Conference: 30 years of EU citizenship
21 November 2022
The conference will bring together internationally leading researchers in this area, who together will provide an overview of the Union’s citizenship today.
This year marks 30 years since European Union citizenship came into being. It will be highlighted at an international, interdisciplinary conference in Uppsala on 22–23 November. Both researchers and all those interested are welcome to attend.
Photo: Mikael Wallerstedt
The conference will be held in the Humanities Theatre and will bring together internationally leading researchers in this area, who together will provide an overview of the Union’s citizenship today. The opening speech will be given by Eleanor Sharpston, who was previously advocate general at the EU Court of Justice and has highlighted issues concerning the protection of Union citizens.
“We want to reach a broad target group. We’re not only aiming to attract researchers with an interest in this subject, but also the wider public – people who work within administration and at public authorities, journalists and perhaps even schools,” explains Patricia Mindus.
Interdisciplinary research
Mindus is a professor of philosophy active in multiple interdisciplinary research projects focused on citizenship. The research group involved in the Contributivism project will present a number of exciting research results concerning attitudes towards voting rights in various EU countries.
“We want to take a retrospective look at everything that has happened these past 30 years. Union citizenship has been criticised for excluding people on socioeconomic grounds, and there is talk nowadays of EU migrants despite the joint citizenship,” notes Mindus.
Citizenship is connected to democracy, as it is required in order to vote in a country. If financial requirements are set for obtaining citizenship, what will this entail for democracy?
“We believe that the idea of basing the right to vote on financial grounds is making a comeback. It sounds like an idea from the 19th century, but if you look at those who obtain citizenship during their lifetime, there are signs that this idea remains alive among Union citizens,” she adds.
Legislation often amended
According to Mindus, another aspect that has arisen over the past 30 years is that citizenship policy has become a political instrument.
“We amend our legislation increasingly often and rapidly, but not always in a considered way. Between 2013 and 2019, laws concerning citizenship changed over a hundred times across EU countries. This is linked to migration, as politicians think that citizenship policy can be used to control migration or to choose who can become a citizen.”
Among the speakers at the conference are Niamh Nic Shubhne from the Edinburgh School of Law, who will talk about the future of EU citizenship: “Union Citizenship: The Next Thirty Years?” Martin Steinfeld from Cambridge University will discuss European solidarity in connection with the war in Ukraine.
Flagged changes
The issue of EU citizenship is particularly current given the signalled changes to migration and citizenship policy proposed by the new government in Sweden. This also affects all Swedes who travel within the EU and have familial connections to Union citizens in other countries.
“Knowing what applies and how Union citizenship will change or has changed over time has an impact on our choices and courses of action throughout our lives,” notes Mindus.
Conference on EU citizenship
The conference is funded by the Swedish Research Council, the Knut & Alice Wallenberg Foundation and the Wenner-Gren Foundations. It is being organised by the ‘Contributivism’ research project at the Uppsala Religion and Society Research Centre in collaboration with the Uppsala Forum on Democracy, Peace and Justice, which in turn is a collaboration between four of the faculties at the Disciplinary Domain of Humanities and Social Sciences (Law, Social Sciences, Languages and Arts).
News
-
“The American dilemma is far from resolved”
15 juni 2020
The police violence in Minneapolis that resulted in the death of George Floyd has once again thrust relations between black and white Americans onto the agenda, a dilemma that will most likely play a central role in this autumn’s presidential elec...
-
Social graces and etiquette vital for Carl Linnaeus
04 juni 2020
What would have become of Carl Linnaeus if he had remained single? Would science have missed out on one of its major lodestars without his well-functioning household? And was his son, Carl Linnaeus the Younger, really the ne’er-do-well he was repu...
-
Medieval manuscript fragments acquired
26 maj 2020
A group of fragments of medieval manuscripts has been acquired by Uppsala University Library. Among these there is a fragment related to Saint Bridget of Sweden. This particular fragment may have been written at or owned by the Vadstena Abbey.
-
She studies AI as existential media
30 april 2020
How are we influenced when smart digital assistants, like Siri and Alexa, become part of our homes? And what happens when we begin to track deviating individuals through biometrics? “More research is needed on what it means to be human in a digita...
