Abstract
The concept of citizen/society is notoriously malleable. It is often strategically charged with a variety of objectives, such as equality, solidarity, and participation. To the extent that the forces of globalisation cannot easily be cancelled out. one of the main questions in our age concerns the extent to which a citizen/society beyond the national boundaries where the concept has hitherto been confined.
The present study is intended to explore the possible conceptual malleability in yet another direction, that is. the possibility of a globalised citizen/society. It does so. by focusing on the experiences of the European Union -- the most advanced form of governance across the borders, hence a crucial case. In particular, it considers whether and to what extent the EU creates and is sustained by a European citizen and society, from the perspectives of rights (or the liberals). identity (the communitarians), and participation (the republicans).
On the basis of empirical analysis, this paper concludes that the EU establishes a citizen/society, seen from the liberal perspective, whilst it does so only in a meagre sense from communitarian and republican viewpoints. The mixed picture of the EU suggests difficulties in creating a cross-border citizen/society, as well as in predetermining its impossibility.
