It has long been standard in the field of nationalism
studies to classify nations according
to which principle serves to unify the
nation. The distinction between the Western, political type of nationalism
and the Eastern, genealogical variety of nationalism as systematised by
Hans
Kohn in 1944 has been used, extended, and adjusted by scholars to
conceptualise a framework of �inclusive� nationalism based on citizenship
and territory and �exclusive� nationalism based on common ethnic ties and
descent. This conference sought to assess the continuing relevance of this
dichotomy in its various forms: its contribution to theoretical work on
nationalism, its usefulness for historical interpretation, and its value for
contemporary policy-making. [Comment by
tamilnation.org
see also
Civic Nationalism & Ethno Nationalism
and
Sinhala Buddhist
Ethno
Nationalism - Masquerading as Sri Lankan 'Civic Nationalism']
The
conference included keynote addresses from leading scholars in the
field:
In addition, over 100
scholars from leading institutions worldwide presented their latest
research papers in discussion panels.
The
first day explored the use of the classical
dichotomy in theoretical works on nationalism, national identity, and nation
formation. By considering historical case studies, the development,
interaction, and conflict of ethnic and civic types of nationalism was
analysed on the second day. Historical critiques
of and alternatives to dichotomies such as civic/ethnic and East/West
were also considered. On the third day, the framework of civic and
ethnic nationalism was explored by focusing on contemporary nationalism
and approaches to citizenship and immigration. [See
Conference Programme & Abstracts of Papers in PDF)
The conference was
preceded by the 14th
Annual Ernest Gellner
Lecture presented by Stein Tonnesson on �The Class Route to
Nationalism� on the evening of 14 April 2008.
Preliminary Programme |
|
Tuesday 15 April
- the use of the classical dichotomy in theoretical works on
nationalism, national identity, and nation formation |
|
Plenary Session |
9:30-9:45
|
Welcome Address |
9:45-10:15
|
�Civic-versus-Ethnic� and the
Peculiarities of European Nationalism
Dr. Oliver Zimmer (University College, Oxford)
"Some of the main limitations of the
distinction between civic and ethnic nationalism become apparent
when social scientists try to make sense of the complex ways in
which people (including nationalists) construct national
identities. Do the frequent references to language in
nationalist rhetoric invariably indicate ethnic nationalism in
action? Does the prominent use of the State by political leaders
signify a preference for civic as opposed to ethnic nationalism?
And what about those national discourses that evoke a particular
natural environment or landscape? The first part of the paper
engages with these questions and proposes an alternative to the
classical analytical framework.
The second part moves beyond the issue of
identity construction and looks at the social contexts within
which nationalist arguments were framed. Here I argue that the
roots of much organic (rather than 'ethnic') nationalism have to
be sought in the corporatist structures that have remained an
important aspect of modern societies. Gellner's insistence that
nationalism, while it borrowed its imagery and verbiage from
Gemeinschaft, was based largely on the social reality of
anonymous, atomized society, is problematic. Nationalism may
well have received its main impetus from the forces commonly
associated with Gesellschaft, but it had to do its work within
contexts in which Gemeinschaft, both as a reality and a powerful
ideal, was still very much alive. Existing corporations provided
the institutional and cognitive frame through which European
nationalism was experienced, imagined, and defined."
|
10:15-10:45 |
Nationalism and the Moral Psychology
of Community.
Professor Bernard Yack (Brandeis University)
"Two factors dispose scholars to exaggerate
the differences between so-called eastern and western or ethnic
and civic nationalisms. The first is normative in character and
relatively easy to correct once recognized: wishful thinking
about the intrinsically benign character of 'our' form of
nationalism in western liberal democracies. The second is
explanatory in character and much harder to correct: reliance on
the basic conceptual dichotomies of modern social theory,
dichotomies that encourage us to divvy up the two main elements
of national community, subjective affirmation and cultural
inheritance, between opposing forms of association, such as
tradition and modernity or Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft. My
paper takes aim at this second factor, arguing that we need to
develop a new and more flexible understanding of community, free
of the influence of these dichotomies, in order to make sense of
the nation and its unexpected rise to prominence in modern
political life."
|
|
|
11:45-13:15 |
Panel Session 1 |
Educating the Nation |
Prof. Maya Khemlani David,
& Mrs. Wendy Yee Mei Tien (University
of Malaya) |
Conceptualization of
Nationalism Through Language and Symbols
Malaysia is a multiethnic society with people of many religions and languages.
Ethnic diversity and polarization among the young has made the creation of a sense of national
identity not only important but also urgent. After independence, the government drew up a National Education
Policy to inculcate and nurture national consciousness among the diverse ethnic groups by promoting a
common curriculum and a common language across the different types of schools to foster national unity
and national identity. Bahasa Malaysia, the national language is used as the medium of instruction in national
schools while in national type primary schools; it is taught as a compulsory subject. Besides the
promotion of the national language and educational policies, the promotion of national symbols are often perceived
as being able to help develop a sense of nationalism and national identity among the many ethnic
groups in the country. The Malaysian flag is often seen everywhere during the ‘Merdeka’ (independence)
month to symbolize a sense of patriotism and nationalism. However, it is unclear if the use of the national
language and the use of the national symbols (e.g. national flag) have impacted on the formation of
nationhood among Malaysians. A research was conducted to compare the impact on two different groups of
Malaysians (aged >45 and <30). The reasons for the focus on two different age groups will be explained. This
paper will discuss the results and describe what nationalism and a sense of a national identity mean to these
two groups of Malaysians.
|
Mariana Kriel (LSE and University of
the Free State) |
Language-in-Education Policy Preferences of Civic and Ethnic
Nationalists Compared: The Case of Afrikaner Nationalism
In South African history, the half-century that lay between the end of the
Anglo-Boer War and the beginning of apartheid rule saw the birth and consolidation of a modern state based on
racial exclusivity. Within the bilingual (Dutch/Afrikaans-English) all-white arena it is possible to
distinguish between four nation-building projects: • the assimilationist imperialism of Alfred Milner; • the conciliationist nationalism of Louis Botha and Jan Smuts; • the bi-ethnic nationalism of Barry Hertzog; and • the ethnic exclusivist nationalism of D.F. Malan and the Afrikaner Broederbond. Of the three Afrikaner leaders, Hertzog and Malan were prominent activists for
Afrikaans whereas Smuts was accused towards the end of his second premiership of never having done
anything for the language. Yet contrary to traditional interpretations, the motivation behind Hertzog’s
involvement in the so-called Afrikaans Language Movement of the early twentieth century was not identical to
that of Malan. Hertzog was in principle opposed to exclusivism on the basis of language and his
definition of the nation, however racial, was civic rather than ethnic. Nothing bears stronger testimony to this
than his Education Acts which – like those of Smuts – supported the idea of dual-medium schools. Malan and the
Broederbond, by contrast, propagated separate educational institutions for speakers of Afrikaans and after
it came to power in 1948 the National Party made the use of the mother tongue as the sole medium of
instruction in white schools compulsory. This paper argues that the vehemence with which the post-apartheid
movement for Afrikaans opposes dual- or parallel-medium education suggests that the ethnic exclusivist
Afrikaner nationalist project has prevailed.
|
Dr. Rachel Hutchins-Viroux |
American National Identity in
American History Textbooks (1982-2003)
History textbooks for the public schools construct and transmit an official
version of a nation’s past. In the United States, in the absence of a national system of education, these books act
as a sort of de facto national curriculum. Owing to the power they wield, both real and symbolic, they are
highly contested terrain, with many pressure groups from both the right and left trying to influence their
content. The teaching of history in the public schools was a primary locus of contention in the initial rounds of
the ‘culture wars’ in the 1980s and 1990s, and it remains at the center of a great many debates to define
national identity, debates which have been further intensified in the wake of September 11, 2001. This paper examines the evolution of this quasi-official image of national
identity over the past 25 years through a study of American history textbooks selected for use in Texas (and
sold nationwide) in 1982, 1997, and 2003. Analyses focus on the changes in national heroes depicted in the
textbooks, the representation of discrimination and racial oppression in American society past
and present, and the civic virtues promoted by the books through prose and through association with
patriotic imagery. The author argues that the vision of the American nation presented by these textbooks
reflects a move away not only from a traditional de facto (at times) genealogical/ethnic conception of the
nation, but also from a purely civic conception of the nation.
|
Multination-States |
Mr.
Nenad Stojanovic |
From Civic Nation-States to Ethnic
Multination States?
In recent years there has been a growing
interest in the virtues of the �multination state�. This concept
has been used especially in relation to �sub-state nations� in
the West (Catalonia, Scotland, Quebec) but has also been
proposed as a solution for divided societies in Eastern Europe.
The advocates of multination states argue that traditional
liberal theory has taken the concept of civic nation-state for
granted and, thus, cannot cope with the demands for autonomy and
recognition advanced by sub-state nations. If we agree that the
world should avoid a (new) wave of secessions, then the
multination state seems to be the only practicable solution.
The paper critically discusses
multinationalist theses. It argues that the normative and
empirical implications of the distinction between nation-states
and multination states are flawed and unclear. By abandoning the
liberal concept of civic nation-state, multinationalist theory
runs the risk of implicitly (and often involuntarily) endorsing
the ethnic conception of the nation. This risk might be less
pronounced in the Western �sub-state nations� like Quebec but it
is acute in Eastern Europe.
The paper examines three major arguments
advanced by the multinationalists: cultural neutrality (i.e.
impossibility for a state to be culturally neutral), multiple
identities, and the importance of recognising sub-state groups
as �nations�. By focusing upon the case of Switzerland the paper
demonstrates that on each of these issues the Swiss example of
civic nation-state contradicts multinationalist theses. This, in
turn, creates a tension in multinationalist theory, especially
in relation to the �shared identity� problem
|
Mr. John French and
Ms. Annika Hinze |
From
the Inside Out: Citizenship and Polyarchy in Multi-National States
Since the fall of communism, democracy has come to be seen as the ‘only game in
town:’ the only legitimate form of political system. Much of contemporary international politics
revolves around the problems of promoting, establishing, and protecting democracy. Democracy is
considered legitimate because it provides for individual rights and allows the people access to the
resources of the state. If ‘we the people’ defines the limits of these entitlements, however, the next logical
question is: who are ‘the people?’ Who is included in the group of individuals entitled to democratic rights? For scholars studying democracy and democratization, the assumption has long
been that the establishment of democratic institutions requires a certain level of homogeneity—a shared
identity and the social bonds this implies. Thus diversity, the existence of multiple collective identities,
is a problem to be avoided or, at best, compensated for. In contemporary developed states, the problem of
diversity is most often framed as a problem of immigration; the arrival of new groups threatens both the presumed
homogeneity of established nations and their democracy. Such arguments take the boundaries of national
political communities as fixed and stable. However, recent investigations into nationalism have shown that
national identities are constructed and fluid over time. With this in mind, we need a new conception of
democracy, which takes into account the constructed nature of ‘the people’ that democracy empowers.
This paper attempts to provide such an account by advocating a new understanding of the relationship
between nationalism, citizenship, and democracy.
|
Mr. Karlo Basta
(University of Toronto) |
"Confident" Majorities and Power Sharing in Multinational States
"In discussing accommodation in multinational states,
many scholars place the burden of concession-making on the majority
groups and their elites. Implicit in this literature is a normative
assumption that the majority groups/nations, given their size and
potential for political domination, must give minority groups/nations
some means through which to protect their interests and ultimately group
existence. Yet, this view of the situation is a construct not always
shared by the members of the majority group itself.
I argue that the extent to which the majority group
internalizes this view, as the precondition of acting on it, depends on
two sets of factors. First, it depends on the majority sense of moral
obligation towards the minority group, and second, on the extent to
which members of the majority view the particular accommodation demand
as feasible for their own group. The paper develops four possible
options, with both of these factors either present or absent, and two
combinations where one is present and the other is not.
The theoretical implications suggest the importance of
majority group intersubjective understandings of the political dynamics
in question, and thus a shift away from analytical overemphasis on
minority claims. In terms of policy implications, the paper suggests
that it is often as important to strengthen the majority group
`confidence' as it is to fortify the political/economic/cultural defense
capability of the minorities. Underlying this conclusion is the
assumption that majority group dissatisfaction with the common state
virtually guarantees instability and is usually the key factor
contributing to violent political outcomes."
|
Symbolic Representations of
Civic and Ethnic Nationalism |
Dr. Athena Leoussi |
Ethnic or Civic Nations? A Study of the Symbolic Foundations of Post-Communist States
This paper examines the ethno-cultural and civic orientations of the
constitutions of the nineteen post-communist states which, until 1989, had been part of the Soviet bloc, as either
‘satellites’ of the USSR or integral components of the USSR. Out of these, seven joined, in May 2004, the European
Union. These were the East European states of Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia, and the
three Baltic states, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, who refused to join the Commonwealth of Independent
States, founded in 1991. By joining the EU, these seven states joined the West European world of national
states – a world of deep historical consciousness, democratic institutions and free economy. At the same time, they
rejected communist internationalist and class conceptions of human solidarity, identity and
destiny, and Russian assimilationist ideology and cultural policies. The paper examines the extent to which the state symbols of the nineteen
post-communist societies can be considered as evidence regarding the civic and ethno-cultural orientations of
these societies. In so doing, it considers, state symbols in relation to a) the civic/ethnic content of the
preambles of the post-communist constitutions which establish these symbols; and b) the civic/ethnic provisions
of these constitutions. The paper draws on Hans Kohn’s typology of Western/civic and non-Western/ethnic
paths to nation formation, as elaborated and qualified by Anthony D. Smith, Ernest Gellner, Rogers Brubaker
and Taras Kuzio. It thus tries to establish the relative importance of civic as compared with ethnic
principles in the formal making of post-communist nations.
|
Dr. Gordana Uzelac |
National Ceremonies: The Pursuit
of Authenticity
This paper will attempt to answer the question
of why some ceremonies are perceived as national and persist
through time, while other fail to achieve that status. Why
national ceremonies, almost as a rule, have to be annual?
It will be argued that while producers of national ceremonies
�cannot control the ways in which images of the past are
perceived� (Savage 1994), national ceremonies are designed so as
to appear, and would be perceived by the audience, as authentic.
