ABSTRACT
Citizenship has once again become a major item on political agendas at a time of increasing integration and closure around ‘the European’, especially in response to immigration and its consequences for national identity. This article first outlines the different models and traditions of citizenship and their re-evaluations in contemporary Europe. In the second part critiques directed towards the capacity of formal models of citizenship are examined, to respond first to the growing rejection of those who are deemed not to belong to European societies, especially immigrants and those with ambiguous relationships to territory; and, second, to the partial incorporation of women which has resulted to some extent from the complex interrelationship between rights, obligations and resources that they encounter in the public and private spheres. In the last section the potential of diversifying spaces of governance in the European Community is examined briefly and also whether this development might open up spaces for an extended and democratic citizenship or merely multiply the frontiers of closures.
