Gershon Shafir is professor of sociology at the University of California, San Diego.
Summary
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 a 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.