Based on Alexander�s theory of cultural pragmatics (Alexander,
2006), the paper will attempt to sketch a model of social
interactions where the roles of the producers, actors and
audience are examined within a specific cultural context and
social structure. According to Jeffrey Alexander in a fused,
successful performance of the ceremony, audiences identify with
actors, and cultural scripts achieve verisimilitude through
effective mise-en-scene. This perception of authenticity becomes
the crucial point which determines whether the performance will
be successful or not. Performances fail when this re-linking
process is incomplete: the elements of performance remain apart,
and social action seems inauthentic and artificial, failing to
persuade. The level of persuasion will, on the other hand, be
conditioned not by a so-called collective memory, but individual
perception, formed within a specific social context, of what is
authentic.
|
Dr.Gabriella Elgenius (Nuffield
College, Oxford) |
The Renegotiation and Promotion of Britishness: Community Building, Civic versus Ethnic Membership
This paper will explore the recent civic government initiatives attempting to
renegotiate ‘Britishness’ and promote a civic notion of nationhood within the ceremonial sphere. The Home
Office introduced a Citizens’ Day as a low key initiative in 2006 with the intention of breaking down barriers
and offering an opportunity for people from all backgrounds to come together – in a first phase in
ethnically divided parts of Britain. Mr. Brown went further suggesting that Remembrance Sunday would make a suitable
Britain Day. The recent Citizenship Review (2008) concludes that a National Citizenship Day would
provide a focus for the celebration of British values and promote community cohesion and social
integration. Closely related to these suggestions we note that Citizenship Ceremonies have been in place since
2004 marking the new status for new citizens and that existing commemorations on Remembrance Sunday
have been modified to recognise the contributions of the various faith communities in Britain. Similar civic community building projects to those mentioned above are in place
in other in multi-ethnic states inside as well as outside Europe; thus it interesting to ask what these
ceremonial initiatives are expected to accomplish? In Britain we need to explore these in relation to the
steady decline of Britishness, the shy growth of Englishness and to highlight the challenges to a civic notion
of Britishness both from within and from without. Ethnic conceptions of nationhood are associated with
more authoritarian attitudes in defining membership of the nation. Thus, recent governmental initiatives must
be understood in terms of reinforcing the civic conception of citizenship which is perceived as being more
inclusive. The data used has been collected within the ESRC Identities Project exploring to what extent
traditional identities are in decline. (Heath et al 2005; Heath & Elgenius 2007).
|
Europe, East and West
|
Ms. Jelena Dzankic |
Obsolete, yet Obstinate
and Operative?
Ever since its formulation, the dichotomy ‘Eastern (ethnic) v. Western (civic)
nationalism’ has been subject to constant academic debate. In a century of its existence, the ‘civic v.
ethnic’ dichotomy in the studies of nationalism has often been revised, and each revision added a new flair to it.
However, none of these modifications has significantly changed the initial postulates of Meinecke, Kohn
and Plamenatz. The dichotomy juxtaposed the genealogical nature of nationalism in the East to the
political one of nationalism in the West, by emphasizing the importance of race, blood, descent, language and
religion for the former; and the accent on territory, participation, inclusion and constitutionalism in
the latter. The explanation of differences between the two models has been grounded in the development of
liberalism and individuality in the West, and the affiliation with the group in the East. This is indicative of
the distinct historical routes two parts of the world have been experiencing in the past few centuries.
Accordingly, this research compares various elements of the theory behind the dichotomy, in order to determine which
of them could be useful for historical interpretation and modern policy-making. It seeks to assert that,
although some segments of this analytical model can explain the phenomena related to nation formation in
the modern world, the dichotomy itself needs to be carefully applied. Otherwise - its form will be
misleading of its content.
|
Mr. Timofey Agarin and Ms. Nagore
Calvo |
Negotiating Nationalisms:
Spain�s Basques and Estonia�s Russians in the
Context of the EU Integration
"Hans Kohn's distinction of Eastern
and Western nationalisms has been the one of a remarkable longevity. Our
paper questions the reliability of this dichotomy when applied to
nationalisms in the context of the present-day liberal democracy. Our
case-studies of the Spanish Basques and Russians of Estonia suggest that
at the level of the nation-state, nationalisms are perceived as ethnic
because of inherent bind between one nation and `its' state. At the same
time, when asserted in a context of multicultural Europe, minority
nationalisms appear rather civic in their aspiration to redistribute
democratic capital more liberally. In addressing these two cases of
minority nationalism, we see several lines for comparison. First of all,
we believe that respective minority groups have been consistent in
providing Eastern-type nationalist response to the policies of cultural
homogenisation by the state of their residence. At the same time,
however, both groups have demonstrated their civic-mindedness, when
appealing for EU interferences and support for their cause. Prior to
discussing these similarities, we address the shortcomings of Kohn
dichotomy to make clear that in both cases civic and ethnocultural
nationalisms are aligned hand in hand. Our paper concludes with the
review of Kohn's views, in arguing that while liberal democracy is a
common-place aspiration today, we cannot categorise expressions of
nationalisms in terms of dichotomy, but need to address the nationalist
expressions in the context of negotiating its terms."
|
Dr. Rodanthi Tzanelli |
Citizenship and Nationhood in the Margins of
Europe: Greece, October 2000/2003
The paper critically examines the generation
of discourses on Greek identity following the episodes that took
place in northern Greece (Michaniona, 2000/2003), when an
Albanian student was elected flag-carrier in a commemorative
national parade. The symbolic exclusion of this student from the
Greek �imagined community� (Greek objections to his holding the
flag during the parade) merits analysis as an expression of
anti-European nationalist sentiment. Three versions of Greek
identity emerged in this context: the first was grounded on
civic understandings of identity, and adhered to contemporary
principles of an �Europeanist�
project that promotes citizenship as a form of belonging. The
second version mobilised a Greek civilisational model of
belonging that echoed practices of assimilation as an antidote
to national exclusion. This civilisational model promoted ideas
of national-cultural �purity� that have roots in Greek
ethnogenesis. The third version of Greek identity suggested an
understanding of the �nation� in terms of racial affiliation,
presenting thus nationhood as a �natural� category and
foreclosing inclusion of �others� into the �nation� under any
conditions. The three versions crossed and interacted during the
2000/2003 episodes, but here are examined separately, because
their historical resonance is not identical. The argument put
forth is that these discourses of identity betray (a) the
problematic economic and cultural position of Greece within
Europe and (b) should read as a form of national resistance to
processes of �Europeanization� that threaten �imagined
communities� embedded in history.
|
14.30 - 16.00 |
Panel Session 2 |
Civic and Ethnic Nationalism: An Overemphasized Dichotomy? |
Dr. Michael Amoah
|
How Universal or Rational is the
Ethnic/Civic Divide?
"Hans Kohn the prolific writer
has made significant contributions towards theorizing on the
subject of Nationalism, not least the validity of the
ethnic/civic distinction as two types of nationalism, even if
this distinction is not always rational or geographically
significant, or that the dichotomy can amount to a synchrony
within multinational state scenarios. Indeed a monotony also
commences with Kohn, whose thought actually equates nationalism
with imperialism, a frame of mind that eventually sets out to
invent an 'east/west' difference that has also proved to be not
universal. By the nature of his busy itinerary in an
unscientific terrain, the potential chore of checking against
the trail he blazed means it was probably impossible to
apprehend the obfuscation along the trail, until analysis would
reveal over time. However, any tensions and contradictions
within his works are perhaps part of the legacy which spurs on
the debate. The paper goes on to discuss Kohn's two
contributions towards the ten-point check list regarding the
attributes of a modern nation: evidence of ideology or doctrine;
and cohesion between the masses and the aristocracy."
|
Dr. Mark Jubulis(Gannon
University) |
Civic and ethnic nations as exaggerated ideal types: Misunderstanding the
cultural attributes of nationhood
The sharp distinction between ‘civic’ and ‘ethnic’ nations has been exaggerated.
Descriptions tend to be either too ‘thin’ in the case of civic nations or too ‘thick’ in the case of
ethnic nations. This is because scholars often underestimate the role of culture in the formation of civic
nations and conflate culture and ethnicity in the case of ethnic nations. In reality, most nation-states fall
somewhere in between these two extremes. This is because civic nations tend to rest on a shared public culture,
which may include some traits that are normally associated with ethnic nations, and many so-called ethnic
nations actually rely on a linguistic qualification for naturalization, which encourages acculturation and
thereby opens the community to members of other ethnic groups. We shall examine this role of culture in both
types by examining the case studies of the United States (usually described as a civic nation) and
Latvia (usually described as an ethnic nation). Rather than a strict dichotomy between civic and ethnic nations,
we should conceive of different forms of nationhood existing along a continuous spectrum, with civic
criteria at one end, cultural criteria in the middle, and ethnic criteria at the other end. As a result, we
will be able to appreciate how civic and ethnic nations may differ from one another, but also what they have in
common as nations.
|
Mr. Steven Mock |
The Universality of the Civic Ideal
Against the Ethnic Reality of Nationhood
Recent literature problematising the dichotomy
between civic and ethnic forms of nationhood rejects the notion
of a clear typology into which nations can be sorted. Rather,
every nation represents a complex amalgam of voluntaristic and
organic elements, mobilised toward varying functions. However,
there have also been theories suggesting that �the nation�, as a
social and ideological construct, represents a particular
configuration of such elements. Some have argued, for example,
that even the most ostensibly civic nations are built around a
dominant ethnic core, a set of cultural values acceptance of
which becomes a litmus test to membership. This paper explores
the flipside of this phenomenon, for it is equally the case that
even the most openly ethnic nations endeavour to represent
themselves in conformity to the civic ideal-type. Three cases
are examined where nations self-defined as pursuing
self-determination for a named ethnic or racial group, enacting
political/legal regimes privileging that group, nonetheless
framed these actions according to voluntaristic, egalitarian
principles associated with the civic ideal. Case #1 is the laws
and legal decisions surrounding the construction of the
�apartheid� system in South Africa; case #2 is Israel�s
�absentee law� following the 1948 War of Independence; case #3
is the citizenship law enacted in Estonia following independence
from the Soviet Union in 1991. These discourses did not merely
function to depict these actions in a manner defensible to
outsiders. Rather, conformity to the �civic� framework of
nationhood was pivotal to the positive self-perception of even
the most openly �ethnic� of nations.
|
Rethinking the Terms of
Ethnic and Cultural Nationalism |
Dr. Sinisa Malesevic
|
Ethnicity in Time and Space
Ethnicity is often understood either as a synonym for an ethnic group or as a
distinct cultural property of a particular collectivity. Such views start from the proposition that collective
cultural difference is not only given but also an ultimate cause of a particular behaviour. Ethnic group
solidarity is seen as almost automatic, normal and natural. However both of these perceptions are illusory:
a) there is nothing automatic and self-evident in group formation and b) cultural similarity by itself is a
feeble explanatory force. Max Weber was already well aware and recent scholarship made it apparent that
ethnicity requires successful mobilization of social action to transform mere group membership into a
conscious political association. Rather than being an outcome of the explanatory process, ethnicity is a
phenomenon that requires explanation. However the dominant contemporary perspectives can not adequately address the
processes through which cultural difference is politicised because they operate with the two largely
incommensurable concepts of ethnicity: the temporal and the spatial. The main aim of this paper is to
critically engage with these two dominant perspectives in order to articulate a more coherent sociological
understanding of ethnicity. First I explore the vertical, macro historical view that focuses on the transformation
and continuity of culture in time. Second I analyse the horizontal, mostly ahistorical, micro interactional
view that centres on the majority and majority relations in a modern social order. Finally I outline an
alternative position that attempts to transgress the existing macro/micro, time/space divide by
identifying what is universal about ethnicity.
|
Ms. Joanie Willett |
Liberal Ethnic Nationalism,
Universality and Cornish Identity
The paper will argue that Kohn provided too
simplistic an argument when he put forward that civic identities
are �good� and ethnic identities are �bad�. Just because it is
widely accepted that nation states are a product of Modernism
does not mean that Modernist Liberal Democratic principles are
causal factors in the differences between civic and ethnic
nationalism. The case study of Cornwall will be used to
illustrate this, using semi-structured interview data to show
that the new discourses about Cornwall which redefine Cornish
identity are entirely removed from ethnicity and therefore are
�civic� in Kohn�s terms. However for Kohn, �universality� means
that the identity could potentially be a part of a movement
towards more �global� forms of governance. Cornish civic
identity is different to this idea, and is concerned with
lifestyle and economics. Any Enlightenment principles retained
are connected with a narcissistic interpretation of individual
happiness alongside the freedom to engage in economic activities
without restraint. In contrast, Cornish �ethnic� identity
contains Liberal Rationality, such as the desire for greater
democracy and consent to government, individual dignity and
humanitarianism, alongside an inclusive interpretation of
Cornish national heritage. Further, rather than making claims to
superiority, Cornish ethnic identity is more akin to
cosmopolitan humanity than the egocentric civic version.
|
Mr. Vincent Martigny |
The Importance of Culture in
Civic Nations: Culture and the Republic in France
The aim of this paper is to assess the importance of culture within the French
civic nation-state. On the contrary to common descriptions of the political system in France as insensitive
to cultural claims in its definition of citizenship, I will argue that the role of culture in the
functioning of the Republic has been historically and theoretically under-estimated. This contribution will
especially emphasize the existence and singularity of a specific form of nationalism through culture within the French
Republican model. I will unfold my argument in two main steps. Firstly, I will discuss the accounts made
on the French system by liberal and communitarian thinkers. I will argue that the main analysts of the
French civic nation – even Republicans like Habermas – tend to underestimate the consideration concealed to
cultural identities within the Republican model. Secondly, I will develop the idea defended by a generation
of French Republicanism specialists, that culture has always been at the theoretical heart of the
Republican ideal and conception of citizenship, and that the Republic used a form of cultural nationalism to
sustain its unity. More than a tool of sedimentation of civic republican values, culture is the keystone of the
Republican definition of national identity in France and allows its legitimacy. My contribution to this debate
will insist specifically on showing the clear differences existing between this form of ‘cultural
nationalism’ operated by the Republican State and the Volkgeist and Kulturgeist of the ethnic nation defined
by Hans Kohn.
|
|
|
Institutional Frameworks for
Nationalism in the Global Community |
Prof. Danic Parenteau (University
of Ottawa) |
Nationalism at the Age of
Globalization: Cultural Diversity as a New Legitimizing Process
The aim of my paper is to rethink political
nationalism in the context of Globalization. The thesis I want
to defend is that nationalism can find today a new legitimizing
principle in the notion of cultural diversity, in replacement of
the self-determination principle. But in order for this new
principle to achieve this purpose it however needs to be further
developed; for it needs to be elevated as a coherent and
autonomous world-view capable of competing with the most
important world-view of our time, cosmopolitanism.
|
Ms. Ulrike Theuerkauf |
Ethno-Embedded Institutionalism
Despite the vast amount of theories aiming to
explain the causes of ethnopolitically motivated violence,
criticism has been raised that hitherto the social sciences lack
any explanation of ethnic identities, relations between
different identity groups and ethno-national conflict that will
hold cross-culturally (Horowitz 1985; Fearon and Laitin 2000;
Saideman et al. 2002). This need to find theoretical
explanations on the outbreak of ethno-national conflict that
bear cross-cultural validity serves as point of departure for
the analysis at hand.
The theoretical framework investigates formal and non-formal
institutions which influence the likelihood of ethno-national
conflict, and is tested using cross-sectional and pooled
time-series analysis. The statistical research is based on
observations in 201 independent countries between 1955 and 2005.
It will be argued that rather than treating formal and
non-formal political institutions as separate entities, it is
the specific interplay between them that has a major impact on
the likelihood of ethnic conflict. The more political systems
are based on premises of politics as a zero-sum game in its
formal institutions � such as through a majoritarian electoral
formula and a presidential system of government �, and the lower
the degree of social integration in non-formal institutions �
such as through dominant culture politics and a fragmented civil
society �, the more likely is the outbreak of ethnic conflict.
