Mehnaaz Momen, 2017. The Paradox of Citizenship in American Politics: Ideals and Reality 1–265. London: Palgrave MacMillan.
| Published date | 01 May 2021 |
| Author | Galia Cohen,Jennifer Alexander |
| Date | 01 May 2021 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13383 |
Book Reviews 573
overview of Northern Ireland’s Knowledge Exchange
Seminar Series (KESS). The adoption of the KESS
model has provided positive impacts through effective
partnerships between academics and policymakers and
in addition has increased the public value of research
findings.
Watermeyer and Olssen provide an account of
the ‘dissipating value’ of public service in higher
education. Although provided in the context of the
United Kingdom, this section provides a warning to
universities globally. Further cautions are provided
later in this section as the environmental impact of
academic research activities are discussed. Although
the context of this section is assessing the carbon
footprint of the business travel of academics, the
sustainable university model provided (p. 338)
demonstrates the potential to be successfully applied
to a range of other areas.
In the epilogue, Mark H. Moore, the initial
developer of the concept of public value, provides a
heartfelt reflection on what he calls the ‘Public Value
Project’. Moore acknowledges that the evolution of
his original work on Public Value has far exceeded
his initial aspirations for the concept. This section
concludes with an open invitation for academics
to continue to explore and develop the theory
and practice of public value. The readability and
robustness of this volume suggests that it will become
a must have resource for researchers and practitioners
engaging with public value.
Reviewed by: Jennifer Alexander
University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, United States
Mehnaaz Momen, 2017. The Paradox of Citizenship in
American Politics: Ideals and Reality 1–265.
London: Palgrave MacMillan.
Citizenship is a form of empowerment, it is
an assertion of “the capacity to subject the
chaotic, the arbitrary, and the irrational
to rules that individuals and collectives make”
rather than be subjected to its forces (Castles
and Davidson2000, p. 27). Nations employ
citizenship as a means of distinguishing and
defending a defined community against the chaos
brought by those beyond the walls (foreigners)
or those who reside within (visitors, women, and
slaves) who do not share the same values or are
believed to lack the capacity for reason. In fact,
the determination of who is a legitimate member
of a political community is socially constructed,
a constitutive process in which the definition is
perennially shifting, mutating, and spatially defined
(Mitchell2016). What is unique to the American
experience is that a nation populated by recurrent
waves of immigrants has been compelled to clarify
what it means to be American from the start.
In The Paradox of Citizenship in American Politics,
Momen traces how the concept of citizenship in
the American experience took shape and evolved.
Momen’s book takes a thoughtful and unflinching
look at the ways in which key elements of American
history have framed mainstream ideas about who
has the right to have a voice in the political process
and who is an outsider. She drills down on logical
inconsistencies, presenting a sometimes unflattering
portrait of a “freedom loving yet slave owning
people” who selectively allowed new groups to
naturalize and assimilate, exposing a strong bias
against people of color. This book also reflects
the journey of a scholar who is an outsider, an
immigrant and naturalized citizen living in the
border town of Laredo, Texas, where she is often
taken as a person of Latin American descent. Her
unique lens on the meaning of citizenship reveals
a discernment that extends beyond the theoretical
to the dimensions of exclusion and inclusion that
limn the day-to-day lives of both marginalized
and mainstream citizens. This is a well-timed read
considering that globalization and immigration have
dealt seismic blows to the integrity of the nation
state and fomented debate as to who really belongs.
The 2019 news cycle has been awash in stories of
brown immigrant children in cages at the southern
border, and of the U.S. President leading a standing
room only crowd in a chant to send four U.S.
Congresswomen of color back to their nations of
origin (all but one was born in the United States).
Jennifer Alexander is an Associate
Professor of Public Administration in the
College for Health, Community and Policy at
the University of Texas at San Antonio. She
teaches public budgeting, organizational
theory, and nonprofit management in the
Master of Public Administration degree
program. Her research has focused on
critical theory, the political roles of nonprofit
organizations, and race in bureaucracy.
Alexander received her Ph.D. and M.S. at
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State
University and a Bachelors of Science in
Foreign Service from Georgetown University.
Email: jennifer.alexander@utsa.edu
Public Administration Review,
Vol. 81, Iss. 3, pp. 573–575. © 2021 by
The American Society for Public Administration.
DOI: 10.1111/puar.13383.
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