ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses T. H Marshall's essay on citizenship and social class in the light of a subsequent attack on social rights of citizenship under the increasing dominance of neo-liberal political reason, and its adoption by Conservative and New Labour governments in the United Kingdom (UK). It describes the sociology needs to renew itself through a re-examination of its relation to the public. The chapter demonstrates the key contributions from Emile Durkheim and G. H. Mead, through to Karl Polanyi and T. H. Marshall. It provides the key to unlock Marshall's concept of citizenship from its rather problematic association with a dated moment in the development of social democratic welfare provision. The chapter draws upon John Dewey's idea of the public and George Herbert Mead's idea of the social self to outline their significance for a sociological critique of liberal public reason and a renewed engagement with social inequalities relevant to legal scholarship.
