Post-national citizenship

Abstract

This article examines the historical and conceptual background to the current discussion of post-national citizenship. It is argued that concepts of nation and citizenship took on new meanings and became closely connected with the rise of the modern nation-state. Nation and citizenship became key institutions determining access to resources, patterns of solidarity and the active participation that we call citizenship. As the economic and cultural structures upon which national citizenship depend are undermined, it is necessary to review the different ways in which citizenship depends upon the identity, homogeneity and culture which constructions of the nation have in the past provided