Global citizenship is a dynamic topic within the modern world. Emerging from the language and ideas that are being developed to try to encompass and define the ways in which globalization is changing the world in which we live, global citizenship combines two factors - the idea of global responsibility (for the environment, aiding the poor, human rights, peace, etc) and the development of institutional structures through which this responsibility can be exercised. This reader should be an ideal text for global citizenship courses, as well as for more general courses on citizenship, globalization, and ethics. Its aim is to introduce students to the changing ways in which politics, culture, environment and economics are being thought about and how individuals relate to the fast-moving global, political, cultural, economic and environmental agendas. The international team of authors includes social scientists, philosophers, natural scientists and systems theorists, showing the wide variety of ways in which global citizenship is conceived of and approached by different disciplines.
The text is divided into four main sections: the idea of global citizenship; global ethics; the environment, development and technology; and global civil society, religion and peace. Each section begins with a broad overview and then focuses on illustrative discussions of specific issues.