This new book shows how citizenship, and its meaning and form, has become a vital site of contestation.
It clearly demonstrates how whilst minority groups struggle to redefine the rights of citizenship in more pluralized forms, the responsibilities of citizenship are being reaffirmed by democratic governments concerned to maintain the common political culture underpinning the nation.
In this context, one of the central questions confronting contemporary state and their citizens is how recognition of socio-cultural ‘differences’ can be integrated into a universal conception of citizenship that aims to secure equality for all. Equality policies have become a central aspect of contemporary European public policy. The ‘equality/difference’ debate has been a central concern of recent feminist theory. The need to recognize diversity amongst women, and to work with the concept of ‘intersectionality’ has become widespread amongst political theory. Meanwhile European states have each been negotiating the demands of ethnicity, disability, sexuality, religion, age and gender in ways shaped by their own institutional and cultural histories.
This book was previously published as a special issue of Critical Review of International Social & Political Philosophy (CRISPP).
Birte Siim and Judith Squires, Introduction
Barbara Hobson, Stockolm University, Sweden, ‘Recognition Struggles in trans-national Arenas: Negotiating
Identities and Framing Citizenship’
Ulrike Liebert, University of Breman, Germany, ‘Dilemmas of Citizenship in the Enlarging Europe: Negotiating
Diversity Within Equality Across the East-West Divide’
Sawatri Saharso, Vrije University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, ‘Public philosophies on headscarves: a cross-
national European comparison’
Hege Skjeie, University of Oslo, Norway, ‘Gender Justice and Dynamic Politics of Rights’
Birte Siim: University of Aalborg, Denmark, ‘The challenge of Recognizing Diversity from the Perspective of Gender
Equality
Judith Squires, University of Bristol, UK, ‘Realising a Differentiated Citizenship: Deliberative Democracy and
Diversity Mainstreaming’
Nira Yuval-Davis, University of East London, UK, ‘Intersectionality, Citizenship and Contemporary Politics of
Belonging’
Biography
Birte Siim, Judith Squires
