Abstract
As the world is becoming more and more digitalized with technology, the focus on the issue of identity and citizenship in the context of public sphere evolves into a new (digital) sphere. Defined briefly as an ability to participate online society, digital citizenship is also seen as a disparity in access to computers and the internet among different layers of social entities. Starting from its roots, this study presents a comprehensive and detailed account of citizenship with its altered and diversified forms up to now. The larger focus of the study centers around the evolutionary process of digital citizenship with all its aspects involved.
TopBackground
Literally, the word “citizen” describes an individual as a member particular country with legally recognized rights for being born there. Bellamy (2014) gives an historical view of citizenship by defining the core of citizenships as a distinctive possession of the formal status of membership of a political and legal entity and various rights and obligations involved. According to Bellamy, understanding how the concept of citizenship was evolved, one needs to goes back to classical times of ancient Greece and Imperial Rome. Aristotle in [335- 323BC] regarded human beings as as ‘political animals’ as they live in political communities. Aristotle described citizens those who ‘rule and are ruled’ by turns. However, gender, race and class were defining factor for citizenship.
Morphologically, the word citizenship itself is derived from Latin ‘civis’ and its Greek equivalent ‘polites’ meant the member of the ‘polis’ or a city (Roy, 2005). In earlier periods, interest in citizenship was associated with particular states. Fifth to fourth- century BC Athens, first-century BC to first-century AD Rome, late medieval Florence, late-eighteenth-century America and France are the ones that come to mind first. More than two millennia ago, Aristotle himself could hardly signify a clear unanimity or an agreement as to what makes a citizen. Talking about the concept of ‘citizen’, Aristotle made numerous implications of citizenship in the Greek city-state, where citizens were defined as a mere and passive member of a polis; they were not full citizens. In classical Athens, citizenship was an elite and privileged status, and it was often restricted to elites. Typically, large nation-states demand loyalty to the state, by doing this, they weaken the correlation between citizenship and direct political participation.
Miller (2017) gives a detailed account of Aristotle’s description of citizenship. This portrays a profile of a person with the right (exousia) to participate in deliberative or judicial office as citizens were given the right to attend the assembly, the council, and other bodies, or to sit on juries in Athens. This was a clear evidence that citizens were more directly involved in governing. However, women, slaves, foreigners, and some others were excluded or restricted from full citizenship.
Roy (2005) argues that in the transition from the Greek self-governing city-states to huge Roman Empire, citizenship underwent modifications as the concept of freedom also changed. Compared to its Greek counterpart, Roman citizenship was bounded to a legal rather than a political status. Participation to governance affair as a citizen within the empire was not the only marking to become a citizen. There some highly esteemed obligations to be ensured by the citizens. They were required to develop a ‘civic virtue, ‘virtus’, a Latin term meaning ‘manliness, which mainly covered performing military duties, devotion to law and patriotism. In the sixteenth century, unlike Greek and Roman definitions of citizenship, the view of citizenship remained as a passive idea that was limited to the notion of ‘common (shared) liberty’. That paradox continued until the French Revolution which was a kind of revolt to passive citizenship. French revolutionaries adopted the concept of citizen (citoyen, citoyenne) to utter the symbolic reality and representation of equality Following ‘The Declaration of the Right of Man and Citizens’, it gave birth to the understanding of ‘a free and autonomous individual’.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Digital Law: Legal requirements, decisions, restrictions, rights and ethics that relate to digital environments.
Digital Theory: A comprehensive conceptualization of subject areas such as digital reality, simulation, and virtuality; interactivity and agency; media archaeology and migration; subjectivity, race, gender, and online identity; the politics of cyberculture; indigenous interventions; globalization and the political economy of digital media.
Eschatology: A branch of theology concerned with the final events in the history of the world or of humankind.
Digital Etiquette: Rules about the proper, ethical, and polite way to communicate with other people won the Internet.
Netizen: As an internet user, a citizen who participates in political society and contribute to the Internet's use and growth through the use of the internet.
Datafication: Transformation of social action into online quantified data allowing for real-time tracking and predictive analysis.
Digital Nexus: Term for connection related multiple digital elements.
Bio-Robotics: A process of using biological organisms to develop new technologies and create machines that imitate biological systems through a collective study of cybernetics, bionics, and genetic engineering.
Citizen: A legally recognized subject or national of a state or commonwealth, either native or naturalized.
Citizenship: The position or status of being a citizen of a particular country.
Digital Native: A person who grew up with the presence of digital technology in the information age and equipped with the knowledge of the terrain of an interconnected, globalized world, and moves about it comfortably.
Ecological Citizenship: The responsibilities of an active and expansive citizenship engaged in collective action to push for responsible and systemic change for the benefit of the environment.
Digital Literacy: The ability to use technology competently, interpret and understand digital content and assess its credibility, create, research, and communicate with appropriate tools.
Global (Active) Citizenship: Status of being aware of and understands the wider world by taking active role with others or working towards a more sustainable and fairer world.
Cybernetics: The science of communications and automatic control systems in both machines and living things.
Transhumanism: A concept that defines a cultural, intellectual. social and philosophical movement aiming to improve the human condition through the use of advanced technologies.
Cryptocurrency: A form of payment realized on a decentralized technology called Blockchain that manages and records transactions for goods and services.
Humanoid: A being with human form or characteristics.
Digital Culture: A concept describing how technology and the internet are shaping the way that humans interact and the way that they behave, think, and communicate within society.
Social Citizenship: A set of rights ranging from economic welfare, security to the right to share and live the life of a civilized being according to the standards prevailing in society.
Industry 4.0: A term used to describe automation and data exchange in technology and processes within the manufacturing industry.
Cryonics: The practice or technique of deep-freezing the bodies of people who have just died, in the hope that scientific advances may allow them to be revived in the future.
Digital Health: Use of healthcare technologies such as wearable devices, telehealth and telemedicine, and personalized medicine to help improve individuals' health and wellness.
Sentient: A form or being “having senses; capable of sensing”.
Digital skills: A set of abilities to use digital devices, communication applications, and networks to access and manage information.
Cyborg: An organism with restored function or enhanced abilities due to the integration of some artificial component or technology.
Eugenics: The study or belief in the possibility of improving the qualities of the human species or human population.
Digital Immigrant (Nomad): A term used to refer to a person who was raised prior to the digital age and so had to adapt to the new language and practice of digital technologies.
Sapient: An organism or an entity that has the ability to act with judgment.
Gendered Citizenship: A form of citizenship that pays particular attention to the rights of women based on feminist theory over the relationship between the public and the private.
Digital Identity: sum total of digital profile traces relating to an individual or a community.
Cyber: A term relating to or characteristic of the culture of computers, information technology, and virtual reality.
Cyber Bullying: Using electronic communication to bully a person sending intimidating or threatening messages.
Web 2.0: A term used to define internet application with more user-generated content and usability for end-users allowing sharing and collaboration opportunities.
Digital Citizenship: A term that refers to the responsible use of technology through computers, the Internet, and digital devices in order to engage with society on any level.