The appearance of politics as zero-sum game and low degrees of
social integration are assumed to increase the divide between
state and society which heightens the likelihood of ethnic
conflict.
|
Dr. Tove Malloy(Institute for
Minority Rights, European Academy) |
Co-Nationhood and Co-Nationship
More countries become co-national in that they arrange their political
institutions around distinct separations between ethnic groups. This means implementing political institutions to
accommodate the political demands resulting from co-nationhood. There is no shortage of theories of how
such co-nations should find ways of organizing their society politically. However, political frames no
matter how democratic in design do not guarantee sustainability and thus democratic co-habitation. This paper
aims to take Keating’s theory of plurinational democracy a step further by offering the beginning of a theory
of co-nationship. This involves first a brief critical overview of existing approaches to nationhood
which it is argued fail to represent the true nature of nationhood in complex societies as they fail to
capture the non-essentialised groupness of nationhood. Instead it is argued that dynamics of co-habitation
produce points of references that allow universal conventions to enter and thus may serve as contact points
for co-nationhoods to meet ethically. Second, a framework is offered that generates research on openings of
openness in terms of conventions of religion, language, history, territory, culture, rights and
responsibility, education, economy, shared sovereignty, geo-politics and more and which would take co-nationhood
beyond the essentializing point of closed nationhood and give prominence to a concept of democratic co-nationship.
The specific purpose of this paper is thus to offer a research agenda that provides some
conceptual tools of co-nationhood and supports an emerging theory of co-nationship.
|
Civic and Ethnic Nation-State Building |
Dr.
Anastasia Filippidou (King�s College London) |
Western Europe and Its Selective Attitude towards
Ethnic or Civic State-Building
Who decides who ‘deserves’ a state? Who sets the criteria for state-building?
Aiming to answer these questions, the presentation is a comparative assessment of Western European
attitudes regarding the nation state and the paradox that seems to prevail within the so-called old states vis-�-vis
current state-formation. In recent times the world map has changed dramatically with the appearance of new
states. However, the preparedness of western states to welcome the creation of these new countries
has not been matched with the same will to accommodate long-lasting calls for self-determination from regions
within their borders. The presentation focuses on this apparent paradox where the so-called old western
states, although they were formed and largely remain ethnic-based, when their regions demand
self-government, among the prevalent centralists’ counter-argument is that a new ethnic-based state would constitute
a threat, be outdated and nonsustainable. Still, western states, including those facing protracted intrastate conflicts,
embrace the formation of new ethnic-based states in Eastern Europe and elsewhere. Apparently, Western
European states emphasize the need for a civic-based state to deplete self-government demands
within some of their regions, while readily advocate and even facilitate the formation of new ethnic-based
states as long as they are geographically afar and do not pose a threat. The presentation aims to attest
this argument using the examples of France and Spain juxtaposing their attitudes towards their regions
demanding self-government and the stance of these countries towards recent state-building.
|
Mr. Abel
Polese(Hannah Arendt Institute) |
Does Civic Nation Building Exist? An Answer from Ukraine
This paper suggests that ‘Civic Nation Building’ as it has been conceptualized
by scholarly works is only a theoretical case with no practical counterpart. To do so the paper engages with
previous literature on nation building to discuss the very meaning of ‘ethnic’ and ‘civic’ nation building
using as case study the nation building project put forwards by Ukrainian elites since 1991.
|
Nationalism on the Iberian Peninsula |
Jos� Manuel Sobral (University of
Lisbon) |
Civic and Ethnic Dimensions in
Portuguese Representations of National Identity
Although open to criticism, Hans Kohn�s
distinction between a Western (civic) and Eastern (ethnic)
nationalism remains a powerful tool on the studies of
nationalism, because it allows us to identify the main contents
which are usually present on representations of national
identity. In this paper we address the continued value of Hans
Kohn�s typology. We mainly use data provided by Portuguese
historical sources and data from the International Social Survey
Program (ISSP) 2003 National Identity Study (NIS). In Portugal
contemporary definitions of national identity both stress
criteria of citizenship and ethnic ones. Although civic criteria
were as important as the ethnic, seen in a comparative
perspective the Portuguese definitions revealed a (�western�)
country where ethnic ties where particularly salient.
|
Diego Muro (King’s College London) & Alejandro Quiroga
(University of Newcastle upon Tyne) |
Tales of War: Myths, Memories and
Rituals in Modern Spain
The work of Meinecke, Kohn, and Plamenatz developed the ethnic-civic divide by
analysing a number of factors in the discourse of nationalist ideologues. Cultural nationalism was
considered illiberal and backward and located in Eastern Europe, while its Western counterpart was
portrayed as civic, liberal and capable of integrating different ethnies into the national ideal. An alternative
to examining nationalist ideology is to focus on the changing nature of the discourse, myths and memories
of the nationalist community. The nation-building process requires a series of unremitting
revisions of patriotic myths and historical memories to keep the process of nation formation alive. While a
number of myths and memories remain central to the nationalist discourse and rituals they vary according to
changing historical circumstances. This paper examines the ethnic and civic national myths of the Basque, Catalan
and Spanish nationalist movements and the means by which they have been commemorated in political
rituals throughout the twentieth century. Rather than a unified bunch of core elements, different
aspects are highlighted in accordance to the socio-political context (discovery of America, conversion of
Arana, fall of Barcelona, etc). This fragmentation is significant as there is no unifying national myth and
Spaniards cannot jointly remember any political event of their recent past. This is the case of the Civil
War (1936-1939) and Spain's non-intervention in both World War I and II. Even the paradigmatic transition to
democracy, which was peacefully negotiated by political elites, was problematic enough as not to
become a national myth in the whole of Spain.
|
Dr. Ivan Serrano Balaguer |
The State's Response to the Catalan Question: An Emerging
Ethnic Component in Contemporary Spanish Nationalism?
The recent debate on the new Charter of Autonomy
for Catalonia has shown that the �Catalan specificity� re-mains an
unsolved question in contemporary Spain. However, some new elements
have arisen in the debate. First, secessionism has become a relevant
nationalist strategy in Catalonia. Second, the Charter proposal made
by the Catalan parliament was dramatically cut in the Spanish
congress. Third, Spanish nationalism seems exhausted to respond in
accommodation terms to Catalan nationalism and is trying to redefine
and modernize its national project.
The paper examines to what extent contemporary Spanish nationalism
is reinforcing the �ethnic� elements of the nation as a response to
Catalan demands for self-government. After 25 years of democracy
where the references to national myths were burdened by the
aggressive nationalism of Franco�s dictatorship, democratic Spanish
nationalism is currently building a new consensus on the idea of
Spain and its national identity project. In my view these processes
show that, on the one hand, ethnic and civic elements are not
exclusive of a particular kind of nationalism but they are present
in any nationalist project, and, on the other hand, that they are an
expression of the competitive character of nationalist projects.
|
16:30-18:00 |
Panel Session 3 |
The Intellectual Roots of Jewish Nationalism |
Hedva Ben-Israel
(Hebrew University of Jerusalem) |
The Ideological
Background and Backbone of Kohn's Typology
"The main points of this paper are: 1. Kohn's
studies of Nationalism were conducted entirely in the sphere of
ideas. 2. Kohn's conception of two types of nationalism sprang
from his personal experiences with national identity, moral
principles and ideological convictions. 3. Once the idea of a
'good' and 'bad' nationalism became central in his thinking, he
tended to subsume his historical interpretations to it, and
subject movements, leaders, and nations to the test of whether
they belonged to the enlightened or primitive, universal or
particular, type of nationalism. 4. This obsession with the
moral aspect of nationalism stifled Kohn's ability to break out
of the conceptual framework with which his pioneering work on
nationalism began. 5. One problematic result of Kohn's approach
is the idealized version of a spiritual nationalism which he
preached, cleansed of politics and roots, stateless,
universalist, and in fact not a nationalism at all. 6. This form
of a disembodied nationalism was modeled on his own early vision
of spiritual Zionism. 7. The reaction against Kohn's moralizing
raised theories which explained the rise of nationalism as an
almost mechanical process. 8. When the tables turned again and
debates about nationalism became partly ideological, Kohn's
typology had a comeback in the more sophisticated terminology of
ethnic and civic nationalism. 9. The new version of the old
typology is equally flawed in its deterministic assignment of
national characteristics, and in lacking concrete cases which
reflect its ideal types."
|
Dr. Yitzhak (Isaac) Conforti |
East and West in Jewish
Nationalism: Conflicting Types in the Zionist Movement
Jewish nationalism is an interesting test case within the nationalist movement,
offering a perspective on competing forms within one movement: Eastern and Western. During the 1880’s, the
Eastern national Jewish movement Hibbat Zion was established. Toward the end of the nineteenth
century, the political Zionist movement arose, with a prominent Western emphasis. Hibbat Zion was
founded by Eastern European Jews, among whom the ethnic, genealogical, and cultural element of the
Jewish national movement dominated. By contrast, political Zionism, which arose in Basel in
1897, highlighted the civil and liberal element. Hans Kohn, drew the classic distinction between Eastern and Western nationalism.
Based on Kohn’s definitions, I will evaluate the distinction between these two movements by
characterizing the leadership within the two streams as well as the varying utopian visions of Western and
Eastern Zionism. On either side of the dividing line stand Ahad Ha'am, the ‘Eastern’ Zionist leader, and
Theodor Herzl, the ‘Western’ Zionist leader. To highlight the dichotomy between these two streams within the
Jewish nationalist movement, I will analyze the conflict that broke out in 1902 surrounding the
publication of Herzl’s utopian vision, Altneuland, which described the future Jewish state in a distinctly
Western style. Ahad Ha’am, leader of Eastern cultural Zionism, attacked Herzl's Western approach and supported the
Eastern Zionist vision. A close look at the controversy will enable me to characterize the vision held by
both groups as well as to challenge Kohn’s dichotomy.
|
Mr. Barak Levy Shilat |
�In the Beginning, God Created the Nation�: Ethnic and Civic
Elements
in Jabotinsky�s Nationalism
Ze’ev (Vladimir) Jabotinsky was one of the most influential Zionist leaders and
thinkers at the first half of the 20th century. Jabotinsky faced the issue of nationalism both in his
theoretical writings, as well as in his political career. As a thinker, he combined romantic notions of nationalism with
liberal ideas. His views saw the individual as the center of the social and moral order. The nation, however,
is crucial in giving the individual the cultural context in which he can fulfill his potential. As a political leader Jabotinsky faced the issue of nationalism both in the
Russian empire and in Palestine. He offered political solution to the status of the Jews, as a nation, in both
cases. In Russia he advocated non territorial autonomy to all the nations in the Empire. In Palestine, he is one of the first
leaders to acknowledge the relations between Jews and Arabs as the main problem of the Zionist
enterprise. He is considered a ‘hard liner’, because of his refusal to permit any territorial compromise.
However, his draft for a future constitution highlights the civic and group rights of both Arabs and Jews. I will argue that it is possible to find both civic and ethnic elements in
Jabotinsky’s writings about nationalism. However, these elements complete, rather than contradict one another. It is
therefore possible to find these two elements not only in the same national movement, but in the writing of
the same man – a fact that weakens, in my opinion, the dichotomy between the two.
|
Regionalism vs. the Ethnic/Civic Dichotomy |
Dr. Sonia Alonso |
A False Dichotomy? Cultural
Nationalism versus Regionalism in Multination States: The Case of Spain
"This paper has a double objective. The first
is conceptual clarification. I shall argue that what is usually
claimed to be regionalism is but one form of nationalism. I
shall question certain stereotypes that abound in the
literature, such as assuming that minority nationalists are
necessarily ethnic or that any preference short of independent
statehood is not nationalism. The second objective is to argue
that historical nationalist parties, such as Basque and Catalan
parties, and recent ones, such as Andalusian and Canarian
parties, are expressions of the same phenomenon, namely, the
political mobilisation of nationalism. Nationalist parties, old
and new, are being successful, not just in terms of votes, whose
numbers are often quite modest. Minority nationalists have
managed to alter the political agenda of parties and governments
and to impose a centre-periphery cleavage in society. Their
actions have brought profound changes to the territorial
structure of the state and have pushed state parties to defend
nationalist positions in the regions. This success,
paradoxically, can have a perverse effect: it makes increasingly
difficult to survive on a nationalist agenda when the
nationalist cause has been assimilated and institutionalised.
Competition with state-parties-turned-nationalists sets limits,
in some cases severe ones, to the prospects of success of
nationalist parties. Thus, moderate nationalist parties are
tempted by more radical agendas, symbolic politics gain strength
over more pragmatic considerations and the pressure to engage in
nation-building policies and strategies increases. I propose to
flesh out these arguments in Spain since 1979."
|
Ms. Zaira Vidali |
A Contact Area between the Civic
and the Ethnic Conception of Nationhood: The Case of Regione Friuli Venezia
Giulia in Italy
The paper will present how the conceptions of
civic and ethnic nationhood meet and relate in Regione Friuli
Venezia Giulia in Italy considering the interethnic relations
between two national communities living in the area: the Italian
majority with its State and the Slovene minority. Members of the
Slovene minority are Italian citizens, but they consider
themselves as part of the Slovene people, of which the majority
lives in the bordering Slovenia. The civic conception is related
to the Italian community and the Italian state, while the ethnic
one is related to the Slovene national minority living in the
provinces of Gorizia-Gorica, Trieste-Trst and Udine-Videm and
its kin-state Slovenia. The paper will present the trajectories
of nation and state formation in this region in the 19th, 20th
and 21st centuries. A brief historical review will help to focus
on some relevant psychocultural and structural dimensions of the
interethnic relations between Italians and Slovenes in Regione
FVG considering the processes of the Italian and Jugoslav, later
Slovene nation-building and the formation processes of the
border between these States.
|
Theories of Canadian Nationalism |
Prof. Genevieve Zubrzycki |
Back to the Basics: A Weberian Analysis of Nationalism in Quebec
This paper critically addresses the various
ways in which the civic and ethnic categories have been used and
misused in the literature on nations and nationalism. The
accentuation and naturalization of differences between ethnic
and civic national understandings, and between �East� and
�West,� ignores the diversity that
exists within each region, and denies the negotiated coexistence
of both models within individual nations. I argue that the
problematic treatment of the dichotomy stems from a
misunderstanding and misuse of ideal types, and from the common
conflation, in the study of nationalism, of ideological
representations (discourse), empirical reality (practice), and
social scientific analysis (ideal types). If used properly, as
value-free constructs that we compare with reality�both in terms
of the actual discourses of the nation and the various practices
that shape national life�ethnic and civic categories can be
quite useful to understand the conceptions of the nation in
various cultural, social, political and economic settings. I
illustrate my position by using the ethnic and civic ideal-types
as heuristic devices to analyze the evolution and transformation
of nationalism in Quebec from the 1880s until the 2000s. Based
on archival and ethnographic data, I show that while nationalism
in Quebec has generally evolved from an ethno-religious type to
a civic-secular one, different assemblages of ethnic and civic
elements have been present at various historical periods and the
tension between the types continue to shape national debates.
|
Mr. Eric Woods |
Misconceiving (English) Canada: An
Ethno-Symbolic Critique of Multinational Federalism
Trudeauian pan-Canadianism, which defines the
Canadian national identity as a single nation bound by
liberal-egalitarianism, �sea to sea� bilingualism,
multiculturalism, and provincial equality, has been heavily
criticized in English-Canadian academe. The crux of the
criticism is the insistence on defining Canada as one nation has
exacerbated conflict by ignoring Quebecois and Aboriginal claims
to nationhood. As a solution, theorists Philip Resnick and Will
Kymlicka, in particular, argue for a multinational definition of
Canada bound by mutual recognition, which would ostensibly
create a better foundation for long-term unity. In making their
case, Resnick and Kymlicka set about convincing
English-Canadians to recognize that they share common
�national�, or at least, �linguistic� interests, to which pan-Canadianism
is not necessarily best suited. The presumption is that if
English-Canadians were to identify with a more limited �English-Canadianness�,
this would create space for other collectivities to identify
with Canada. Adopting an ethnosymbolic lens and focusing on the
relationship between dominant ethnicity and civic and ethnic
nationalisms in multinational states, the following paper takes
issue with this argument. The suggestion here is that it
fundamentally misconceives English-Canadian identity, resulting
in a flawed argument that fails to account for why English
Canadians have such difficulty articulating an
�English-Canadianness� distinct from �(pan)-Canadianness�. The
paper concludes that pan-Canadianism should be viewed as a
source of disunity and unity; insofar as Canada can be
considered a success is a result of English-Canadians�
dominance, which allows them a degree of latitude vis-�-vis
minority nationalisms, yet also renders their ethnic
particularity �invisible�, setting the stage for an
unselfconscious, universalising pan-Canadianism.
|
Limits of Exporting the Civic
State |
Prof.
