Abstract
Since the 1980s, there has been a revival of citizenship studies in American and British sociology, in which scholars' efforts mainly aiming at T. H. Marshall's legacy. However, sociologists of citizenship rethinking this academic trend since the late 1990s attempt to enhance their theoretical implications and specify the sociological interests. The paper examines this ＂new sociology of citizenship＂ by introducing the recent works of Thomas Janoski, Margaret Somers, and Bryan Turner. Janoski's introduction of the theoretical concept, social action, is crucial to his sociology of citizenship and rights, as well as Somers' historical epistemology and Turner's vulnerability theme to theirs. The main finding of this paper is that having departed from the comparative historical approach, these new sociologists of citizenship and rights endeavor to integrate the normative and the empirical research with their distinct ways and theoretical viewpoints. Moreover, the paper compares the theoretical ambitions in terms of key-concept redefining and its social mapping, and then analyses their significances to the link of citizenship studies and social theory. Based on the new sociology of citizenship, the conclusion section of the paper tries to rethink about the relationship between the normative and the empirical research.