This volume explores the nature of citizenship in contemporary society, and theories about citizenship in the social sciences. Going beyond both traditional and liberal theories of democracies and Marxist theories of civil society, international scholars rethink the relationship between the individual and the state, community and family. They assess how social and political participation is changing in the modern world. The authors investigate the historical roots of citizenship, and its development alongside the national state and urban society. They relate it to issues of welfare and of the market and look at the implications of citizenship for problems of belonging, identity and personality. The final chapter asks whether the subordination of nation states to supranational institutions will replace state citizenship with a global conception of human rights. This interdisciplinary assessment should be of interest to lecturers and students in sociology, political science, political philosophy and social policy.