Critical note on citizenship in Brazil

The paper I propose here intends to discuss the theme of citizenship in contemporary Brazil. Based on the analysis of a selected group of texts, it identifies two basic conceptions of citizenship: One more concerned with the problem of social inequality and the other emphasizing the process of citizenship construction by social movements. My thesis is that both conceptions maintain an ambivalent relationship with T. H. Marshall’s model of citizenship while leaving almost untouched the notion of social citizenship, which is Marshall’s main contribution to the subject. And, lastly, the paper concludes that this omission is precisely what makes difficult the formulation of a critical conception of citizenship adequate to Brazileian reality.