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132 Citizenship

the rights of different categories of citizens, both Marshall ’ s optimistic
model of “ universal ” citizenship rights and the idea that social inequalities
are essentially class inequalities have come to be seen as less relevant.
Sociologists are interested in how formal citizenship rights are related
to non - formal criteria of inclusion in what Alexander calls the “ civil
sphere, ” the space of citizenship between the state and the market
(Alexander, 2006 ). Formal rights are granted by the state, but citizenship
entitlements depend on informal criteria that are decided on in the civil
sphere. In the fi rst place, the civil sphere involves the construction of
shared understandings concerning which individuals are entitled to the
status of citizen. It is inherently normative; inclusion in the civil sphere
depends on the recognition by others that an individual deserves to be
included within it. It depends on the assessment and valuation of a par-
ticular individual as the kind of person who, along with others in the civil
sphere, should enjoy the “ right to rights, ” as Hannah Arendt puts it
(Arendt, 1968 : 298). These criteria of inclusion are invariably mediated,

however, by identification and self - identification of individuals with dif-

ferent social groups.
Social movements challenge informal criteria of citizenship that defi ne
some individuals as “ Other, ” as belonging to a group that makes them
unworthy of equal rights in the civil sphere. Although social movements
are generally directly engaged in making demands for formal citizenship
rights, they are even more fundamentally engaged in the cultural politics
of identity formation. The identity of those who “ belong together ” in the
civil sphere must be altered to make it more inclusive of previously stig-
matized groups, as well as commonly shared definitions of those groups

who are excluded or who are included only in ways that are unequal. The
state ultimately guarantees citizenship rights, but it is the way in which
citizenship identities and entitlements are settled between the civil sphere
and the state that creates different historical forms of citizenship. It is how

citizenship is defined in the cultural politics of social movements that
matters.
The main theme in the cultural politics of citizenship inspired by social
movements is that of “ difference. ” It is always, however, closely linked
to “ equality. ” Historically, the cultural politics of social movements has
involved challenges to assumptions that “ normal ” citizens are white,
heterosexual, male heads of households, on the basis that others should
enjoy the same formal rights. This was, for example, the main theme of
fi rst - wave feminism in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In
contemporary society, however, challenges to inequality rarely involve the
simple claim that members of particular social groups are not treated like