John Myhill(University of Haifa) |
Ethnic Nationalism and the Failure of Democracy in Arab States
Western observers have been confused by the catastrophic results of attempts to
introduce democracy into the ‘Arab world.’ I argue that this confusion is the product of Westerners
applying the dichotomy between civic and ethnic nationalism as outlined by Hans Kohn to this area without
realistically considering the ethnic situation there. According to this thinking, states (e.g. France, Germany)
choose either civic nationalism or ethnic nationalism, and this is associated with democracy or dictatorship
respectively; therefore, the overthrow of a dictatorship and the imposition of democracy should automatically lead to
the development of stable institutions of civic nationalism. This theory seemed to receive support
from developments in Eastern Europe after the fall of communism. But this has not worked in the ‘Arab world.’ The explanation for this difference can be found in research in the framework of ethnosymbolism, which has shown that even in cases such as England and France, the institutions of civic
nationalism only developed after the state had been built around a core ethnicity. Democracy caught on in
Eastern Europe because the area had already been divided into political units (e.g. Poland, Romania,
Lithuania, etc.) which were relatively ethnolinguistically homogeneous. ‘Arab nationality,’ on the other hand, is a
recent and artificial creation, and its radical religious and linguistic divisions are not reflected in existing
political borders. This suggests that democracy will only take hold in the ‘Arab World’ after political
borders there have been redrawn along more ethnolinguistically realistic lines.
|
Mr. Rasmus Elling |
Religion, Ethnicity and Nationalism in Contemporary Iranian Politics
While the Islamic Republic’s foundational discourse was that of internationalism
and borderless Islamic revolution, today the nationalist element is increasingly emphasized in the
official conceptualization of Iranian nationhood. The Iran-Iraq War, the unsuccessful project of exporting the
revolution and the isolation of Iran are among the contributing factors to this change. Meanwhile, the wave
of reformism in the last decade has been accompanied by significant tension in border areas inhabited by
non-Persian ethnic groups where unrest, protests and terrorist acts have flared up recently. Minority
spokesmen claim that the state is marginalizing the non-Persians, and particularly the Sunnis; and on the other
hand, the government claims the unrest is the result of foreign powers’ manipulation, and thus a threat to
the integrity of the Iranian nation. By conflating the ethnic groups’ demands for greater autonomy with
conspiracies to dissolve Iran, the Islamist leaders are utilizing historical fears in Iran. However at the same
time, the ruling elite also seek to portray the ethnic minorities as inseparable segments of a harmonious,
multicultural nation-state. Thus there is a two-pronged strategy of repressing dissent and accommodating the
conformists, of inclusion and exclusion. An analysis of the language employed in statements by the Islamic
Republic’s rulers in portraying two specific cases of ethnic unrest in the Iranian provinces of
Khuzestan and Azerbaijan in 2005- 6 presents an interesting study in the nationalist-religious ideology of the
establishment and its notions of ‘Iranianness’.
|
Ms. Andrea Purdekova(University of Oxford) |
Re-Building a Nation in Rwanda? "De-ethnicization" and its
Discontents
‘De-ethnicization’ denotes both an ideology and the nation-building project
currently carried out by the Rwandan government. The attempt is to both forge a new, overarching sense of
unified identity, and to suppress any lesser (e.g. ethnic or regional) sub-state identities. In terms of
the Kohnian dichotomy, Rwanda remains in the eastern camp of ethnic ideas and projects of a ‘nation’ inasmuch
as it is dominated by cultural as opposed to civic/political elements. At the same time as Rwanda does broadly
follow the lines of an ethnic nationalism and does remain exclusive internally, the paper does not aim
to affirm the validity of an idealized Kohnian dichotomy between ‘exclusive’ ethnic nationalism and
‘inclusive’ civic nationalism. To avoid the trap of a bi-polar and value-laden division, or final and exhaustive
definitions of ‘the ethnic,’ and yet preserving the useful insights of Kohn, the paper calls for a
re-conceptualization of nation-building projects along the continuum of their relative inclusiveness/exclusiveness, both
internally (who shapes the ‘idea of nation’) and externally (who is allowed into the political project of
nation-building). The case of Rwanda also does not aim to affirm some deep historical or cultural
predisposition of countries for one or the other type. Most certainly, Rwanda does not represent a ‘failure to export
the civic model.’ Nationbuilding in Rwanda might be sub-optimal but the optimum is both achievable and to be
redefined.
|
|
|
Wednesday 16 April
- historical case studies, the development, interaction,
and conflict of ethnic and civic types of nationalism |
|
Plenary Session |
9:30-10:00 |
The Global Dimensions of Nationalism: A
Historical Perspective -
Professor Frank Dik�tter (SOAS, University of Hong
Kong)
Can the distinction sometimes made between
ethnic and civic nationalism be fruitfully applied to cases
outside Europe? This paper will take the example of Hong Kong,
Taiwan and China to argue that the tensions between these two
conceptions of nationhood are not confined to any particular
region. Since the end of the nineteenth century, when a notion
of nationhood first emerged during the late Qing, there has been
a tension between an ethnic version of the nation � based on a
conflation of ideas about descent, 'race' and culture � and a
more civic version which recognises the huge diversity of human
situations in the realm referred to as 'China'. While it is true
that we are more familiar with the dominant version of ethnic
nationhood enforced by the People's Republic of China, there are
alternative histories which we should reclaim to pay respect to
the general messiness, but also the extraordinary creativity and
adaptability, of most human lives, in particular the many ones
that have contested and resisted the ethnic and national lines
policed by modern nation-states throughout most of the twentieth
century � from the many migrants who left the empire to
assimilate fully with local population groups overseas, to the
'King's Chinese' in Singapore who remained detached from all
things 'Chinese', and to large sections of the population in
Taiwan today. These tensions are not different in kind from the
ones which have marked parts of Europe �Germany being a good
example � and are related to the politics of the one
party-state."
|
10:00-10:30 |
Latin America: Challenges to
Civic and Ethnic Conceptions of Nationhood
Dr. Nicola Miller
(University College London)
"Latin American nationalism has often been
represented as 'civic' from independence until the late
nineteenth century and increasingly 'ethnic' from then onwards,
with the emergence of mass politics and the rise of US
imperialism. While there is certainly some evidence to support
this view, I will suggest that it underemphasises both the
importance of ethnic elements throughout the nineteenth century
and � even more strikingly � the continuing importance of civic
elements throughout the twentieth century. This argument will be
illustrated by discussion of two main topics: i) heroes; and ii)
revolutionary traditions."
|
11:30-13:00 |
Panel Session 4 |
The challenges of migrant identity |
Dr. Jonathan Githens-Mazer (University of Exeter,
Cornwall Campus |
Between Scylla and Charybdis: The Push and Pull of Ethnic and Civic
Nationalisms for North African Immigrants in Europe
The Push and Pull of Ethnic and Civic Nationalisms for North African Immigrants
in Europe Panel: The Challenges of Migrant Identity, April 16, 11:30-13:00 North African immigrants living in Britain, France and Spain define their
identities through national pasts marked by colonial subjugation and narratives of independence. Despite these
ethnic nationalist narratives, North African immigrants are also subject to pressures which promote civic
identities, defined through culture and religion, including host-state pressures to integrate, and religious
obligations to a broader Muslim Umma. For a small minority this can lead, in combination with a variety
of other factors, to extremism and violence. In these cases, tensions between the forces of civic and
ethnic nationalisms create dissonances in identity, creating a space for support for and participation in
radical violent takfiri jihadism. Through specific examples drawn from North African immigrant experiences in
Britain, France and Spain, this paper will examine how radical violent takfiri jihadist recruiters attempt
to exploit this dissonance in immigrant identity, by simultaneously emphasising ethnic nationalism and
obligations to the universal Umma, in order to ‘radicalise’ members of these populations; populations who are
subject to such disparate forces on their identity.
|
Ms. Sumi Cho (University
of Michigan)
|
`Does the Okinawa Boom
Do Good to Us?':
The Ambivalence of Multiculturalism Perceived by Diasporic Okinawans
in Mainland Japan
In Japan, where the ideology of ethnic and
cultural homogeneity was predominant since postwar period,
notions of multiculturalism have been gaining currency since the
1990s. Formerly suppressed minority differences are increasingly
displayed in a celebratory manner. Okinawans have been at the
forefront of changing negative perceptions of their cultural
difference as 'backward' to positive ones trough popular and
media culture. The nationwide popularity of Okinawa-featured
cultural and media products since the early 1990s, called
'Okinawa Boom', appears to be shift toward the increasing
recognition and appreciation of Okinawan difference. At the same
time, however, there are concerns that the Okinawa Boom leads to
further
|
Christina H. Kim (Hanyang University)
|
The Conflicts between Legal Status and Cultural Membership of North Korean Migrants in South Korea
North Korean migrants are one of the most exclusively categorized groups of
‘Korean newcomers’ who most critically display Korea’s past of national division; issues of boundaries
of legal and cultural membership in South Korea; and the current trends of transnational movements.
Their presence embodies the politics of sovereignty over the Korean peninsula and its hegemonic
discourse of homogeneity which are ultimately influenced by South Korea’s conception of nation state. This paper explores two main dimensions of North Korean migrants’ conditions
vis-�-vis the South Korean state. The first dimension examines their process of obtaining legal membership;
and the second explores their cultural membership through their experiences and narratives of how they
consent and dissent the process of incorporation into South Korean society. The South Korean state shows
ambivalent dispositions toward North Korean migrants. While they are embraced as part of the greater
Korean ethnic community, they are received as particular kinds of ‘Koreans.’ Such ambivalence displays an
arbitrariness (or the transitional nature) of South Korea’s boundaries for legal and cultural
membership. It further raises questions of national identity and future responses to increasing transnational
movements. The direction of South Korea as a nation state, in times of transnational movements, is unclear.
An evaluation of notions of citizenship, nationality and ethnicity is imminent in further defining its
national identity and conditions of those residing in South Korea especially with increasing communications with
North Korea, national global participation as well as increasing border crossers in and out of South Korea.
|
Latin American Concepts of Nationhood |
Prof. William Skuban |
Civic and Ethnic Conceptions of Nationhood on the Peruvian-Chilean
Frontier, 1880�1930
Following the War of the Pacific (1879 �1883),
Chile and Peru signed the Treaty of Anc�n that dealt, in part,
with settling a territorial dispute over the provinces of Tacna
and Arica along the newly created border between the two
countries. The treaty allowed Chile to administer the provinces
for ten years, after which a plebiscite would allow the region�s
inhabitants to determine their own nationality. The plebiscite
never took place, however, and following nearly a half-century
of intense diplomatic conflict, the two countries in 1929 simply
divided the territory, with Chile retaining Arica and Peru
reincorporating Tacna.
By using as a point of departure Hans Kohn�s
classic distinction between the Western, political type of
nationalism, and Eastern, genealogical nationalism, this paper
examines the processes of nationalism and national identity
formation in what became one of the most contentious frontier
situations in South American history. The Chilean and Peruvian
states, in anticipation of winning the plebiscite, attempted to
inculcate their respective national identities in the
inhabitants of the region. I argue that Kohn�s dichotomy remains
highly useful in understanding the principles used by leaders in
Chile and Peru in their �official� appeals for national unity.
However, popular responses to those appeals from diverse social
sectors in the disputed territory, including those of the
working classes, indigenous Aymara communities, and women,
require alternative conceptions of nationhood and national
identity formation.
|
Dr.
Matthias vom Hau |
Liberal and Popular Conceptions of Nationhood in Mexico, Argentina,
and Peru: Towards an Alternative Typology of Nationalism
The literature on nationalism has a long
tradition of critiquing the limitations of the distinction
between civic and ethnic conceptions of nationhood, yet without
establishing a viable alternative to this dichotomy. Based on a
comparative analysis of nationalism in early and mid-20th
century Mexico, Argentina, and Peru this paper seeks to
conceptualize such an alternative typology. The distinction
between liberal and popular nationalism is introduced to
identify critical aspects of state-sponsored national discourses
found in these countries that are not captured by the
civic-ethnic difference. Liberal nationalism combines a
political understanding of the nation with an elite-centered,
exclusionary view of national belonging. By contrast, popular
nationalism complements a cultural understanding of national
identity with a more egalitarian view of the national community,
depicting the masses as national subjects and protagonists of
national history. For the empirical analysis this paper uses
primary evidence from school textbooks. The conclusion discusses
the usefulness of the liberal-popular typology for the analysis
of nationalism more generally.
|
Political Violence and Conflict |
Dr. Uriel Abulof |
To Be or Not to Be (What)? The
Identity-Polity Complex in the Palestinian-Jewish Conflict
"The Palestinian-Jewish conflict is typically
depicted as a clash between two ethnonational movements,
fighting over the same piece of land. The resolution would thus
seem straightforward: a utilitarian settlement based on a
material, mainly territorial, compromise. My paper challenges
both the description and prescription. Analyzing the
identity-polity complex characteristic of both sides, I argue
that normatively, the conflict is profoundly asymmetric: while
Jewish identity is genealogical, Palestinian identity is largely
geographical. Thus, while Zionism is certainly ethnonational,
the Palestinian movement is potentially civic-patriotic.
Furthermore, while Israeli Jews are more concerned about the
(future) viability of their polity, Palestinians are still
engulfed by a deep-set insecurity about the (past-based)
validity of their emerging identity.
