The Practice of Global Citizenship

Luis Cabrera

Oct 2010 · Cambridge University Press

About this ebook

In this novel account of global citizenship, Luis Cabrera argues that all individuals have a global duty to contribute directly to human rights protections and to promote rights-enhancing political integration between states. The Practice of Global Citizenship blends careful moral argument with compelling narratives from field research among unauthorized immigrants, activists seeking to protect their rights, and the 'Minuteman' activists striving to keep them out. Immigrant-rights activists, especially those conducting humanitarian patrols for border-crossers stranded in the brutal Arizona desert, are shown as embodying aspects of global citizenship. Unauthorized immigrants themselves are shown to be enacting a form of global 'civil' disobedience, claiming the economic rights central to the emerging global normative charter while challenging the restrictive membership regimes that are the norm in the current global system. Cabrera also examines the European Union, seeing it as a crucial laboratory for studying the challenges inherent in expanding citizen membership.

About the author

Luis Cabrera is Senior Lecturer in Political Theory at the University of Birmingham, where he also serves as an associate member of the Centre for the Study of Global Ethics. He has published widely on issues of global justice, and is a leading scholar in the recent resurgence of systematic thought on global political integration.