Paper Short Abstract:

This study explores "tactical citizenship" in Cyprus, where citizens adapt to a flawed state through informal strategies and social networks, redefining traditional citizenship beyond formal rights and duties. It uses "multicontextual ethnography" to analyze these dynamics in various social spaces.

Paper Abstract:

This paper delves into the concept of tactical citizenship as it unfolds in Limassol, Cyprus, exploring how citizens navigate their relationship with a state perceived as arbitrary, corrupt, inefficient, and unfair. Through the lens of “tactical citizenship,” I examine the ways citizens adapt and respond to the challenges posed by their everyday interactions with street-level bureaucracy. The concept is anchored in the premise that each encounter with the state—whether casual or confrontational—serves as a moment of political learning, shaping citizens' expectations and perceptions. The study breaks new methodological ground with its "multicontextual ethnography," investigating the phenomenon across diverse social spaces: private, public, bureaucratic, and commercial. This approach provides a rich, nuanced understanding of citizens' tactics to compensate for the state's shortcomings. These tactics include the private and informal provision of services that should be publicly and formally supplied, appropriation of public spaces, leveraging cultural intimacy, utilizing social networks, adopting slantwise lifestyles, and employing rhetorics of conformity. Tactical citizenship is proposed as a novel term to capture dynamic, everyday practices, contrasting with traditional notions of citizenship defined by formal rights and duties. This paper argues that these tactical encounters with the everyday state are not just survival strategies but constitute a distinct form of citizenship deeply embedded in the social fabric of the society of the Republic of Cyprus. Through this exploration, the study offers a rethinking of citizenship in contexts of state inefficiency and societal distrust, shedding light on the complex interplay between the citizens and the state in Limassol.