A negotiated compromise on assets may
therefore not be enough. It should be accompanied � possibly,
even preceded � by ethical dialogue, a bi-lateral discourse that
addresses the asymmetry. Such a dialogue can be either narrative
or normative: the former aims at more mutual understanding; the
latter, at a common ground of political ethics. My paper
illustrates both paths. It suggests that while narrative
dialogue may facilitate grassroots rapprochement, normative
dialogue is needed to truly transcend the entrenched political
rifts. I propose that this dialogue be built on the principle of
self-determination."
|
Dr. Fernando Molina |
The �Basque
Problem� in Modern Spain: Ethnicity, Violence and Nationalisms,
1868-1978
Spanish and Basque identities experienced a turnover by the beginning of a
democratic six-year period, in 1868-1874. The new regime developed a civic policy, which provoked the outbreak
of a traditionalist rebellion. The rebels were particularly strong in the Basque territories. As a
mobilising argument, Spanish liberal nationalism invented a new ethnic stereotype of the Basques, which
became an internal enemy of the nation. This image of otherness was resurrected during the Second Spanish
Republic (1931-1936). It was extremely instrumental in the Republicans’ confrontation with the joint
mobilisation led by Basque traditionalists and ethnonationalists. During the last transition to democracy
(1975-1978), the ‘Basque problem’ was used again to imagine the existence of an ethnic group opposed to
democratic Spain. The terrorist organisation ETA became the target of this discursive strategy.
Throughout these three historical periods, the construction of a ‘Basque problem’ serves to underline how (Basque)
ethnicity has influenced the making of Spain as a civic nation. Furthermore, it also illustrates the
relevance of the cultural contents for all modern nationalisms in Spain.
|
Nationalist Discourse in the Nineteenth
Century |
Dr. Marcel
Stoetzler and Dr. Christine Achinger |
Elements of �Civic�
and �Ethnic� Nationalism in German Nineteenth Century Liberal Antisemitism:
Gustav Freytag and Heinrich von Treitschke
This paper will explore two prominent cases of
German National Liberals who significantly contributed to the
growing hegemony of antisemitism in Germany in the second half
of the nineteenth century, Gustav Freytag (1816-95) and Heinrich
von Treitschke (1 834-96). Both were well-known writers (one a
novelist, the other a historian), political journalists and
editors of significant national-liberal publications (�Grenzboten�
and �Preussische Jahrb�cher�). In Freytag's novel �Soll und
Haben�, the German nation is, on the one hand, pitted against
the Poles as colonial 'external enemy', associated with
pre-modernity. On the other hand, good �German� modernity is set
off against the Jews as �enemy within�, representing the
negative and threatening aspects of modern society itself, while
at the same time also evoking much older anti-Jewish imagery. In
Treitschke�s writings, culminating in but not restricted to his
contributions to the �Berlin Antisemitism Dispute� of 1879-81,
Jewish immigrants to Germany are specifically chided for their
Polish background and thus represent both imageries rolled into
one, not without paradoxical effects.
The discourses of each were shaped by a kind of de-dialecticized,
liberal Hegelianism, which affirmed the rise of bourgeois
society, but was wary of rapid political, economic and social
change. In the specific form of nationalism they subscribed to,
elements of what is usually described as �political�, �Western�
or �civic� nationalism are intertwined with elements of what
would usually be described as �romantic�, �ethnic�,
�Eastern�, or specifically �German� nationalism. This
observation challenges the assumption that these supposed
�types� of nationalism are diametrically opposed.
|
Dr. Susanna Rabow-Edling |
Kohn�s Dichotomy and its Usefulness for Interpreting Russian Nationalist
Thought
This paper challenges the common distinction between a
Western and an Eastern type of nationalism with regards to Russian
nationalism. It argues that the type of nationalism that appears in a
specific country has more to do with timing than with place, or social
conditions. The paper discusses the appearance of two forms of
nationalism in Russia � the civic nationalism of the Decembrists and the
cultural nationalism of the Slavophiles. It is generally believed that
the so-called Slavophiles first formulated a Russian national identity
in the 1 830s-40s. In line with Kohn�s dichotomy, this nationalism has
been regarded as belonging to the Eastern, cultural type. In contrast,
this paper argues that while slavophilism was indeed based on a cultural
idea of the nation, this fact does not distinguish it from nationalism
in the West. On the contrary, slavophilism can be seen as a Russian
example of the cultural nationalism that grew out of German Romanticism
and dominated social and political thought in Europe and the United
States in this period.
A further challenge to Kohn�s assumption is that it was not the
Slavophiles but the Decembrists who brought the idea of the nation to
Russia. The notion of the nation which they introduced to Russia in the
1 820s was of a typically Western type, based on a civic notion of
nationhood. It was representative of the intellectual tendencies that
dominated Western thought in the Age of Revolution. Thus, a historical
analysis of Russian nationalism indicates that the civic-ethnic divide
needs to be linked to a temporal context. It also suggests that
intellectual thought should be studied in an international rather than a
national context and that the world of ideas has to be granted a
considerable degree of autonomy from socio-economic conditions.
|
Mr.
Andrej Kurillo(University of Ljubljana) |
Conceptions of Nationhood in Austria-Hungary: Beyond
Civic and Ethnic?
While theoretical discussion on nationalism tends to make a sharp distinction
between civic and ethnic conception of nationhood, the present paper argues that such duality is too
simple and schematic to offer an adequate analytical tool of the late 19th and early 20th Century Central
European nationalism, especially in the case of Austria-Hungary. Although German liberals would initially define the
German nation as open to everyone who accepted the basic liberal notions of Kultur (culture) and Bildung
(education), regardless of their ‘ethnic’ or linguistic background, simultaneous competing notions of
nationhood developed, based on language and/or religion. Hungarian liberals were rather more successful in that
respect, turning the state educational system and bureaucracy into a well-oiled machine for assimilation.
Yet both German and Hungarian concept of the nation would later change into one based on a much
narrowly define social group, conditioned by religion or race. The second part of the paper focuses on the case of Slovene nationalism in the
same time period and the role religion (in the Catholic case) and/or language (in the Catholic and Liberal
cases) played in national identification. Yet, even in the era of narrowly defined and supposedly
inherited national identities such categories were defied in several instances, a brief overview of which shall
follow. Finally, the paper argues that perhaps a more refined theoretical apparatus is needed, in order to make
sense of the intricacies of national, religious and political allegiances of the time.
|
14:30-16:00 |
Panel Session 5 |
National Identity in the
Americas |
Prof. Don Doyle(University of South Carolina) |
Becoming
American: Migration and National Identity in the United
States
The popular expression ‘anyone can become an American’ overlooks the brutal
exclusion of non-whites in US history, but it summarizes an essential American belief that national
belonging ought to be voluntary and open to newcomers. Paradoxically the Age of Nationalism that coursed through
Europe and the Americas during the 19th century coincided with the largest international migration in
human history. Millions of migrants not only changed citizenship, they also changed national identity.
Instead of being treated as fixed primordial traits, language, religion, and other ethnic characteristics came to
be understood as matters of choice in America's immigrant m�lange.
|
Prof. Susan-Mary
Grant
(Newcastle University) |
Exchanging
Their Countries� Marks? Immigration, War and Identity in Nineteenth-Century
America
Immigration to the United States, and its role in the creation of American
nationalism, is a topic that has garnered an enormous amount of interest from scholars across many fields of
sociological, cultural, political and historical enquiry. This paper explores how military service influenced the
immigrant experience between 1861 and 1865 and the ways in which American nationalism was
reconfigured around the figure of the soldier. The main focus of the paper will be on the Civil War, but
comparative examples will be drawn from the Mexican War (1846-48) and the Spanish-American War (1898), to trace how
warfare, immigration, ethnicity and race became reconceptualised within American nationalism; how the
ideal of the ‘citizen soldier’ was modified to incorporate or exclude the ‘non-citizen’ soldier; and
the extent to which, in the American case, blood sacrifice established more contested ground than scholars
have yet appreciated.
|
Nationalism in the
Himalaya |
Mr. Andrew Jacob (Jawaharlal Nehru University) |
An Alternative Nationalism:
The Views of Ernest Renan and B.R. Ambedkar
Given the debate between Civic and Ethnic Nationalism, my paper will argue for
an alternative form of Nationalism. In this respect, both Ernest Renan and B.R. Ambedkar gain great
importance. Both writers strove to construct a Nationalism that is coexistent and accountable to
democracy by staying outside the two poles of Nationalist discussion. Both strove for a balance between the
Cultural/Ethnic and Civic elements of the Nation without prioritizing one or the other. Finally, they argued for a
Nationalism capable of including a larger political community by establishing and developing the dialogical link
between Nationalism and Democracy. This alternative route to Nationalism is pursued by creating a more dual
relationship between Democracy and Nationalism. In other words, creating a Nationalism that is always more
accountable to a political community organised on the basis of equality. The dual relationship between
Nationalism and Democracy avoids the pitfalls of both Civic and Cultural Nationalism by centralising
concepts such as Reason, Selfdetermining agency, Democratic rights and institutions, and Citizenship. These concepts
provide key ingredients to the creation of a certain moral universe (akin to Buddhism, as
posited by Ambedkar) that will help construct institutions able to balance and hold accountable the inherent
egocentrism and exclusive nature of Nationalism.
|
Ms. Mara Malagodi
|
Forging the Nepali Nation
through Law: A Reflection on the Use of Western Legal Tools in a Himalayan
kingdom
The present paper endeavours to analyse the use and scope of Western
positivistic legal tools in the creation of the Nepali nation. This paper suggests a two-level analysis. Firstly, a
historical analysis of Nepal’s political and legal developments shall be presented to investigate the rationale
behind the use of law as a social engineering and homogenising tool promoting an identifiably Nepali
national identity. Secondly, the paper shall focus on the current debates concerning constitutional change in
Nepal. The debates about the demise of the 1990 Constitution in early 2007, and the forthcoming elections of
a Constituent Assembly need to be investigated in the light of the growing politicisation of ethnicity
in the country. The overarching demand for inclusion stems from the discontent of Nepal’s ethno-linguistic,
religious, and regional minorities with their historical subordination. The marginality of many groups
within the Nepalese polity has been legitimised by the constitutionally-sanctioned narratives defining the
Nepali nation until 2006, namely Hinduism, the Shah monarchy, and the Nepali language. Such narratives
have been perceived as an imposition of the dominant Parbatiya Hindu high castes. In this regard, Nepal’s
Grundnorm has become the main battleground for identity politics, and – at the same time – its primary
vehicle. Ultimately, the present paper aims to link the study of nation-building in Nepal
with the theoretical debate the ASEN Conference concerns itself with. The Nepali experience seems to be
somewhere between the civic and ethnic models of nationalism enunciated by Kohn, and this is what this paper
aims to illustrate.
|
Ms. Anne-Sophie Bentz (Graduate
Institute of International Studies) |
The Tibetan Nation: Beyond Ethnic and
Civic?
"The Tibetan nation is a nation that has had to live and
thrive in India, and also, to a lesser extent, in Nepal and Bhutan, instead
of in Tibet, for the last fifty years or so. But, as Lord Acton put it,
exile is the nursery of nationality, which implies that, at first, exile can
be seen less as an impediment than as a blessing for the nation, also in the
Tibetan case. Yet, the specificity of the exile nation is a strong desire to
regain, or, in the Tibetan case, to gain, an independent state. Indeed, in a
world mostly composed of nation-states, the exile nation, which can at first
be considered stronger than other nations, if we follow Lord Acton's
argument, soon becomes an abnormality. Hence this strong desire to fit in
the norm and move from the status of nation-in-exile to the status of
nation-state. But the question remains as to the type of nation that the
exile nation can, or, more exactly, has to, choose. I wish to contend here
that, as a nation for itself, the exile nation has to be ethnic, while, as a
nation to the outside world, the exile nation has to be, or at least, appear
as, civic. I will use the Tibetan case to try and analyse the inherent
tension as to the type of nation, and, consequently, as to the form of
nationalism, to be retained by exile nations in general."
|
National Cultural Autonomy |
Dr. Abraham Weizfeld
|
National-Cultural Autonomy and The State
The dichotomy of civic and ethnic identity is
contextualized by the State and social multiculturalism, respectively.
Consequently the nationalism associated with the State is counterpoised
to the national identity associated with ethnicity, in the social
context. The incorporation of ethnic national identity with the State
gives rise to the �exclusive nationalism� that is integral to the
antinomy. At its origin the Hegelian concept of the Nation-State
presented national identity as the State rather than in its social Form
of multiculturalism. The evident contradiction of the two concepts of
national-identity and The State is found in the mutual demands for
self-determination for a common territory, as is the case in
Israel/Palestine.
In multiculturalism the proposition for national-cultural autonomy is
oftentimes associated with a territory or province within the context of
a State. The initiative of Otto Bauer for national-cultural autonomy
within the Austro-Hungarian Empire concluded with its failure to
reconcile national-identity with the State, as occurred with the
U.S.S.R. as well. In these instances national-identity was associated
with territorial units as if the one substituted for the other. By
origin the concept of national-cultural autonomy was formulated by the
Yidisher Arbeter Bund of Eastern Europe which identified a national
consciousness beyond the bounds of any of the States where it was found.
While the contradiction of the nature of national-cultural autonomy with
respect to the State leads us out of the context of the State, the
alternative remains unresolved. In default of which the tendency of the
20th Century had been to seek ever more numerous numbers of States which
separate the various ethnic identities on a territorial basis with the
accompanying series of ethnic cleansing operations. Ultimately the
separation of ethnicities is recognized as an impossibility, or a war
crime against human rights.
The foundation of co-existence is to be sought in the constitutional
assembly which brings together, in direct democracy, all social
formations concerned to formulate and codify the means of social
existence based upon their mutual actuality and not the temporal
superstructure that represents one particular interest or set of
particular interests.
|
Dr. Roni Gechtman
|
National-Cultural Autonomy in the Making: The Jewish Labour Bund in Interwar Poland
This paper discusses the practical implementation of the Jewish Labour Bund’s
national program through an examination of its social and cultural activities in interwar Poland. The Bund’s
national program both reconceptualized national relations according to Marxist (but non-Bolshevik) principles and
advanced an original conception of the Polish Jews’ cultural and political status based on a
secular understanding of Jewish national-cultural identity. The program’s central demand was that the
Polish state must grant Jews — and all other national minorities — a national-cultural autonomy, that is, a
limited self-government restricted to issues pertaining culture, language and education. In so doing, this program
challenged the dominant paradigm of nationalism by demanding that Poland officially accept its character
as a multinational state. Whereas nationalism (Jewish, Polish or otherwise) assumes that the political and
national units must be congruent (each national group must live in and have control over its own
sovereign state), the Bund’s notion of national-cultural autonomy rests on the idea that state and nation
need not be congruent. While mobilizing the masses of Jewish workers to achieve changes in the Polish
state’s constitution, the Bund actively endeavoured to promote Polish-Jewish national identity by
developing a Yiddish socialist subculture. This subculture included a wide range of trade-unionist, cultural,
educational and recreational activities, such as a school network, a publishing house, local workers’
libraries, women’s organizations, children’s and youth organizations, choirs and theatre troupes, health and
mutual aid organizations, a daily newspaper, several journals, leisure and sport organizations, and the Bundist
network of trade unions. In this paper I will discuss some of the Bund’s cultural activities and organizations,
show how they were informed by the party’s national program, and explain why the Bund’s cultural efforts
constituted a national-cultural autonomy in the making.
|
Comparing and
Contrasting East and West |
Prof.
