Assessing Citizenship: Foundation, Identity, Place, and Obsolescence

Abstract

This essay reviews four recent books whose inquiries are linked by an underlying concern for the health and future welfare of contemporary citizenship. Each work explores in detail a different dimension of citizenship. Terming these dimensions foundation, identity, place, and obsolescence, I locate among them a clear concern about the prospects for transformative civic action in modern states—specifically, a concern about the possibilities for citizens’ pursuit of their interests in the face of the erosion of a broadly shared public culture. I include an argument about the extent to which the persistence of participatory citizenship in an era of cultural atomism stands in question.

Keywords:

• Citizens
• Citizenship
• Foundation
• Identity
• Place
• Obsolescence

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank Raymie McKerrow for giving him the chance to investigate citizenship from an unconventional perspective.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jeffrey St. John

Jeffrey St. John is Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence at the University of Maine