Konzeptionen von 'Bürgerschaft' in Europa*

The paper poses the concept of Union citizenship as problematic and discusses possible conceptual changes to the concept of citizenship. lts goal is to clarify the historical, sociological, cultural, legal and political contexts which provide the frameworks for particular meanings of citizenship in selected Member States of the EU. To that end it starts from the hypothesis that the te1m 'citizenship' ('Bürgerschaft', 'citoyennete', ' cittadinanza') has a broader meaning than the strictly legal tem1 'nationality'. lt largely follows an approach which focuses on the social character of (political) language