Andrea Carteny (`Sapienza' University
of Rome) |
Between �Ethnic� and �Civic� Nation in West and East Europe:Case
Studies and Historical Aspects of National Minorities in Spain and
Transylvania
The distinction between Western and Eastern
nationalisms (political/civic the first,
genealogical/ethnocentric the second one) is not easy in
European areas � as Spain and Carpathian basin � in which the
development of the main nationhood � respectively Castilian and
Hungarian � is in historical interaction with other
nationalities and different phenomenons of peripheral
nationalisms.
In the Spain framework, the regional
nationalism of Catalans is inclusive phenomenon. By the time of
big industrialization (end of XIX century) Catalonia have a lot
of immigration (not only of Castilian people) and shows a trend
of an inclusive aptitude, with language and way of life. On the
other hand, by the beginning of Basque nationalism (at the end
of XIX century, in the same period of
urbanization/industrialization) the genealogy and the blood are
the basic elements versus the Spanish people flows.
In the area of Carpathian basin � as former St
Stephen crown of Hungary � Transylvania is a multinational
region with a traditional autonomy. After the First World War,
the regional soul of `Transylvanism' stands out among Hungarians
but based on Transylvanian 'Nations'. In this perspective, the
idea of 'Nation' is defined not by race but by culture and
territory. This inclusive and 'regional' civic conception is
popular until 1940, when the division of Transylvania let the
political space to the ethno-nationalists in Hungary and in
Transylvania too, particularly in the Land of Szeklers.
|
Dr. Atsuko Ichijo |
Nationalism East and West: A
Comparison of Nation Formation in Britain and Japan
The paper explores the analytical utility of the typology of ethnic and civic
nationhood by comparing the nation formation processes in Britain from the 18th century and in Japan from
the late 19th century. In particular, the paper focuses on the comparison of the processes of integrating
a periphery into the core: the Scottish Highland in the case of Britain and Okinawa in the case of Japan. The
comparison will be based on a secondary analysis of contemporary documents written either in support of or
against such integration in Britain and Japan. The documents and commentaries on them will be analysed to
determine to what extent different conceptions of nationhood (a predominantly civic one in the British
case and a predominantly ethnic one in the Japanese case) can account for differences in the processes
and attitudes to integration of the periphery in each case. The paper will then examine the effects of
differences in imperial ideology and different phases of racialist thinking to assess the utility of the distinction
between ethnic and civic nationhood in understanding nation-formation processes. 1 The concept of Jus Soli (lat. ‘the law of the soil’) underlies the allocation
of citizenship based territorial membership. For example, unconditional Jus Soli allocates citizenship to all persons born on the
territory of a country. The concept of Jus Sanguinis stands in opposition to Jus Soli as it allocates citizenship purely based on
descent. Since the Reichs- und Staatsangeh�rigkeitsgesetz (RuStG) of 1913, German citizenship had been granted strictly based on Jus
Sanguinis to those of German descent only.
|
16:30-18:00 |
Panel Session 6 |
Ethnic Minority Nations: Case Studies |
Ms. Julie
MacArthur(University of Cambridge) |
Of Nation and Tribe: Competing Claims to the Luyia
Ethnic Identity in Colonial Kenya
For the Luyia of Western Kenya broadened ethnic identification, combining
seventeen hitherto separate tribal groupings, did not exist until the 1930s. In 1931, the discovery of gold
in Western Kenya galvanised this ethnic project, while also causing colony-wide land insecurity. Thus, the
only recently imagined Luyia community was thrust into national dialogue with other ethnic groups. Prominent
African leaders began protesting in national terms, previously insular ethnic associations signed
joint petitions, and the first national African party, the Kenya African Union, soon formed. The formation of
the Luyia ethnic identity ran concurrent with the growth of Kenyan nationalism, both projects using
parallel logic and strategies. Luyia politicians navigated the complicated political waters of deeply engrained
locational politics, more recently imagined ethnic politics and the new national political scene. The
intervention of national politics and colonial policy into the formation of Luyia ethnic identity allowed a form
of ethnic pluralism to develop that defied simple tribal categorisation. Decolonization, in its transition from
colony to independent nation, from subjects to citizens, crystallised debates over ethnic autonomy, boundary
disputes and national integrity. This particular ethnic history challenges Kohn’s classic dichotomous national
theory. Ethnic and national imaginings for the Luyia mobilised both the ‘Western’ requisites of territorial
limits and resource access and the ‘Eastern’ notions of descent and historically-informed cultural ties. Recent
political events, including the 2007 elections and renewed calls for East African federation, accentuate the
continuing interplay between nation and ethnicity, citizenship and belonging, in the political economy of the
Kenyan nation.
|
Prof. Lina Kassem
|
Israeli Druze: Constructed
Ethnic and Civic National Identities
Historically, multi-ethnic states have tended to place a great emphasis on the
unity of their citizens, and have tried to crush any separatist feelings or sentiment on the part of a minority.
Therefore, it might come as a surprise that the state of Israel not only allows, but actively encourages,
certain separatist tendencies among one of its minority groups, the Druze, an off-shoot of a Shi’a Muslim community
that has lived in the region for almost a thousand years. The state encourages a separate non-Arab Druze
ethnic identity to negate and thus defuse any potential for an Arab national identity among them. This divide
and conquer strategy is usually employed by colonial powers to hinder the abilities of multi-ethnic
indigenous population to unite. The state while undermining the Arab identity of the Druze simultaneously
encourages civic nationalism which incorporates an obligation and loyalty to the state from its Druze
citizens. With the help of some Druze elites, the Israeli state has encouraged two forms of nationalism: civic
and ethnic. Although most scholars have treated these two types of nationalism as diametrically opposed,
this case study demonstrates that these two concepts are not necessarily mutually exclusive, and in the case
of Israel and its Druze population, they have successfully manipulated both to serve the perceived
security needs of the state at the expense of a more inclusive indigenous Arab/Palestinian identity.
|
Dr. Trudy
Jacobsen (SOAS) |
Ties that blind: The �Fourth
World� nation of Kampuchea Kraom
The khmei kraom are on a quest for recognition. Most people are unaware that
millions of the inhabitants of southern Viet Nam and Cambodia – in what is known as Kampuchea Kraom, ‘Lower
Cambodia’ - identify themselves not as Vietnamese nor as Cambodian (‘Khmer’), but as a separate
ethnie. Originally inhabitants of the land known as ‘Funan’ to the Chinese in the third century, successive
waves of immigrants and invaders have not made much of an impact upon the self-perception of the khmei
kraom. The assimilation of Cochinchina into French Indochina in 1864 and increased Kinh settlement in the
region throughout the twentieth century did little to distort this sense of autonomy. Rather, they
welcomed a seemingly endless succession of new neighbours over the centuries, secure that their sense of
identity was not rooted in territoriality. Yet recently the khmei kraom have been forced into action. The
Vietnamese government appears to be conducting a silent campaign of cultural elimination by moving
khmei kraom from their fields or even destroying their Theravada Buddhist wats in the name of infrastructural
improvement. A mysterious sickness that blinds only khmei kraom and no other ethnicity in the Vietnamese
provinces has appeared. In response, khmei khieu communities in Viet Nam, Cambodia and in diaspora have
begun a global appeal for recognition as a separate nation. Yet how do a people who have managed to exist
beyond the confines of western sovereignty for centuries now engage with this same institution in order
to maintain their identity?
|
Early Concepts of European Civic Identity |
Dr. Caitlin
Anderson |
Civic Nationalism and
Imperial Expansion: Citizenship in Britain and the Empire, 1608-1914
"This paper interrogates
Hans Kohn's characterization of Britain as a nation of inclusive
'civic nationalism' via an analysis of citizenship law from
1608. I argue that British citizenship law was characterized by
a tension between a doctrine stressing inclusion and equality on
the one hand, and the practice of exclusion and inequality on
the other. The most important precedent in British citizenship
law was a powerful statement of equality and inclusion. This was
a judgment arising out of the union of the crowns of England and
Scotland. Would the law recognize two distinct classes of
subjects, Scots and English, or would all the adult male
subjects of the Crown enjoy equal status? The judges ruled in
favor of equality: Both Scots and English were born in the
dominions of the crown, owed the same allegiance to the king,
and should enjoy the same status. This precedent stood for more
than two and a half centuries as the definitive statement of
British citizenship law. In theory, the same logic that applied
to Scotsmen applied to the inhabitants of other territorial
acquisitions: all colonial subjects enjoyed equality with white
Englishmen as British subjects. In practice, however,
legislatures and administrators spent those two and a half
centuries hollowing out British citizenship: in other words, the
status of a British subject was willingly granted, but it meant
little in practice. The argument of this essay is that the
status of a British subject could be distributed so widely only
because it was so cheap."
|
Dr. Jens Lerbom(Halmstad
University College) |
For the King, the Blood
and the Soil: Popular Imagined Ethnic and Regnal Communities in 17th century
Swedish Peasant society
The objective of this paper is to adopt a popular perspective on the historical
roots and formation of modern Swedish nationalism. Based on studies of primary sources such as court rolls
from the Swedish Danish borderland, council protocols from two towns and petitions to the king ca.
1500-1700 I problemize the dominant interpretation that the formation of modern Swedish nationalism was a
‘lateral’ process. That is a nation created from above by a political and intellectual elite who, with the
help of a military, fiscal and judicial state-apparatus, gradually succeeded to disseminate their values,
symbols, memories and traditions to broader layers of the society. I also call in to question that Swedishness on
a popular level first and foremost was politically imagined and that that the emergence of a cultural
imagined Swedishness is a historical latecomer. I suggest that the modern Swedish ‘ethno-civic’ nation was
not constructed from the ‘top’ or from ‘below’, it was neither ‘lateral’ nor ‘vertical’, but rather
‘reciprocal’, i.e. a consequence of a long, dynamic and non-linear process of negotiations between and shared
experiences by rulers and subjects within existing political frames.
|
Prof. Scott Eastman(Creighton
University) |
Making the Spanish Catholic
Citizen, 1808-1814
Across the Spanish monarchy during the War of Independence (1808-1814), liberals
established a foundational narrative of civic nationalism that served as a template for all
competing political forces. From 1808 onward, narratives of popular resistance situated the people at the center
of political discourse and the struggle against Napoleon. In charting the plurality of nationalist positions advocated by Spaniards, the
concepts of civic and ethnic nationalism are useful tools. Civic nationalism appeared as an outgrowth of the
French revolutionary model of the sovereign people as national citizens. Ethnic nationalism, on the other
hand, has often been tied to Germany and an exaltation of the uniqueness of a particular people. In order to
avoid a false dichotomy, however, this paper problematizes the notion that civic and ethnic nationalisms
are tied to specific national histories. Instead, the case of the Spanish monarchy demonstrates the confluence
of competing discourses of nationalism which merged notions of civic and particularist identity. In
building a new state, Spaniards drew upon a civic nationalist idiom during the Wars of Independence. Defenders of the
Ancien R�gime, to the contrary, discursively circumscribed the boundaries of a particularist notion of
national identity as a corollary of the Catholic faith and continued to shape an ethnic Spanish
nationalism. Yet both civic and ethnic aspects of Spanish national identity ultimately became enshrined in the
Constitution of 1812, which articulated an inclusive citizenship for all Spaniards while maintaining the
exclusivity of the Catholic faith as the true measure of national identity.
|
Changes in East Asian
Conceptions of the Nation |
Mr. Victor Teo
|
Technonationalism in East Asia
The term �technonationalism� has been defined
and applied by various scholars in different ways, but a common
denominator amongst their writings is the tendency to associate
the term with the economic rise of the East Asia and the
corresponding state of intra and inter-regional technological
transfers. These very complex relationships between technology
flows, innovation and nationalisms are often cast in normative,
sometimes pejorative terms in the literature. Yet, in reality,
almost all the nations of East Asia perceive innovation,
indigenisation of technology and technological advancement as
the quickest and surest way towards economic growth, military
might and consequently, towards a strong and prosperous
nationhood (Fuquo Qiangbing in Chinese or Fukoku Kyohei in
Japanese). Grounded in historical experience, technological
innovation is therefore seen as an absolute good in East Asia.
East Asian governments have therefore called for the sacrifices
of the members of each nation towards this good, and members of
East Asian nations have mobilised willing to their calls. The
ability to research and innovate has thus evolved to be very
important attributes in the national identity and national
consciousness of the nations in the region; something which all
East Asian nations aspire to. The State therefore becomes
invariably the most important agency which dictates the speed
and the direction of technological innovation and flow. The
practical consequences of such thinking are significant and far
reaching: tremendous amount of resources are diverted away more
pressing domestic requirements and ploughed into Research &
Development, and technological innovation becomes a
�competition� which perpetuates the mistrust and tensions in the
region. This paper re-examines the assumptions behind such
thinking and policies, and presents evidence that technological
advancement and innovation need not necessarily always be the
proximate cause for economic growth. In doing so, this paper
reframes and re-evaluates the role of technonationalism in East
Asia today and discusses how it influences international
politics of the region today, paying special attention to Japan
and China.
|
Ms. Natalia Lissenkova |
Shifts in the PRC�s Nationalist Discourse
The paper examines how the current needs of the PRC’s domestic and especially
foreign policies force the country’s officialdom to modify its rhetoric on Chinese nation. It takes the
example of independent Mongolia as a case study and demonstrates that this ‘difficult case’ of nation
building in the PRC affects the construction of the official identities of Mongolia and the Mongols vis-�-vis
China and the Chinese nation. Until recently, the official discourse in the PRC would represent not only the
Mongolian minority and the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region of China, but also independent Mongolia and
its people as firmly positioned within the paradigm of the ‘genealogical’ concept of Chinese nation.
