The Citizenship Debates: A Reader

by Gershon Shafir (Editor)

A multidisciplinary assessment of issues surrounding citizenship. Beyond its emotional resonance and cultural ramifications, citizenship provides the legal and social framework for individual autonomy and political democracy. Recently, the question of citizenship has gained renewed attention in response to major trends worldwide -- democratization in Eastern Europe, a rise in ethnic and national conflict, and an increase in global migration. In this multidisciplinary volume, leading scholars offer analyses of the debates surrounding these changes while interrogating traditional views of citizenship. The Citizenship Debates begins with an introduction followed by a number of essays, organized for optimal classroom use, addressing the recent revision of the idea of citizenship through a neoliberal viewpoint, succeeded by critiques from communitarian, social-democratic, nationalist, feminist, and multiculturalist perspectives.

328 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1998