| Beyond Citizenship: American Identity After Globalization Contributor(s): Spiro, Peter J. (Author) |
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ISBN: 0195152182 ISBN-13: 9780195152180 Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA OUR PRICE: $55.10 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: February 2008 Annotation: Before one asks what it means to be an American, notes Peter J. Spiro, one must ask who is an American. This provocative volume examines the many facets of citizenship as legal status and finds a mirror on American identity. Spiro takes readers on an engaging historical and conceptual exploration of how citizenship law has set and reflected the boundaries of national community and an American national character. Against this broad tableau, Spiro shows how territorial presence--through birth or residence--resolved the peculiar challenges of American identity. But as globalization eclipses the significance of space, citizenship status becomes detached from any sense of actual community on the ground. The global diffusion of American political values and cultural production further erodes the possibility of a drawing a meaningful line between the "us" and "them." Growing immigrant diasporas, meanwhile, compound the disconnect between location and solidarity. Loyalties, Spiro contends, are moving to transnational communities defined in many different ways: by race, ethnicity, gender, religion, age, sexual orientation, profession, locality or region, and corporate affiliation. These communities, he argues, are replacing bonds that once connected people to the nation-state, with profound implications for the future of governance. Spiro investigates the legal transformations that are symptomatic of this new condition: changing regimes relating to dual citizenship, naturalization, birthright citizenship, and--more generally--basic citizenship rights. The book packs a powerful conclusion: the institution of American citizenship is in irreversible decline. Learned, incisive, and sweeping in scope, Beyond Citizenship offers a provocative look at how globalization is changing the very definition of who we are and where we belong. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Law | Constitutional - Political Science | Civics & Citizenship - Law | Emigration & Immigration |
| Dewey: 342.730 |
| LCCN: 2007026544 |
| Physical Information: 0.66" H x 6.51" W x 9.4" (0.97 lbs) 208 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: American identity has always been capacious as a concept but narrow in its application. Citizenship has mostly been about being here, either through birth or residence. The territorial premises for citizenship have worked to resolve the peculiar challenges of American identity. But globalization is detaching identity from location. What used to define American was rooted in American space. Now one can be anywhere and be an American, politically or culturally. Against that backdrop, it becomes difficult to draw the boundaries of human community in a meaningful way. Longstanding notions of democratic citizenship are becoming obsolete, even as we cling to them. Beyond Citizenship charts the trajectory of American citizenship and shows how American identity is unsustainable in the face of globalization. Peter J. Spiro describes how citizenship law once reflected and shaped the American national character. Spiro explores the histories of birthright citizenship, naturalization, dual citizenship, and how those legal regimes helped reinforce an otherwise fragile national identity. But on a shifting global landscape, citizenship status has become increasingly divorced from any sense of actual community on the ground. As the bonds of citizenship dissipate, membership in the nation-state becomes less meaningful. The rights and obligations distinctive to citizenship are now trivial. Naturalization requirements have been relaxed, dual citizenship embraced, and territorial birthright citizenship entrenched--developments that are all irreversible. Loyalties, meanwhile, are moving to transnational communities defined in many different ways: by race, ethnicity, gender, religion, age, and sexual orientation. These communities, Spiro boldly argues, are replacing bonds that once connected people to the nation-state, with profound implications for the future of governance. Learned, incisive, and sweeping in scope, Beyond Citizenship offers a provocative look at how globalization is changing the very definition of who we are and where we belong. |
