The global, the social and rights. New perspectives on social citizenship

This G uest E ditorial explores whether the concept of citizenship, which originated in the city and the nation‐state, travels to the globe and what global citizenship could mean. Introducing a collection of related articles, we focus on social citizenship. We discuss conceptual issues, including modifications of T. H. M arshall's concept of social citizenship, and point at empirical evidence that global social citizenship is taking shape: International human rights have come to be interpreted as encapsulating social citizenship, and are part of multi‐tiered social citizenship; ‘having rights’ is a meaningful expression in the global realm, including binding obligations of states under international human rights, negotiations in multiple sites or even ‘insurgent citizenship’ from below; institution building in the global S outh – social cash transfers for the poor, land rights or non‐state welfare production in informal settings – is transforming E uropean conceptions of ‘the social’. Global social citizenship materially underpins notions of cosmopolitan belonging and activism.