The Meaning Of Citizenship

Interest in citizenship has never been higher. But what does it mean to be a citizen in a modern, complex community? Richard Bellamy approaches the subject of citizenship from a political perspective and, in clear and accessible language, addresses the complexities behind this highly topical issue.

Several contributors deal with the quality of Canadian citizenship and the principle of distributive justice applied to all citizens. Others offer a "lament" for the Canadian nation, analysing and explaining why the vision of Canadian citizenship as an allegiance to the federation did not succeed in overcoming the varied loyalties pulling Canadians in different directions. Some authors celebrate this failure, arguing that maintaining dual alliance to the nation and province is more important. The essays reflect a consensus that Canada and Canadians have failed to give their citizenship meaning. One explanation for this, offered by the editor William Kaplan, is that Canadians are private about their patriotism, even if it is deeply felt. If Canadian citizenship is to endure, that patriotism will have to be more strongly and publicly expressed. Contributors to this volume are Daryl Bean, Neil Bissoondath, Robert Bothwell, Alan Cairns, Marc Cousineau, Robert Fulford, J.L. Granatstein, Darlene Johnston, William Kaplan, the late Paul Martin Sr, Rosella Melanson, Desmond Morton, Peter Neary, Maureen O'Neil, Robert J. Sharpe, Monique Simard, Glenda Simms, Daniel Turp, and Michael Walker. The essays by Simard and Turp are in French.

Concern with representation figures inescapably in the study of citizenship. From the initial formulations of a notion of citizenship in ancient Greece, in which citizens were persons charged with representing the interests of the city-state, concern about who and what gets represented, as well as how and why those people and things get represented, has been central in formulas describing the citizen's relationship to a political community. Since the seventeenth century, the tension between citizens as representatives of the interests of the state and the state as representative of the interests of its citizens has found both practical and theoretical elaborations in understandings and exercises of citizenship. Today, the concept of representation resonates widely within citizenship studies, and its general ambiguity gives expression to many of the key issues of community membership, creating in this way a critical vocabulary through which those issues can be expressed. It is this vocabulary of representation that this book examines. Representation and Citizenship is a collection of seven essays that speak to the pull in citizenship studies between founding beliefs that organize political communities and claims for multicultural and cosmopolitan expansions of those community beliefs. Each contributor takes a stance on supporting either founding beliefs or multicultural values, yet none are at the exclusion of the other. The essays explore the relevance of specific national contexts, including the United States, Canada, and Korea, and as a whole, argue that the tension between inclusion and exclusion retains significance for any assertion of what citizenship means. The audience for this book includes, but is not limited to, students and scholars in citizenship studies, history, law, political science, and social science, especially those interested in issues of patriotism and multiculturalism.

The essays in this volume are drawn from the tenth anniversary conference of the Center for the Study of Citizenship at Wayne State University, whose theme, “The Meaning of Citizenship,” provided an opportunity to reflect on a decade of study in the field. In an academic area where definitions are dynamic and multidisciplinary, editors Richard Marback and Marc W. Kruman have assembled fifteen contributors to show some of the rich nuances of membership in a political community. The Meaning of Citizenship addresses four dimensions of citizenship: the differentiation of citizenship in theory and practice, the proper horizon of citizenship, the character of civic bonds, and the resolution of conflicting civic and personal obligations. Contributors answer these questions from varying disciplinary perspectives, including ethnography, history, and literary analysis. Essays also consider the relevance of these questions in a number of specific regions, from Africa to the Caribbean, Middle East, Europe, and the United States. By identifying the meaning of citizenship in terms of geographic specificity and historical trajectory, the essays in this volume argue as a whole for a cross-disciplinary approach to the issues of inclusion and exclusion that are generated through any assertion of what citizenship means. The four primary concerns taken up by the contributors to this volume are as timely as they are timeless. Scholars of history, political science, sociology, and citizenship studies will appreciate this conversation about the full meaning of citizenship.

Drawing on contemporary global events, this book highlights how global citizenship education can be used to critically educate about the complexity and repressive nature of global events and our collective role in creating a just world.

An interdisciplinary exploration of four key issues in the theory and practice of citizenship.

A guide to getting good support services for people with learning difficulties.

Citizenship is a fundamental concept in social life, entailing rights, obligations, and relationships with others. Modern citizenship did not emerge from a philosopher's study or a laboratory experiment; instead, it was decisively shaped in the French Revolution. This book is about the processes by which that happened. The creation of a new kind of citizenship was not a simple act. The rights and obligations of citizens were going to be extensive; they needed to be defined and debated. The topics discussed in this book, which detail these rights and obligations, will be of interest to French historians as well as to political scientists and sociologists.