The concept presupposes the common ethnic origin and the uninterrupted common cultural and historical
tradition of all the 55 nationalities, including the Mongols, which together for the Chinese nation. The
concept also lies in the heart of the so-called ‘Mongolia question’, the idea that refers to Mongolia as
a ‘historical part’ of China and traditionally backed up first the irredentist intentions of the Republican China
and later the ‘Motherland reunification project’ of the PRC. The paper demonstrates that the PRC’s recent official publications often abolish
the nationalist definition of Mongolia as ‘a part of China’ and emphasise the ‘civic’ characteristics of
Mongolian nation – attributes of its statehood, independence and international position. The paper argues that
these shifts in the official discourse signify that the orthodox discourse on the Chinese nation is losing
its dominant authority.
|
Identity and Citizenship in South Asia |
Sarbeswar Sahoo (National University of
Singapore) |
Ethno-Religious Identity and Sectarian
Civil Society: Evidences from India
Ethnic and religious violence has often
obstructed the smooth flow of democracy and sustenance of
cultural pluralism in India. Vested interest and vote bank
politics has mobilized identities against one another. Civil
society, which once was boasted for its democratic contribution,
now is playing sectarian politics and standing as a threat to
the very secular, democratic and multi-ethnic culture of Indian
society. Based on intensive fieldwork in tribal dominated
southern Rajasthan (India), the paper makes an attempt to
explore the relationship between an ethnic Hindu(tva)
organization called the Rajasthan Vanvasi Kalyan Parishad (RVKP)
and its role among the tribals. It argues that utilizing
development as a medium, the RVKP has managed not only to
�sanskritize� and then to assimilate the tribal groups into the
Hindu fold but also to gain their political support during the
elections. By redefining �indigenous identity� and by claiming
to represent the tribal interests, the RVKP has established
itself as a �counter-hegemonic force� against, what it calls the
alien anti-nationalist forces, the Muslims, the Christians and
the Communists in the region. Though named as the tribal welfare
forum, the RVKP is grounded on the foundations of Brahminical
Hinduism with hidden agendas of �Hinduising the tribals� and
�saffronizing the tribal heartland� for making India a Hindu
nation. This sectarian politics of RVKP (ethnic and religious
organization) has developed a �culture of fear and violence� in
the tribal areas, which threatens the secular democratic ethos
of Indian society.
|
Dr. Joya
Chatterji (Trinity College, Cambridge) |
Partition, Migration and Citizenship in South Asia
This paper will explore the impact of
migration on shaping popular notions, legal precedents and
administrative practices in regard to citizenship and
nationality in South Asia. It will explore how mass migrations
undermined the largely 'civic' notions of citizenship the
leaders of India and Pakistan had held when the two
nation-states achieved independence in 1947. It will analyse
their treatment of the rights of incoming refugees and
internally displaced minorities, and discuss the merging notion
of citizenship and nationality implicit in these practices.
|
Ornit Shani (University of Haifa) |
Citizenship Discourses in Indian
Democracy and the �Muslim Question�
The paper offers a framework for analyzing
citizenship in India in an effort to improve the understanding
of Indian nationhood and its resilience. I argue that India, one
of the most diverse countries in the world, is built and
survives by negotiating and balancing principally three dominant
notions of citizenship that coexisted and have remained in
tension with each other since independence. The analysis focuses
as a lens on the Muslim citizens of India, who are among the
most excluded and alienated members in the body of the Indian
citizenry.
|
Thursday 17 April
- framework of civic and ethnic nationalism in contemporary
nationalism and approaches to citizenship and immigration |
|
Plenary Session |
|
The Routledge
Nationalism Lecture |
9:30-10:00 |
Multiculture and
Conviviality in Post Colonial Europe - Professor Paul Gilroy (LSE)
"I will argue that the development of civic
nationalism has repeatedly been thwarted by the articulation of
national identity in racialised forms and by the unfolding of a
politics around immigration control that has brought race and
nation into close alignment. These problems have been compounded
by the consolidation of security as the key context in which
national belonging is to be settled and by the widely shared
notion that 'multi-culturalism' is no longer viable."
|
10:00-10:30 |
Immigration and Convergence of Identities - Baron Bhikhu Parekh (University of Westminster)
"I shall argue that integration is a two way
process requiring negotiation and accommodation on the part of
both the receiving society and the immigrants. This requires
that the identity of the receiving society should be so defined
as to make immigrants an integral part of it. It also requires
that immigrants should over time so define their identity that
the receiving society becomes an integral part of it. When such
convergence of identities take place, a common sense of
belonging develops between the two. I shall explore how such
convergence can be brought about."
|
11:30-13:00 |
Panel Session 7 |
Reconciling Multi
Ethnicity and the Nation in Australai and Oceania |
Ms.Lynda Ng(University of New South
Wales) |
The Nation’s Novel Forms: The Multi-Ethnic Origins of Australian Nationalism in Christos Tsiolkas’ Dead
Europe
Anthony D. Smith has emphasised how nations are bound together by a sense of
common history and a shared ethnic memory. To this end myths of a ‘golden age’ of the nation are
told. In this paper I will use Christos Tsiolkas’ 2005 novel, Dead Europe, to show how this notion of a shared
ethnic memory is complicated in a multicultural society, where people may not share a common
history. Dead Europe does not follow traditional approaches of examining Australia in comparison with its
motherland England. As the Australian protagonist Isaac’s journey takes him across seven countries, a
pan-European heritage of Australia is explored instead. In a Europe where nations are in the process of
losing their geographic boundaries, Isaac encounters a place full of migrants and ghosts where a ‘golden
age’ cannot exist. In this novel it ceases to be clear whether the dead Europe of the title is the European
landscape or Australia itself. I will argue that this reflects contemporary attitudes towards nationalism and
that Dead Europe offers a new perspective of nationalism formed from multi-ethnic origins. This paper will offer a clearer insight into the active role which literature
plays by pointing out the wellobserved fissures within Australian nationalism, while also offering a means of imagining
a collective future. Stein T�nnesson has argued that nations need national global policies to
deal with globalization. Examining Australia in Dead Europe, and also Europe through the lens of
Australia, may be the first step towards this process.
|
Mr.Gordon Leau Nanau (University of
East Anglia, Norwich) |
Ethnicity, Nationhood and Insecurity in Solomon Islands, South Pacific
Solomon Islands, an island nation in the Western Pacific has a population of
approximately 500,000 people with an annual population growth rate of 2.8 percent. Melanesians accounted for
80 percent of its population occupying the larger islands with Polynesians, Micronesians, Chinese and others
making up the remaining 20 percent. With about 90 distinct languages and 1000 islands, ethnic identities
are critical considerations for nation building in this archipelago. Nationhood and national identity
emerged with the alignment of these islands into the global economy through activities by early traders,
planters, missionaries and British colonisation since 1893. Colonisation amalgamated distinct and diverse ethnic
groups and practices into a single governable entity. Affiliation to one’s ethnic, island and linguistic
group (wantok) made nationhood and national identity delicate business. The systematic suppression of distinct
ethnic differences exploded into confrontations in 1998 when militia groups from Guadalcanal, Malaita and
Western province clashed, shaking the foundations of this 30 year old nation. National identity and unity
are challenging as ethnic interests usually supersede national considerations. Moreover, nation building
could not be divorced from land and resources rights and their attachments to ethnic identities. Solving
ethnic conflicts and amplifying national consciousness calls for solutions to land problems, ethnic relations
and the creation of some kind of homogeneity in this fragmented country. To understand nationhood in Melanesia,
one must acknowledge conflicting dichotomies like ‘Our country, my island’.
|
Ethnic Revivalism in Europe |
Dr.
Juraj Buzalka(Comenius University) |
When �Civic� Projects �Ethnicise� Minorities: Europeanization
and Ethno-Revivalism in Eastern Europe
Analyzing one ethno-revivalist ritual in
south-east Poland, the paper investigates the way a once
proscribed religious-national group can become a
commoditized national minority valued by tourists and locals
for its `authentic tradition', 'distinctive culture', and
'closeness to nature'. On the basis of ethnographic
fieldwork, it argues that the 'ethnic' narrative on
religious-national cultures fits well with the demands of
tourism and heritage preservation, as well as with
Europe-wide and nation-state policies and discourses on
national minorities and multiculturalism. The return or
revaluation of tradition in Europe in recent decades is
connected with the decentralization of policy-making and the
increasing role of regionalism and cultural policies.
Illuminating the relationship between nationalism and social
change, the paper argues that the `civic' ideas of
nationhood driven by the policies of the modern nation
states and of the European Union in Eastern Europe give rise
to a particular mobilization of 'ethnic' tradition and
culture. Reorganizing group identifications in relations to
territory and 'peoplehood', this unexpected paradox of
overwhelmingly rational-secular Europeanization indirectly
assists in evolving of a type of modern ethnonational
culture based on a non-urban social structure and imagined
rurality.
|
Mr. Olaf Zenker
and Mr. Inaki Soto |
Autochthony and Activism among Contemporary Irish
Nationalists in Catholic West Belfast. Or: If �Civic�
Nationalists Are �Ethno�-Cultural Revivalists, What Remains of
the Civic/Ethnic Divide?
For long, studies of nationalism have
analysed empirical cases according to few master
dichotomies, among which the civic-ethnic divide has played
a prominent role. Despite nuanced usages of this dichotomy
in recent years, some scholars have highlighted its inherent
ambiguities and argued for its dissolution into several
analytical dimensions better suited to do the workload
formerly assigned to but one root dichotomy. This paper
follows this argumentation, suggesting the two dimensions
�autochthony� and �activism� as better suited for analysis
and as yielding deeper understandings of nationalism. The
argument proceeds in three steps: initially, a case study is
presented on Irish language revivalism and identity
discourses in the North of Ireland. Framing these results in
civic-ethnic terms, locals thereby seem to be both �civic�
nationalists and �ethno�-cultural revivalists. Deviating
from such a reading, however, the paper then suggests
treating these aspects as belonging to two distinct
dimensions: the first is concerned with the causal logic
underlying the reproduction of nationhood in terms of
autochthony, distinguishing between an �individualised� and
a �collectivised� form. The second dimension contrasts
�political� with �cultural activism�, with the former
referring to practices (re)constituting the nation as
politically autonomous, while the latter aims at practices (re)constituting
the nation as culturally distinctive. Finally reinterpreting
the empirical case in terms of these two dimensions, it is
shown that the type of activism is dependent upon the
specificities of �threats� to the nation rather than upon
the underlying type of autochthony, which further
substantiates the necessity to disambiguate the civic-ethnic
distinction.
|
Prof.
Robert Kahn (University of St. Thomas School of Law) |
The
Danish Cartoon Controversy and the Revival of "Ethnic" Nationalism
in Europe
The split between open/good/civic nationalism and closed/bad/ethnic nationalism
places (Western) Europe squarely in the ‘civic’ camp. The European response to Islamic
migration—especially as it unfolded during the Danish cartoon controversy—raises questions about this. Some supporters of
the cartoons used the opportunity to link Muslim migrants to poverty and criminality, which suggests
there may be ‘ethnic’ nationalism in Europe after all. A second group of cartoon supporters faulted
Muslims for failing to appreciate and adhere to European liberal traditions of freedom of speech and
secularism. In so doing, they created a European liberal ‘nationalism’ that does not easily fit into the
‘civic’ or ‘ethnic’ categories. However, other voices pushed the debate in the direction of a more genuine civic
nationalism by i) relying on abstract defenses of freedom expression and ii) explicitly challenging the
contrast between an enlightened Europe and an intolerant Muslim other.
|
Re evaluating the Terms of Nationalism |
Dr. Eric Kaufman(Birkbeck
College, University of London) |
The Lenses of Nationhood: An Optical Model of Identity
This paper tries to make the case for a model of national identity based on an
optical metaphor. It thereby builds upon Zimmer’s notion of resources and mechanisms of national identity
construction as well as Alon Confino, Celia Applegate and John Hutchinson's observations about the
distortions introduced into national identity by the different geographical and social locations of the ‘consumers’
of national identity. Human vision can be separated into sentient object, lenses and inbuilt mental Ideas.
This corresponds well to identity processes in which ‘light’ from a bounded territorial referent is
refracted through various lenses (ideological, geographical, material, psychological) to focus in certain ways on
particular symbolic resources like genealogy, history, culture or political institutions.
Distinguishing between referent, lenses and resources helps us to more precisely situate many hitherto disparate
problems of national identity. These include the ‘ethnic-civic’ dilemma, the mystery of national identity before
nationalism, and the relationship between local and national, and individual and collective, identities. The model
also clarifies the place of universalist ideology, which currently fits poorly within the leading
culturalist and materialist theories of nationalism.
|
Mr.Vincent Depaigne (European Commission) |
Particular or Universal? National Identity and Human Rights: A
Legal Approach
This paper will explore the legal aspects of the contradiction between
particular and universal dimensions inherent in the nation-state. Based on a comparative approach to constitutional
law, I will address the nature of the link between cultural identity and human rights. In particular, I will
assess how expressions of national identity can favour or oppose respect for human rights. Referring to ‘social contract’ theories, as well as recent theories of
nationalism, the paper will show that the nation-state has been conceived as providing a universal and equal protection to
all its individual members, defined as citizens, while at the same time protecting a particular cultural
character. The key issue is therefore to articulate universal and particular dimensions which are in
constant tension within the nationstate. I will then turn to the integration policies developed by the state in order to
build a cohesive society. I will show the continuity between recent integration policies developed to manage
migration and earlier policies conceived to foster internal cohesion. In contrast, multiculturalism has been
developed as an alternative to the domination of a particular culture within the state. However, neither approach adequately addresses the contradiction between
particular and universal: on one side, universal rule tend to mean majority rule, while on the other side,
minority rights are seen as particular rules, which effectively set minorities apart from the mainstream. I will thus
look at the sources of legitimacy outside the state needed to square this contradiction and what this
entails for a conception of the state as the location where human rights and identity can be reconciled.
|
Canadian National Identity |
Prof. Leslie
Laczko(University of Ottawa) |
Ethnic and Civic Bases of
National Identity: : Evidence from Canada
Drawing on the Canadian and international modules of the 1995 and 2003 ISSP
(International Social Survey Programme) data sets on national identities, this exploratory paper will assess
the extent to which there has been change or stability in Canadians’ conceptions of national identity over
this period. Have degrees of attachment to different levels of community remained stable, with feelings of
attachment to the nation still paramount, or has the relative preference for national over other attachments
decreased somewhat? Has there been a shift in the direction of a more civic conception of nationalism
and a less ethnic conception? Has there been a change in the way the two dimensions combine in shaping other
attitudes? Briefly, it is found that in Canada as in most other national settings, while attachment to the
nation coexists alongside attachment to one’s local community, one’s city, one’s province or region, and
one’s continent, attachment to the nation is almost uniformly stronger than attachment to the other levels
of community in both periods. In addition both ethnic and civic criteria are important in different ways:
civic criteria of nationhood are judged to be more important than ethnic or ascribed criteria, but the ethnic
criteria have a greater impact in shaping attitudes towards immigrants. The paper closes with an attempt to locate
the attitudes of Canadian respondents in comparative perspective.
|
Prof. Nicole Gallant
(Universit� de Moncton) |
Under What Conditions Can
National Minorities Develop Civic Conceptions of Nationhood?
Minority nationalism has a tendency to be of the ethnic rather than civic type,
because what distinguishes the national minority from the majority national group is usually based on
historic and ethnocultural characteristics. However, in the long run, it is foreseeable that the national
minority can begin to define itself also using civic conceptions of nationhood, even when striving for some
political independence, mostly because the civic type of discourse is often perceived as more legitimate. I believe that the appearance of such civic definitions of minority nations is
made possible by the existence of a distinct political space for the national minority. This autonomous
political space is required both to give voice to debates about the substantive content of core values and because
such a space can confer a legal status of membership to the nation. In this paper, I propose to explore
the links between the existence of an autonomous, distinct political space for the national minority and the
types of definitions of membership within national minorities, by comparing three different cases of
francophone national minorities within Canada: Quebec, Acadia and Fransaskoisie, all of which wish to
integrate more immigrants. Policy implications of these findings are that, contrary to intuitive thought,
it seems possible that a productive way to develop civic conceptions of nationhood within national
minorities is to recognise and give in to their claims for autonomy and distinction from the generic state.
|
Mr. Jorge
Ginieniewicz
(University of Toronto)
|
The struggle to Validate Previously Acquired Political Capital:
Latin American-Canadians� Quest for Political Integration
Using data drawn from 200 interviews conducted in the cities of Toronto and
Montreal, this paper addresses issues of belonging, citizenship education and political participation among
Latin American immigrants to Canada. Many Latin American immigrants bring with them a valuable and rich body
of social and political capital, and extensive experiences of civic and political involvement, but once
they settle in Canada, they face a number of challenges that entirely reshape their civic and political
attitudes and perceptions. This paper particularly explores the extent and nature of the ‘civic changes’ that
occur through the process of becoming Canadian residents (either as refugees or landed immigrants) and
eventually Canadian citizens. I focus my analysis on the relationship between political participation and a wide
range of variables such as language proficiency, SES, political literacy and previous political
experiences.
|
Civic and Ethnic Nationhood in Central Asia |
Mr. Olivier Ferrando |
Ethnic or Civic Media? A Comparative Analysis of Minority
Language Press in Central Asia
In Soviet times, the policy of nationalities used the language, along with other
cultural criteria, to differentiate ethnic groups and reinforce their collective consciousness. Most
citizens were consequently guaranteed an access to information in their native language. Since 1991, the
media are viewed as a tool to develop national identity and promote statehood among multiethnic societies. The paper proposes to address the issue of ethnicity in the press of Uzbekistan,
Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan from a comparative perspective and with three different levels of analysis: 1) From a top down approach, we examine the treatment of ethnic minorities in
the media policy of each state. We focus on existing legal frameworks, as well as on the content of
minority language state-owned newspapers. 2) From a community approach, we analyze how ethnic leaders and activists
address the issue of the access of their minority to information. We propose a content analysis of ethnic
minorities’ newspapers. 3) Finally we consider the independent press that was mostly promoted by
international organizations and donors. Focusing on minority language private newspapers, we try to understand
what lays behind the language facade. Is the content addressing an ethnic or a civic approach of the
nation? In a broader objective, the paper seeks to enlighten the place of ethnic
minorities within Central Asian societies and the process of integration or exclusion that they are experiencing
in the target countries.
|
Mr. Antoine Buisson (�cole des Hautes Etudes en
Sciences Sociales (EHESS))
|
Post-Soviet Ethno-Nationalism in Tajikistan: A Working
Tool for Nation-State Rebuilding in the Post-War Context?
