Identities, Affiliations, and Allegiances [Hardcover]

This book examines the changing character of political identities, affiliations, and allegiances in the contemporary world.Where do political identities come from, how do they change over time, and what is their impact on political life? Leading political and social theorists address the changing character of political identity, membership, and attachment in the contemporary world in a variety of applied contexts.Where do political identities come from, how do they change over time, and what is their impact on political life? Leading political and social theorists address the changing character of political identity, membership, and attachment in the contemporary world in a variety of applied contexts.Where do political identities come from, how do they change over time, and what is their impact on political life? This book explores these and related questions in a globalizing world where the nation state is being transformed, definitions of citizenship are evolving in unprecedented ways, and people's interests and identities are taking on new local, regional, transnational, cosmopolitan, and even imperial configurations. Pre-eminent scholars examine the changing character of identities, affiliations, and allegiances in a variety of contexts: the evolving character of the European Union and its member countries, the Balkans and other new democracies of the post-1989 world, and debates about citizenship and cultural identity in the modern West. These essays are essential reading for anyone interested in the political and intellectual ferment that surrounds debates about political membership and attachment, and will be of interest to students and scholars in the social sciences, humanities, and law.Introduction Seyla Benhabib, Ian Shapiro and Danilo Petranovich; Part I. Emergence and Limits of National Political Identities: 1. From affiliation to affinity: citizenship in the transition from empire to the nation-state Faruk Birtek; 2. Transnationalizing the public spl“