TILBURG LAW REVIEW Journal of International and European Law Nannie Sköld, ‘Mapping a Sociology of Statelessness’ (2019) 24(2) Tilburg Law Review pp. 217–223. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/tilr.155 RESEARCH ARTICLE Mapping a Sociology of Statelessness Nannie Sköld* This article aims to problematize some of the common assumptions within the dominant discourse on statelessness, such as the hegemonic framework of the international state system and the conceptualization of the state as an emancipatory actor, by using sociological notions of citizenship and nationalism to provide a more nuanced framework of understanding. Through a sociological lens, citizenship is considered a concept beyond formal legal status and as one heavily intertwined with notions of nationhood, and as a concept which can be utilized as a political tool. The paper argues that it is necessary to consider a sociological understanding of statelessness alongside a legal understanding of the issue in order to be able to address the complexities of statelessness. Keywords: Statelessness; Citizenship; Nationalism; Sociology; Tool of Oppression 1 Introduction Although statelessness is still an emerging field of study within sociology, established fields of sociological research such as citizenship and nationalism studies offer crucial insights into the issue of statelessness. This paper will argue that in order to be able to address the issue of statelessness in its full complexity, theory and practice cannot be limited to the dominant legalistic framing of the issue but must also incorporate sociological understandings of the issue in order to be able to challenge underlying hegemonic assumptions of the international state system and of the state as an emancipatory actor on which the existence of statelessness rests. The concept of citizenship will be deconstructed and then analyzed by looking at how it relates to ideas of nationalism. In light of a more nuanced understanding of citizenship, sociological conceptualizations of statelessness will be explored in light of the hegemonic international state system. Thereafter the paper will start from the deconstructed concepts of citizenship, nationalism and statelessness in an attempt to challenge the notion of citizenship as a blanket solution to statelessness and ultimately to analyze citizenship as a political tool which states can use in order to oppress populations. Although a legal understanding of statelessness is essential for identifying and offering solutions to statelessness, a legal understanding alone cannot provide a complete understanding of the underlying structures and nuances inherent in the issue; an interdisciplinary understanding is required. As the academic and practice-oriented professional field of statelessness is dominated by a legal understanding of the issue, this analysis of a sociological understanding of statelessness will first situate the sociological concepts within the main legal discourse. The dominant framework surrounding statelessness, largely determined by United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR) as well as NGOs such as the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion and the European Network on Statelessness, defines statelessness in terms of its legal definition in the 1954 Convention on Statelessness as someone who is, ‘not recognized as a national by any state under the operation of its law’.1 Accordingly, the organizations’ approaches to addressing statelessness are centered around advocating for states to accede to the statelessness conventions and to implement changes in their respective citizenship laws.2 However, this dominant approach to statelessness has come to be criticized for having a restricted legal focus and for obscuring broader structural * Current MSc student in Sociology: Migration and Ethnic Studies at Universiteit van Amsterdam, nannieskold@hotmail.com 1 Art. 1 of the 1954 Convention on Stateless Persons. 2 UNHCR, ‘Ending Statelessness within 10 Years’ (2010); Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, ‘The World’s Stateless’ (2014); Europeans Network on Statelessness, ‘Still Stateless, Still Suffering: Why Europe Must Act Now to Protect Stateless Persons’ (2014).