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Practising Citizenship and Heterogeneous Nationhood: Naturalisations in Swiss Municipalities
Author(s): Marc Helbling (Author)
- Publisher: Routledge
- Publication Date: 9 Feb. 2014
- Edition: 1st
- Language: English
- Print length: 214 pages
- ISBN-10: 9089640347
- ISBN-13: 9789089640345
Book Description
Switzerland likely has the most particular naturalization system in the world. Whereas in most countries citizenship attribution is regulated at the central level of the state, in Switzerland each municipality is accorded the right to decide who can become a Swiss citizen. This book aims at exploring naturalization processes from a comparative perspective and to explain why some municipalities pursue more restrictive citizenship policies than others. The Swiss case provides a unique opportunity to approach citizenship politics from new perspectives. It allows us to go beyond formal citizenship models and to account for the practice of citizenship. The analytical framework combines quantitative and qualitative data and helps us understand how negotiation processes between political actors lead to a large variety of local citizenship models. An innovative theoretical framework, integrating Bourdieu’s political sociology, combines symbolic and material aspects of naturalizations and underlines the production processes of ethnicity.
Editorial Reviews
From the Back Cover
Zwitserland heeft waarschijnlijk het meest uitzonderlijke naturalisatiesysteem ter wereld: staatsburgerschap wordt toegewezen op gemeentelijk niveau en niet vanuit de centrale overheid. Dit boek bestudeert naturalisatieprocessen vanuit een vergelijkend perspectief en probeert te verklaren waarom sommige gemeenten strengere regels hanteren dan ander
About the Author
Marc Helbling is lecturer at the Department of political science, University of Zurich.
