Citizenship and Social Theory

Bryan S. Turner

This volume explores the nature of citizenship in contemporary society and theories about citizenship in the social sciences.

Going beyond both traditional liberal theories of democracy and marxist theories of civil society, leading international scholars rethink the relations between the individual and the state, community, family. They assess how social and political participation is changing in the modern world.

The authors investigate the historical roots of citizenship, and its development alongside the nation state and urban society. They relate it to issues of welfare and of the market. They look at the implications of citizenship for problems of belonging, identity and personality. The final chapter asks whether the subordination of nation states to supranational institutions will replace state citizenship with a global conception of human rights.

This interdisciplinary assessment will be of wide interest to lecturers and students in sociology, political science, political philosophy and social policy.

Bryan S. Turner is Dean of Arts at Deakin University, Australia and Research Professor of Sociology at the University of Essex, UK.