ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a brief summary of the current global context in which citizenship is being reconfigured and the academic debates generated by its transformation. It provides a historical overview of citizenship and discusses the relationship between citizenship and socioeconomic inequality, geopolitical scale, and human mobility. A consideration of the long past of citizenship will place in historical perspective the multi-scalar, fluid, and cyclical construction and reconstruction of the everyday and formal meanings and implications of citizenship. The chapter also presents a case study that illustrates the way in which citizenship has become a dialectical double-edged tool of inclusion and exclusion, empowerment, and rule operating at multiple scales. It contributes to contemporary scholarly debates by casting a historically informed analytical light on current practices, legal redefinitions, and scholarly conceptualizations of citizenship. Finally, the chapter addresses the practical and theoretical implications of contemporary citizenship, particularly urban citizenship, in a globalized world.
