ARTICLES □ JET BUSSEMAKER

Citizenship and gender: theoretical approaches and historical legacies Recently, citizenship has become a popular concept in different coun-tries. This article explores the reasons why citizenship has become such a ’catch-all ’ concept, and analyses the relation between gender and citizen-ship. Throughout history, we distinguish three vocabularies of citizenship: civic-republican, liberal and communitarian. As we show, they each have advantages and disadvantages from a gender perspective, some of which crop up in current debates on citizenship, as the brief cross-national analysis of the other articles in this issue shows. Citizenship has recently become a key concept in politics, academic thought and social movements. Most western societies are confronted with new questions concerning the relation between citizens and the state, the types of community to which citizenship is related, political participation, the legitimacy of social policy, and changing notions of the rights, obligations and virtues of citizens. Within this context, questions of citizenship have gained some new relevance. What are the main shifts in thinking about citizenship and what are the main issues discussed in the public debate about citizenship in various European countries in the late 20th century? Although citizenship is both historically and theoretically a strongly gendered concept, the gender implications of citizenship discourses are often overlooked in current debates. This special issue explores various traditions of citizenship vocabulary and their implications for gender. In addition, it analyses shifts in current vocabularies on citizenship in various Northern European societies, th