Citizenship in a Fragile World

Traditional conceptions of citizenship have dealt almost exclusively with political life within one state. But the internationalization of so much economic, cultural, and political life today presents new opportunities and problems—including the potential to extinguish human life. Taking these new features as a point of departure, Dauenhauer exposes the flaws in standard communitarian and liberal democratic theory, focusing on the work of Charles Taylor, John Rawls, and Jürgen Habermas. He articulates a concept of 'complex citizenship' that recognizes citizens' responsibilities beyond borders, and shows its fruitfulness for educating children and dealing with foreign states and their peoples.