Austrian Restored Citizenship Network - Steering Committee Meeting

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For the growing global community of §58c citizens, regaining citizenship as a consequence of ancestral persecution is not a conclusion, but the initiation of a shift in identity. And in an increasingly turbulent world, citizenship is subject to continuous processes of scrutiny, negotiation and politicisation. The new status moves within complex fields of tension: between a ‘re’-gained formal belonging - alongside geographical distance - and between historical memory and for some, a desire for contemporary connection. Without a structural framework, this dispersed community risks remaining an abstract legal entity rather than a lived social reality. The Restored Austrian Citizenship Network RACN (Wiederösterreicher:innen Netzwerk) seeks to resolve this tension by establishing a permanent infrastructure for dialogue, education, community-building and civic participation. In our digital age, the concept of an (inter)national community is emancipating itself from physical territory. We are witnessing a transformation where the "digital home" becomes the primary locus for negotiating this new Austrian identity. Our first Steering Committee meeting is dedicated to shaping the contours of this digital and institutional space and creating the pre-requisites for a sustainable connection between the Republic and its new citizens. In our digital age, the concept of an (inter)national community is emancipating itself from physical territory. We are witnessing a transformation where the "digital home" becomes the primary locus for negotiating this new Austrian identity. Our first Steering Committee meeting is dedicated to shaping the contours of this digital and institutional space and creating the pre-requisites for a sustainable connection between the Republic and its new citizens. At the same time, we believe a digital home and community is not always enough, so we also take the opportunity in this physical meeting to discuss the potential and remit of holding a conference in Vienna in May 2027 for up to 200 ‘new' Austrian citizens, as well as fellow local citizens and scholars. With support by the University of Applied Arts Vienna for so generously hosting this meeting, and for financial support by the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Austria (BMEIA), the Nationalfonds and the Zukunftsfonds.

Lecturers