liberal citizenship: ambiguities and inconsistencies35 was here where the citizen was first rooted in modern readings of an autonomous and individual subject: “a being unto himself, separable from any community, the author of his own will and intentions” (McAfee 2000, 13). The modern conception of the citizen outlines a political subject capable of developing an understanding of itself as a political subject through the exercise of decisive political actions and interventions. As Nöelle McAfee explains, “[t]o this day, our notions of citizenship rest upon our notions of subjectivity.”7 A historical reading of the development of the concept of citizenship requires an understanding of a universalizable political subject through which particular social, cultural and tribal affinities begin to collapse. Such a transformation initially occurred within the context of ancient and pre-modern cities, and later developed into state-based forms of political organization where social collectives struggled over the use of, and access to, social resources. Not an inevitable development within city-states, social rights in the form of citizenship rights are a product of a series of conflicts and competitions between different social groups, with different access to and investment in the state order. By the same token, previously acquired sets of social rights can also be renounced as a result of these social struggles. Therefore, with the development of citizenship within the city-state context evolved notions of freedom, autonomy, civility, and at a broader level, civilization (Turner 1990, 203). Migration from the township, village or countryside to the city became associated with the processes of civilization, acculturation and enlightenment, thus distinguishing the citizenized individual from her/his non-advanced non-citizen counterparts. Hence, what surfaces from ancient, pre-modern and modern readings of citizenship is the necessary Otherizing that lies at the root of the concept and process of citizenship: the creation and maintenance of an Other, a non-member or outsider excepted from the social arrangement. The modern concept of citizenship remains rooted in a relation of exception. While depicted in the language of universalism and inclu­ sion, it has simultaneously and systematically excluded, and sometimes even criminalized, certain individuals and collectives.8 Citizenship lives, 7 This definition of the political subject is very similar to one posited by Alain Badiou. For a critical reading of Badiou’s concept of the political subject, see Calcagno (2008). In this article, Calcagno points out the “de-politicizing, de-subjectivating [and] dehumanizing” effects of political actions. He also expands traditional readings of political actions to include “failed or non-interventions” within the realm of the political. 8 As Ben-Porat and Turner note, “What determines the composition of citizens, strangers and outsiders and their respective rights and obligations in a given nation-state depends on its historical trajectory” (2011, 3).