Introduction

Citizenship remains a highly contested and ‘slippery’ concept, with many authorities challenging its value as a vehicle for the promotion of well-being, equality and agency (for example, Ferge, 1979; Bottomore, 1992; Walby, 1994; Pringle, 1998). Indeed, in the context of the promotion of gender equality, Walby has raised the question as to whether:

When considering comparative social policy, Esping-Andersen builds on the Marshallian approach to citizenship which he operationalises through his decommodification index. Decommodification occurs, according to this approach, “when a service is rendered as a matter of right, and when a person can maintain a livelihood without reliance on the market” (1990, p 22). Social citizenship or decommodification thus becomes the ‘mark of a civilised society’. Esping-Andersen's work has attracted criticism by feminist analysts on the grounds that the methodology theoretically privileges social class, equating autonomy with independence from waged labour and thus fails to adequately account for the role of the family and the position of women in relation to social welfare (Bussemaker and van Kersbergen, 1994). Similar concerns have been expressed in the context of ageism and children's rights. Pringle thus refers to the:

These criticisms focus on the primacy attached to the relationship between the citizen and the labour market in traditional approaches to citizenship. In that sense, existing use of the concept and its operationalisation may have limited potential in terms of capturing the experiences of those persons whose relationship with paid work is less determinative. Although Pringle (1998) is concerned primarily with children's rights, the reference to ageism suggests a more general concern about the relevance of these approaches to the experiences and well-being of older citizens who are no longer in paid work.