Introduction
The article records that in the modern state, the key issues revolve around the citizen and the alien. These two have undergone certain changes currently. The key features of citizenship have not changed much in the formal way. The destabilizing effects of the changes in the work place have led to the creation of new types of political subjects and new urge for politics.
There are some human beings who are categorized as non political, for example, the housewives. These people may sooner rather than later transform to be political subjects. The global city is a place where there are so many changes and this has its own shares of bad experiences. These include the harshness or brutality of the police which leads to unrest.
Studies have shown that there are changes in the 1980s and the 21st century in the area of citizenship and nationality. A number of scholars in the legal fraternity have concluded that there will be dual citizenship and multiple nationalities in the future (Knop, 2001). There are growing numbers of people with nationality in two nations (Knop, 2001).
The loyalty level of the citizens to the state is less or low (Taylor, 1992). Economic globalization has led to insignificance of the warfare in the nations that are highly developed. The rich nations have been discouraged from engaging in war amongst themselves by the international companies and markets (Turner, 2000).
The welfare state has been seen as a contributory factor to social citizenship since it is a key factor or ingredient. There has been a challenge regarding the issue of citizenship. The old issues have brought new attention to the world (Sassen, 2011). These issues have an effect on human rights in relation to citizenship.
Citizenship that provides equality is significant to the modernization of the institution of citizenship. The politics of the land and the identification of citizens are important since they have led to the provision of oneness amongst the citizens. This has led to the transformation of citizenship and modern state (Sassen, 1999).
The article records that in Japan, for example, a housewife is a full time occupation. This has contributed to their restrictions in the political arena (Young, 1990).
The women with higher qualifications, political ambitions or leadership skills are denied their rights as citizens to occupy important position in the society. This has led to alienation based on gender. The woman or the wife, however, has a lot of influence in the local politics since she interacts with many people at the grassroots (LeBlanc, 1999). The wives are also trusted a lot by the locals and they have the ability to build networks amongst themselves.
In a departure from the norm, women are involved as political actors during the brutal dictatorship. This takes place in many countries of Latin America during the period between 1970s and 1980s. The feminine nature of the women and because of the pains they bear as mothers are some the factors that lead to the courage they had. The relationship between the two books is that both bring out the issue of citizens and subjects in a more or less the same way.
There exist different types of subjects, some are defined by their dominance and some are alien while others are identified by their race. What is new in her approach is the way she brings out the relationship between nationality and citizenship. Globalization has had its impact and affected nationality and citizenship.
An example of this is the tension that grows between the legal form and the so called normative project. This tension leads to the failure in achieving equal citizenship in most countries. She brings out the fact that both citizenship and nationality are the same in so far as the national state is concerned. These two terms show the identity of an individual to the national state.
The issue that she brings out differently in the article is the fact that citizenship is restricted to the dimension of the nation while nationality brings out an individual as an entity that is recognized internationally by the law of the land. The law contains the information about who it considers to be a citizen and the processes involved in making an individual to be a citizen.
It also stipulates the rights and responsibilities that the individual has with regard to the state. There are those individuals who are immigrants who should be recognized as citizens and members of the political community by law but are not.
The life of cities is shaped by the world economy for centuries. The writer says that in global and large cities, there are serious issues of inequalities and power. Power in these cities is made to be in a private manner, it is global and hard to get hold of. The role played by the cities and the civil society is brought out in the analysis.
When power is lost at the national level, there emerges some form of power and politics at the grassroots level or the sub national level. Large sectors of the economies are found in the large cities as well as a huge population of disadvantaged people; the poor, the marginalized and the immigrants. Cities are therefore a source of problems and conflicts because of the urban poor who dwell in slums.
The article helps one to understand her work on global cities. She demonstrates that through domestic laws, citizenship and non citizenship vary from one country to another. An example is given in Europe where there are variations in the way citizenship is looked at and the way non citizens are categorized.
Works Cited
Knop, K. Diversity and Self-Determination in International Law. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
LeBlanc, R. Bicycle Citizens: The Political World of the Japanese Housewife. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1999.
Sassen, S. Guests and Aliens. New York: New Press, 1999.
Sassen, S. The Global City (2nd. ed.). NY, London, Tokyo, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001.
Spiro, P. “Dual Nationality and the Meaning of Citizenship.” Emory Law Journal 46 (4) (1997): 1411-1485.
Taylor, C. The Politics of Recognition in C. Taylor & A. Gutmann (Eds). Multiculturalism: Examining the Politics of Recognition. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992.
Turner, B. Cosmopolitan Virtue: Loyalty and the City: Democracy, Citizenship and the Global City. New York, NY: Routledge, 2000.
Young, I. M. Justice and the Politics of Difference. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990.