Making European Citizens

Making European Citizens examines the development of transnational citizenship in Europe. Previous analyses have either focused on the extension of rights and feelings of belonging from the member states to the EU, or emphasized the postnational character of EU citizenship. Both approaches fail to explore the painstaking ways in which the legal and political institutions of transnational citizenship are evolving and the role citizens have played in promoting and shaping them. This volume brings together a multidisciplinary team of contributors. They discuss the new institutional forms of civic standing created by this new status, its transformation of the opportunity structures for the representation of citizens' interests, and the novel kinds of social and political mobilization required in transnational contexts. European citizenship is shown to modify, but not displace, traditional forms of national and local participation, allegiance and solidarity. Its contribution to European democracy remains an open question, with the contributors offering a variety of rival assessments and possible scenarios.