An Emerging Institution?

This book presents findings from an ambitious comparative project. The nine chapters describe results of a theoretically based survey of officials’ personal approaches to multiple citizenships. In this study, members of parliaments, heads of government ministries, officials in local government and in NGOs disclose how they feel about multiple citizenships and how they deal with problems that arise. They also discuss their views on education for (multiple) citizenship and on the evolving relationship of national and regional citizenship. Despite the similarities in formal governance structures of the countries analysed in this research study (Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Portugal, Estonia, the UK), there are deep differences in their state histories, in the mode of their association with the European Union, and in their national cultures. These have a decisive impact on the types of problems officials are faced with and on their interpretations of citizenship and sovereignty in the twenty-first century. This volume provides a nuanced and comprehensive understanding of how officials view the dilemmas of citizenship.

The Editors: Devorah Kalekin-Fishman is a senior researcher in the Faculty of Education, University of Haifa, Israel with wide experience as a sociologist and as an educator at all levels of the educational system. Her current research projects relate to immigration and alienation, educational policy, and biographical-narrative research in sociology. She is the Editor of the International Sociology Review of Books, and Vice-President for Publications of the International Sociological Association.
Pirkko Pitkänen is Professor of Educational Policy and Multicultural Education at the University of Tampere, Finland. Professor Pitkänen has wide experience as a manager of national and international research groups, especially those that focus on topics of inter/transnational migration, multiple citizenship and intercultural learning. Her current research projects have focused on cultural diversity issues, in schools, public sector administration and private sector enterprises.