Community as Referent and Effect of Authority Claims

This final chapter takes the place of, but is not precisely, a conclusion because I do not attempt a comprehensive synthesis of the arguments presented by the volume authors. It is rather my own theoretical response to the chapters, building on our authors’ responses to the four questions posed in Chapter 1, linking them ‘laterally’ (Bono, 1983) to debates across fields, with an eye on future interdisciplinary research. My aim is to sketch out a framework for research on the dynamics of authority in citizenship and political community. In the process, I go beyond my own discipline of anthropology to discuss the chapters in relation to work by a range of other authors. Among them are three political theorists: Colin Bird, John Keane and Joseph Carens.