A significant addition to the growing body of literature on citizenship, this wide-ranging overview focuses on the importance, and changing nature, of citizenship. It introduces the varied discourses and theories that have arisen in recent years, and looks toward future scholarship in the field.

• Offers an analytical assessment of the various thematic discourses and provides guidance in pulling together those discrete themes into a larger, more comprehensive framework
• Identifies the four broadly conceived themes that shape the many discourses on contemporary citizenship – inclusion, erosion, withdrawal, and expansion
• Includes a thorough introduction to the subject

Peter Kivisto is Richard Swanson Professor of Social Thought and Professor and Chair of Sociology at Augustana College. He is the author of Immigrant Socialists in the United States (1984), For Democracy (1993), and Americans All (1995), and is the editor of The Ethnic Enigma (1989) and Multiculturalism in the United States (2000). Dr Kivisto is also the editor of The Sociological Quarterly.

Thomas Faist is Professor of Transnational Relations and Development Studies at the Faculty of Sociology at Bielefeld University. He is the author of The Volume and Dynamics of International Migration and Transnational Social Spaces (2000), Transnational Social Spaces (2004), and The Politics of Dual Citizenship in Europe (2007). He currently directs a project on transnational migration and development. He is the Deputy Editor of The Sociological Quarterly.