-
New study reveals unknown side of Astrid Lindgren’s creative process
21 februari 2020
Why did Jonathan Lionheart’s pitch-black hair suddenly turn golden? And how did Master Detective Kalle Blomqvist get his proper name? In the “Astrid Lindgren Code”, literature researcher Malin Nauwerck lifts the lid on some of the literary world’s...
-
History professor given prestigious assignment
22 januari 2020
Maria Ågren, professor of history, has been awarded a distinguished professor grant of SEK 50 million over 10 years by the Swedish Research Council. The council awarded grants totalling some SEK 380 million to eight applicants.
-
Winner of the 2019 Geijer Prize Named
14 januari 2020
The Geijer Prize for history 2019 has been awarded to Mia Kuritzen Löwengart for her doctoral thesis A Matter of Social Urgency: The emergence of a symphony orchestra and concert house in Stockholm, ca. 1890-1926 and Hedvig Widmalm for her doctora...
-
Legendary runestone bears witness to climate anxiety 1,200 years ago
08 januari 2020
After more than 1,000 years, one of the greatest mysteries of the early Viking Age, the Rök runestone which bears the world’s longest runic inscription, appears to have been solved. According to four Swedish researchers, the puzzling inscription h...
-
Martin Henriksson Holmdahl Prize goes to Afaf Doleeb and Patricia Lorenzoni
21 november 2019
The Martin Henriksson Holmdahl Prize is Uppsala University’s foremost award for contributions to the promotion of human rights and liberty. This year’s prize is shared by graduate student Afaf Doleeb and researcher Patricia Lorenzoni for their com...
-
Large-scale cadastral maps on parchment digitised
08 november 2019
Uppsala University Archives holds a large collection of hand-drawn seventeenth century maps on parchment. These maps are of significant historical value and a valuable source of information on the University’s agricultural properties at the time.
-
New Honorary Doctors Appointed at Uppsala University
21 oktober 2019
The nine faculties at Uppsala University have decided on who they wish to appoint as honorary doctors this academic year. The new honorary doctors include researchers in fields as diverse as string theory, maternal healthcare, evolutionary biology...
-
Excavation documentation from Labraunda digitised
21 oktober 2019
Uppsala University Library's part of the project Mötesplats Medelhavet ("Labraunda") - a research platform for digitised archaeological collections and archives at the Swedish institutes in Athens, Rome and Istanbul, is now being started. The aim ...
-
Aristocratic family trees became scientific model
01 oktober 2019
Before the French Revolution, family trees were reserved for the feudal upper classes, who used them to consolidate their social status. While feudalism broke down and family trees lost their old roles, the trees gained new functions as scientific...
-
Uppsala philosopher elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
19 september 2019
Folke Tersman, professor of practical philosophy at Uppsala University, has been elected as a member of the class for humanities and for outstanding services to science at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
-
Johan Ihre’s dissertations now in digital form.
06 september 2019
Johan Ihre (1707-1780) was professor of Rethoric and Politics at Uppsala University for 42 years. During this time he managed no less than 453 dissertations, the theses of the time. These dissertations are currently a widely used source material i...
-
Sustainable urbanisation requires collaboration
10 juni 2019
On Sunday, 30 June, six seminars on sustainability and urbanisation focusing on India and Sweden will take place in Almedalen. To find out more, we talked to Swaminathan Ramanathan, visiting research fellow, and Owe Ronström, professor of ethnolog...
-
Races for women play an important role
06 maj 2019
Participating in a race for women plays an important role for women and increases self-confidence among participants. Women aim to perform as well as they can, and they place most emphasis on their physical performance, despite the organisers’ oft...
-
Award for research and teaching on the Holocaust
11 april 2019
Tomislav Dulić, Senior Lecturer in History and Director of the Hugo Valentin Centre, has been awarded the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Award 2019.
-
Diplomatic wives’ political clout often overlooked
07 mars 2019
Many 20th-century accounts of international relations and diplomacy often leave out the role of women. Diplomats’ wives were not officially employed, but diplomacy was frequently based on couples working together.
-
Ola Larsmo awarded Martin Henriksson Holmdahl Prize
16 november 2018
The Martin Henriksson Holmdahl Prize is Uppsala University’s foremost award for efforts to promote human rights and liberty. This year’s prize is awarded to author and honorary doctor Ola Larsmo.