European Citizenship, Multiculturalism, and the State

In Europe the concept of citizenship is no longer tied exclusively to the nation-state. The European Union has assumed many of the traditional competencies of the nation-state and hence deprived the citizens of the member states of much of their influence on important political decisions. On the other hand, within the member states an increasing number of citizens identify themselves ever more with particular religious or cultural communities, which renders membership in the nation-state less important for them. Moreover, mass immigration in the core EU member states has created ethnically and culturally heterogeneous societies.
The essays in this book deal with these challenges to the traditional concept of citizenship. The relationship between citizenship and nationhood is reevaluated in the light of the said changes, and its historical roots are explored; the potential meaning of the supranational citizenship of the EU is probed, the role of citizenship in multicultural societies is examined, and the prospects of cosmopolitan citizenship are examined by political scientists, jurists, historians, and philosophers from five European countries.