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The Boundaries of Citizenship

Race, Ethnicity, and Nationality in the Liberal State

Jeff Spinner
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Liberalism has traditionally been equated with protecting the rights of the individual. But how does this protection affect the cultural identity of these individuals? In The Boundaries of Citizenship Jeff Spinner addresses this question by examining distinctive racial, ethnic, and national groups whose identities may be transformed in liberal society.

Focusing on the Amish, Hasidic Jews, and African Americans in the United States and on the Quebecois in Canada, Spinner explores the paradox of how liberal values such as equality and individual autonomy—which members of cultural groups often...

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Liberalism has traditionally been equated with protecting the rights of the individual. But how does this protection affect the cultural identity of these individuals? In The Boundaries of Citizenship Jeff Spinner addresses this question by examining distinctive racial, ethnic, and national groups whose identities may be transformed in liberal society.

Focusing on the Amish, Hasidic Jews, and African Americans in the United States and on the Quebecois in Canada, Spinner explores the paradox of how liberal values such as equality and individual autonomy—which members of cultural groups often fight to attain—can lead to the unexpected transformation of the group's identity. Spinner shows how liberalism fosters this transformation by encouraging the dispersal of the group's cultural practices throughout society. He examines why groups that reject the liberal values of equality and autonomy are the most successful at retaining their distinctive cultural identity. He finds, however, that these groups also fit—albeit uneasily—in the liberal state.

Spinner concludes that citizens are benefitted more than harmed by liberalism's tendency to alter cultural boundaries. The Boundaries of Citizenship is a timely look at how cultural identities are formed and transformed—and why the political implications of this process are so important. The book will be of interest to readers in a broad range of academic disciplines, including political science, law, history, sociology, and cultural studies.

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Concerned with the transmutation of citizenship that follows from changes in which ethnic and subcultural identities are viewed in contemporary liberal democracies... Spinner moves toward his positive or prescriptive conclusions through careful and balanced reading of a broad range of scholarly work in political science, anthropology, and philosophy, as well as in sociology, and with clear and convincing argument.

— Martin O. Heisler — Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science

This volume does an excellent job of coming to grips with the issue [of classical liberal political theory treating citizens solely as individuals instead of groups into which real populations are divided] in normative terms.

— Foreign Affairs
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Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
6
x
9
Pages
272
ISBN
9780801852398
DOI
Subject
Table of Contents

Preface
Part I: Introduction
Chapter 1. Liberalism
Chapter 2. Race, Ethnicity, and Nationality and Liberal Thought
Part II: The Formation of Identity
Chapter 3. The Construction of Identity
Chapter 4. Race
C

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Preface
Part I: Introduction
Chapter 1. Liberalism
Chapter 2. Race, Ethnicity, and Nationality and Liberal Thought
Part II: The Formation of Identity
Chapter 3. The Construction of Identity
Chapter 4. Race
Chapter 5. Ethnicity
Chapter 6. Nationality
Chapter 7. Contested Meanings
Part III: The Demands of Liberal Citizenship
Chapter 8. Jewish Emancipation and the Jewish Question
Chapter 9. Civil Society and Equal Citizenship
Chapter 10. The Demands of Liberal Citizenship
Chapter 11. The Transformation of Ethnic Identity
Chapter 12. Political Participation and Identity
Chapter 13. Community and Diversity
Part IV: Pluralistic Integration
Chapter 14. The Limits to Cultural Pluralism
Chapter 15. Illiberal Cultural Practices
Chapter 16. Toward Pluralistic Integration
Chapter 17. Pluralism, Power, and Standards
Chapter 18. Ethnic Failures, Ethnic Success
Part V: The Ethnic Rejection of Liberal Citizenship
Chapter 19. The Amish Community
Chapter 20. Liberal Changes
Chapter 21. Partial Citizenship
Chapter 22. Choosing to be Amish
Chapter 23. Justifying Yoder
Chapter 24. A Liberal Paradox: The Case of Hasidim
Part VI: Race and the Failure of Liberal Citizenship
Chapter 25. Liberalism and Racism
Chapter 26. Realizing Equal Citizenship
Chapter 27. Public Recognition of Black Citizenship
Chapter 28. Reconfiguring Civil Society
Chapter 29. Black Power and Black Culture
Chapter 30. Black Identity in the Liberal State
Part VII: Language and Nationality
Chapter 31. The Two Faces of Nationalism
Chapter 32. Public Language, Public Culture, and Public Space
Chapter 33. The Liberal Facilitation of Nationalism
Chapter 34. Cultural Preservation
Chapter 35. Nationalism and Citizenship
Chapter 36. Liberalism and Nationalism
Part VIII: The Boundaries of Citizenship
Chapter 37. Boundaries and Identity
Chapter 38. The Tensions of Diversity
Chapter 39. Pluralistic Education
Chapter 40. Liberalism and Cultural Identity
Notes
Bibliography
Index

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