Identities, Affiliations, and Allegiances

Seyla Benhabib · Ian Shapiro · Danilo Petranovich

Aug 2007 · Cambridge University Press

About this ebook

Where do political identities come from, how do they change over time, and what is their impact on political life? This book explores these and related questions in a globalizing world where the nation state is being transformed, definitions of citizenship are evolving in unprecedented ways, and people's interests and identities are taking on new local, regional, transnational, cosmopolitan, and even imperial configurations. Pre-eminent scholars examine the changing character of identities, affiliations, and allegiances in a variety of contexts: the evolving character of the European Union and its member countries, the Balkans and other new democracies of the post-1989 world, and debates about citizenship and cultural identity in the modern West. These essays are essential reading for anyone interested in the political and intellectual ferment that surrounds debates about political membership and attachment, and will be of interest to students and scholars in the social sciences, humanities, and law.

About the author

Seyla Benhabib is Eugene Meyer Professor of Political Science and Philosophy and Director of the Program in Ethics, Politics and Economics at Yale University, Connecticut. Her most recent publications include Transformation of Citizenship: Dilemmas of the Nation-State in the Era of Globalization (2000), The Claims of Culture: Equality and Diversity in the Global World (2002) and The Rights of Others: Aliens, Residents and Citizens (2004) which won the Ralph Bunche award of the American Political Science Association and the North American Society's best book in Social Philosophy award.

Ian Shapiro is Sterling Professor of Political Science at Yale University, California and Henry R. Luce Director of the Yale Center for International and Area Studies. His most recent publications include The Moral Foundations of Politics (2003), The State of Democratic Theory (2003), The Flight From Reality in the Human Sciences (2005) and Death by a Thousand Cuts: The Fight over Taxing Inherited Wealth (with Michael J. Graetz, 2005).

Danilo Petranovich is a PhD Candidate in Political Science at Yale University, Connecticut. His research focuses on the shaping of American allegiances from the Founding period through the Civil War.