in public debate, its meaning is not always stable and the same actors who use it do not always agree on it. This is because this concept is not univocal but has changed over the years. In this course, and through the critical analysis of bibliographic texts and primary sources, students will examine the historical construction of different "types" of citizenship and citizens throughout history and in the present, understanding the ideas behind their conceptualization, as well as the political and social practices they inspired. They will also reflect on the relationships between the exercise of citizenship and other political-social phenomena such as state-building, democracy, and constituent moments, understanding these phenomena from a multidisciplinary perspective and proposing ways in which historical knowledge about the construction of citizenship can contribute to address social problems we are experiencing today.