Citizens of Our Time: A Foreword

The path of citizenship is continually trodden and is traced on every map, though not always clearly, nor is its destination always certain. Thus we often speak of citizenship, although in the majority of cases we mean by it something else: civic virtue, belonging, participation or collectivity. Undoubtedly these are all related to it, by they do not clinch its meaning. The risk is that of abusing a concept that is capable of great suggestion, evocative and monumental, but behind whose façade, if theoretical and empirical foundations be lacking, there may be bold but futile architecture – like a new Tower of Babel. Through the interviews and many examples of theory and research gathered here, this special issue presents citizenship not merely as a datum but as a process, one that sees in the top-down aspect a crucial variable and in the social context an absolutely vital framework, but one that every day acquires meaning through being an individual and collective practice, a practice that arises from below, and in respect of which each one of us – as Thomas H. Marshall says – possesses «an image of an ideal citizenship against which achievements can be measured and towards which aspirations can be directed».