Abstract
This thesis analyses the conditions which make it possible for us to act as 'global citizens.' It claims that the idea of world citizenship has been transformed by a post-1945 intensification of 'globality,' brought about by awareness of global environmental and nuclear destruction, global interconnectedness, multiculturalism, and the legitimation crises of nation-states, forging a relationship between individual and globe unmediated by the nation-state; a global citizenship which is both pragmatic and political, and forms part of what Giddens (1991) terms 'life politics.' While Turner (1993) and Falk (1994) are among those who have tried to suggest what such a 'global' citizenship might mean, their efforts fall short of clearly distinguishing between it and its precursors, and thus of offering a positive, and politicized, definition of it. Global citizenship can and does exist, I argue, and I turn to an organization called World Government of World Citizens to show how it is theorized and practised. Central to my thesis is Habermas's distinction between system and lifeworld. Reminded by him that subjective world-views can be distorted through the colonization of the lifeworld by the system, I proceed to show how individuals construct their sense of citizenship through a diverse number of factors, and how their experiences challenge the centrality of the nation-state in people's lives. I conclude by suggesting how we might re-empower ourselves as 'post-national' citizens of a 'one-world community' (Brecher, Childs, and Cutler, 1993).