Conclusion: Citizenship and the Centaur State

Abstract

This final chapter will argue that to tackle the problems of poverty, social inequality and the damage that the penal state has done to individuals and communities, there is a need for a recasting of the notion of citizenship. This chapter is influenced by the work of Somers on notions of citizenship. In her discussion of the abandonment of poor African-Americans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, she argued that this demonstrates that they had been denied the full rights of social inclusion in the political community. It is only by establishing that all individuals should be recognised as citizens of equal moral worth that we can restore meaningful membership in the political community.