Citizenship is not just a status (defined by a set of rights and obligations), it is also an identity that expresses membership in a political community, Bernard Enjolras writes. It also has a substantive political dimension of active participation in the public sphere.
Traditionally, collective identity and the membership dimensions of citizenship have been seen as intrinsic to the nation-state. The processes of globalization that have undermined the sovereignty of the nation-state make it necessary to reconceptualize citizenship in light of a 'post-national' framework. At the same time, however, the 'culturalization' of the social and the 'multiculturalization' of societies are putting into question the homogeneity of a collective identity.
According to a recent hypothesis, a new post-national model of citizenship is emerging, one of European construction. In seeking to explore this position, Enjolras advances two additional hypotheses:
1. EU policy-making and governance are likely to foster a post-national European civil society with multi-level citizenship participation; and
2. European anti discrimination regulations are likely to accelerate the emergence of an alternative model to multiculturalism that can address differences within a universal framework of rights.
"Two hypotheses about the emergence of a post-national European model of citizenship" is publised in Citizenship studies 12(5):495-505 .
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