Transnational Citizenship in the European Union: Past, Present, and Future

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This book argues that European citizenship is transnational, a status that has emerged incrementally during the European integration process. Transnational Citizenship in the European Union follows an institutionalist approach and traces the development of citizenship discourse from the founding treaties of the EU to the most recent effort of constitution-making and the Lisbon Treaty. This helps demonstrate that such discourse has followed a path based on the foundational principles of free movement and non-discrimination rather than revolutionary ideas of a postnational citizenship beyond the nation-state. This in-depth analysis of citizenship in the EU takes into account the institutional configuration of membership, rights, identity, and participation. It also brings in the domestic level of the debate through the examination of national positions on reform proposals and the interplay between EU and member states conceptions of citizenship. Lastly, by investigating citizenship practices, the book helps foster understanding of how the EU works as a political system, and the relationship between European institutions and the recipients of their integrative politics , i.e., the citizens.

Reviews

"Olsen critically examines claims about the supposed supranational or postnational nature of EU citizenship and concludes instead that it is transnational: despite increasingly complex multilevel and international configurations of rights and membership, citizenship in Europe remains tied to established political communities. A wonderful addition to the literature on the most significant and exciting transformation of citizenship and nationality in the contemporary world." - Willem Maas, York University
"Citizenship in the European Union has been much talked about, yet often misunderstood. Olsen convincingly argues that, if anything, it is transnational. This book is full of ideas and historical evidence and deserves close reading. A welcome contribution to the growing literature on European citizenship." -Maarten Peter Vink, Department of Political Science, Maastricht University, The Netherlands
"A carefully constructed review of the critical junctures in the evolution of citizenship in the European integration from the 1950s to the present day leads Olsen to conclude that citizenship in the EU is a transnational, not a postnational phenomenon. This apparently modest conclusion nonetheless opens up new routes to understand the contested character of the EU's constitutionalisation processes in recent years, and provides a welcome antidote to those who see in EU citizenship a idealistic beacon for the future development of a single European demos." -Jo Shaw, Salvesen Chair of European Institutions and Deputy Head of the College of Humanities and Social Science, Edinburgh Law School

Author Bio

Espen D. H. Olsen is a Senior Researcher at Arena, University of Oslo, Norway. His academic interests are mainly political theory and the European Union with specific focus on institution-building, constitution-making and identity, citizenship studies, citizen deliberation, and qualitative methods. His work has been published in the Journal of European Public Policy.