This article examines UK governmental attempts through education and naturalization policy to assert «postnational» conceptions of citizenship that aim to address the perceived dangers of multi-nation and multicultural diversity. This analysis is situated within the sociopolitical context of the UK being both a multi-nation state —made up of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales—, and a multicultural one —being constituted of a large number of different ethnic and religious groups— largely a result of mass immigration since the Second World War. Through an examination of the various contested conceptions of citizenship in the UK —«postnational», «national» and «multicultural»—, the aim of this paper is to reflect on the assumed universality and «transportability» of these conceptions and debates across national and regional divides, in order to further dialogues across such boundaries as advocated by the theme of the workshop, «translating citizenship».
Citizenship, education, multicultural, multi-nation, naturalization policy, postnational.