Journal article

Publication year: 1998

Pages: 523-52+

Journal: Berliner Journal für Soziologie

Volume number: 8

Issue number: 4

ISSN: 0863-1808

eISSN: 1862-2593

Publisher: Springer

Abstract: 
Starting from Brubakers contrasting account of citizenship and nationhood in France and Germany, the authors argue, that the distinction between ius soli and ius sanguinis should be handled more cautiously when associated with real and presumably unique collective entities. The article gives a number of hints to show that these two idealtypes - though useful as analytical categories - cannot in a convincing way simply be attributed to French and German history respectively. Instead of this dichotomy and often closely associated ones (like that between French enlightenment and German romanticism, between French universalism and German primordialism, a Western and Non-western path of modernization, or between nations based on territorial statehood and nations rooted in culture) the authors suggest that there are at least three different codes of constructing collective identities. These different codes constitute a common stock of paradigms for constructing collective identities in all European nations. They usually compete with each other on different levels, to dominate public discourse only for certain time spans, depending on specific carrier groups and institutional settings, but can hardly be associated inherently with such macro-units as France or Germany.

Harvard Citation style: Giesen, B. and Junge, K. (1998) National identity and citizenship in Germany and France, Berliner Journal für Soziologie, 8(4), pp. 523-52+

APA Citation style: Giesen, B., & Junge, K. (1998). National identity and citizenship in Germany and France. Berliner Journal für Soziologie. 8(4), 523-52+.