Since the June 1997 Peace Agreement that put an
end to the bloody Tajik civil war, a key state policy project aimed
at rebuilding the nation-state and its unity has been to redefine
national identity. The new official discourse on nationhood strives
to articulate conflicting strategic choices and legacies: a Soviet
inspired Tajik ethno-nationalism with a multiethnic society,
transnational references to historical places and cultures, and to
the Samanid state tradition with the inherited state territory, and
references to pre-Islamic religions and cultures (zoroastrism and
Aryanism respectively) to oppose the essentialization of Islam as
the main component of Tajik culture and identity.
Drawing on field research and interviews conducted
with intellectuals, students and members of national minorities in
Dushanbe between March and June 2006, this paper questions the
coherence as well as the integrative capacity of the state discourse
on nationhood to bolster up national reconciliation and unity (given
its ethnic basis and its stance toward Islam), and analyzes its
reception by the population. Three specific questions are addressed:
First, do national minorities and Pamiris (who are officially
considered as Tajiks although they speak an East-Iranian language
and are Ismaeli Shiites) feel integrated in the nation? Second, do
the Samanid underlying myth and transnational cultural references
meet success among ethnic Tajiks and minorities despite apparent
contradictions with present state borders? Third, what are the
tensions over the place devoted to Islam in national identity?
|
Dr. Marlies Bilz-Leonhardt |
Oscillating between Civic and Ethnic Nationhood: The Case
of Tatarstan
This paper explores the various aspects of the
national mobilisation in Tatarstan from the late 1980s onwards.
Claiming that the Soviet policy has brought the Tatar people to the
edge of destruction, a heterogeneous Tatar national movement began
to fight for a Tatar nation state and privileges for the Tatars.
When negotiating with Moscow these demands were instrumentalised by
Tatarstan's plenipotentiaries. They argued that only more rights for
the Tatars could minimise separatist tendencies and violence in
Tatarstan. Taking into account that a republic where Tatars made up
48.5 percent and Russians 43.3 percent of the population could not
develop successfully without the co-operation of the latter, the
government in Tatarstan later gradually shifted from ethnic to civic
nationhood. Equal rights for all citizens are declared in
Tatarstan's new constitution. But this is more political rhetoric
than practice. In fact, ethno-national protectionism is on the
agenda. The Russians in Tatarstan meet this without significant
opposition. The satisfactory economic situation in Tatarstan
obviously ranks higher for them than a policy in the spirit of equal
rights for the entire population.
|
13:00-14:30 |
Panel Session 8
|
Transnationalism and Diaspora |
Ms. Shelene Gomes (University of St.
Andrews) |
(Return) Movements: Caribbean Rastafari in Ethiopia
This paper examines the worldview and the material circumstances of Caribbean Rastafari men and women who have ‘returned home’ to Ethiopia. One aspect of the Rastafari re-definition
of self in response to colonial ethnocentric constructs is a worldview that has an embodied concept of
self, humanity and God. I explore the ways in which this aspect of worldview has enabled repatriates to
negotiate the convergence of the symbolic Ethiopia with the nation-state of Ethiopia in which they now live.
This research is situated in the historical and current movements to and from the Caribbean and the formation
of Caribbean societies and worldviews.
|
Ms. Joanne Wallis |
Roots and Routes: Transnationalism and the
Development of the Deterritorialized Tongan Nation-State
The Kingdom of Tonga (Tonga) has a population of
approximately 106,000 people and is located in the Pacific Ocean, in
the cultural area known as Polynesia. Tonga is commonly referred to
as a �small island developing state� (SIDS), and as a consequence,
is said to experience vulnerabilities and challenges that hinder its
development in a globalised world. This paper considers evidence of
Tongan transnationalism, which includes significant levels of
migration and remittances sent by migrant Tongans. Drawing on this
evidence, this paper contests the pessimistic view outlined in the
small states and SIDS literature by proposing an alternative concept
of the �deterritorialized Tongan nation-state�. This concept
describes a process by which people can live anywhere in the world,
yet retain economic, cultural and political ties to their
nation-state of origin. Applying this approach it becomes possible
to see that while the �state� may remain the geographically-bounded
territory of Tonga; the �nation-state� can be seen as all Tongan
people, including those living overseas. This challenges both the
Westphalian focus on the territorially-bounded state as the sole
site of development, and the dominant perspective of the literature
on nationalism, which characterises nations as contained within a
territorial space. This paper concludes by arguing that seeing Tonga
as a deterritorialized nation-state provides a more optimistic view
of Tonga�s development potentialin a globalised world. This is as it
may enlarge Tonga so that its territorial borders become less
important than the areas across which its people (and their
resources) are spread.
|
Prof. Marcin Galent |
Between Family and Culture: The Legacy of
Stateless Nation
Marcin Galent (Jagiellonian University) Between Family and Culture: The Legacy of a Stateless Nation Panel: Transnationalism and Diaspora, April 17, 14:30-16:00 Much has been said and written to criticize the differentiation between Eastern
and Western nationalisms. It is often claimed that such a view, which was born among Western intellectuals,
is simply ethnocentric. But it is also difficult not to notice that there are still certain differences in
importance of the role which civic and ethnic aspects of nationhood play in the creation of national identity among
Eastern and Western European countries. This paper is to show to what extent the lack of state in the 19th century, and
then, the situation where the state was perceived as alien by the majority of the Polish society until the
1989, has determined the construction of Polish national identity, where ethnic conception of nationhood
seems to predominate civic elements. Firstly, the legacy of that situation will be described through
analysis of the current condition of civil society in Poland. The level of trust in people and public institutions,
and involvement in any sort of membership of social organization will serve as indicators. This part of the
paper will be based on quantitative surveys available in Poland. Secondly, the process of
re/constructing of the national identity among Polish migrants who lives in Belgium will be analyzed. This part of the
paper will concentrate on determining what kinds of elements are used in renegotiating it: ethnic or
civic, and will be based on qualitative research conducted among the Polish migrants in Leuven, Belgium.
|
Citizenship, Race, and Nationhood in the United States |
Dr. Lauren Basson |
Race and Nationhood in the United States
"Racial mixture posed a distinct threat to
European American perceptions of the nation and state at the turn of
the twentieth century, exposing and disrupting the racial categories
that organized political and social life in the United States. This
session will introduce this argument through case studies focused on
indigenous people of 'mixed' descent that I discuss in my new book
entitled, 'White Enough to be American? Race Mixing, Indigenous
People and the Boundaries of State and Nation.' Offering a
provocative conceptual approach to the study of citizenship,
nationhood, and race, my book explores how racial mixture challenged
and sometimes changed the boundaries that defined what it meant to
be American.
By focusing on political, legal and press debates
concerning the racial and national identities of specific
individuals, my book reveals how the ambiguous status of indigenous
people of 'mixed' descent underscored the problematic nature of
policies and practices based on clearly defined racial boundaries.
Contributing to timely discussions about race, ethnicity,
citizenship, and nationhood, it demonstrates how the challenges to
the American political and legal systems posed by racial mixture
helped lead to a new definition of what it meant to be American�one
that relied on institutions of private property and white
supremacy."
|
Annette Louise Bickford (University of Toronto) |
The Merciful Executioner: Capital Punishment as National
Spectacle in the American South
"The literal and metaphoric defining of postbellum
America drew on a politics of exclusion, giving wider force to
struggles over national identity and citizenship encoded by race
(and inflected by sexual discourses). Despite emancipation claims,
men of African descent were increasingly excluded from a citizenship
based on notions of 'whiteness,' and this was reflected in the shift
from the spectacle of vigilante lynching to the spectacular trial. I
use the case of George Stinney to illustrate how juridical law, like
extralegal lynching, affirmed a national identity articulated
through the legitimation and restoration of white rule, perceived to
be under threat.
Convicted by an all-white jury of attempted rape
and the murder of two white girls in South Carolina, 14year-old
George Stinney was the youngest person to be legally executed in
America during the 20th century. The hastily reached verdict was
based solely on a confession obtained by two white police officers
behind closed doors. Denied the right to appeal, Stinney would die
soon after in a botched electrocution, too small to be properly
strapped into the electric chair. The decision to legally execute
him was informed by a series of interconnected ideas about
sexuality, national danger, 'civilization' and 'race,' involving a
nuanced set of reasons related to negotiations of national belonging
through racialized alliances. The spectacle generated by this case
indicates much about how white New South advocates construed
national life and sought to construct a white 'civilized' collective
identity, defending their region from Northern charges of Southern
barbarism and asserting their place within the imperial politics of
American nation building."
|
Ms. Betsy Cooper (University of Oxford) |
Terrorism, Citizenship, and Multiculturalism: The Effects of the Terrorist
Threat on US Immigrant Integration Policy
Since September 11, 2001, a discourse concerning immigrant integration has
developed in many liberal democracies: that ‘security in some sense is increased the more that an
individual is integrated into the society.’ States have rationalized a host of new integration policies on the
basis of this assumption; however, it remains unclear how – if at all – the threat of terrorism has substantively
affected their design. In this presentation, I intend to consider to what degree the threat of terrorism has
affected the design of recent immigrant integration policy reforms in the United States, if at all. My
argument is that the construction of national identity in the US, and not the threat of terrorism, is the key factor
which has driven integration policy development. My presentation begins with a discussion of the key elements of purported
national identity – including the ‘American Dream’ and the ‘melting pot’ – which explain the limited U.S. activity
on integration policy. I then will briefly map out policy changes in relevant areas of integration –
including citizenship, induction programs, and Muslim-targeted initiatives. I will summarize the origins of
particular policies (such as the naturalization test reorganization and a proposed commission on homegrown
radicalization), contrast key policy components, and trace the passage of the policies into law. This evidence
confirms that the US has made relatively few changes to integration policy, and the changes that have
been made appear to have been driven by concerns other than security.
|
Russian National Identity and Superpower |
Marina Peunova (University of Geneva) |
Civilizationist Nationalism in Post-Soviet Russia: Building a Nation or
Building an Empire?
This paper examines Russian intellectuals� discourse
on civilizationist nationalism. By constructing national narratives
through historical and cultural myth-making (Bhabha, 1990; Kennedy and
Suny, 2002), proponents of this discourse articulate their vision of a
Russian nation that is destined to again become an empire and to assume
its messianic mission in the world. Clashing in opinion with a still
relatively unpronounced civic nationalist discourse in Russia that
conceptualizes Russia as a civic (rossii �skaia) nation, as well as with
a more popular ethnic Russian (russkii) nationalism, civilizationist
nationalists view the Russian Federation (RF) as a multinational state
bound by Russian culture and religion, a state that should expand beyond
its current territory to bloom from a �truncated� (Pain, 2007) into a
full empire by repossessing territories of the former USSR. I argue that
there is a link between the civilizationist nationalist discourse of
intellectuals and state re-centralization efforts such as Vladimir
Putin�s introduction of federal districts and the central nomination of
envoys to the regions that replaced the elections of regional governors,
as these state policies and the discourse of civilizationist
nationalists both rest on the assumption that the RF is a multiethnic
empire disguised as a nation. Far from leading to national cohesion, I
suggest that government re-centralizing creates a market for
civilizationist nationalist ideas. These ideas, in their turn,
legitimize state policies, and the two cross-fertilize to lead Russia
yet further away from eventually becoming a civic nation-state.
|
Ms.Marina Peunova(University of Geneva) |
Civilizationist Nationalism in Post-Soviet Russia: Building a Nation or Building
an Empire?
This paper examines Russian intellectuals’ discourse on civilizationist
nationalism. By constructing national narratives through historical and cultural myth-making (Bhabha, 1990; Kennedy
and Suny, 2002), proponents of this discourse articulate their vision of a Russian nation that is
destined to again become an empire and to assume its messianic mission in the world. Clashing in opinion
with a still relatively unpronounced civic nationalist discourse in Russia that conceptualizes Russia as
a civic (rossii’skaia) nation, as well as with a more popular ethnic Russian (russkii) nationalism,
civilizationist nationalists view the Russian Federation (RF) as a multinational state bound by Russian culture
and religion, a state that should expand beyond its current territory to bloom from a ‘truncated’ (Pain,
2007) into a full empire by repossessing territories of the former USSR. I argue that there is a link
between the civilizationist nationalist discourse of intellectuals and state re-centralization efforts such as Vladimir
Putin’s introduction of federal districts and the central nomination of envoys to the regions that replaced the
elections of regional governors, as these state policies and the discourse of civilizationist
nationalists both rest on the assumption that the RF is a multiethnic empire disguised as a nation. Far from leading to
national cohesion, I suggest that government re-centralizing creates a market for civilizationist nationalist
ideas. These ideas, in their turn, legitimize state policies, and the two cross-fertilize to lead Russia yet
further away from eventually becoming a civic nation-state.
|
Dr.Andrew Mycock(University of Huddersfield) |
Empire, State and Nation: Post-imperial Nationalism in the UK and Russian
Federation
The ‘missionary nationalism’ which promoted the hegemony of dominant ethnic or
national group(s) within most European empires encouraged the subsuming and conflation of civic and
ethno-cultural dimensions of nation within broader imperial vehicles to mollify competing nationalist
discourses. This was particularly true of the British and Russian/Soviet imperial experiences, where nation-,
state- and empire-building were concurrent. The intensity of national-imperial identity was defined by ethnic,
social and religious hierarchy in which proximity and commonality to the respective English or ethnic Russian
core was pivotal. The historical legacy of such approaches has ensured that civic and ethnic conceptions of
nationality have remained largely conflated within each cauterised post-imperial multi-national state. As
such, attempts to construct post-imperial civic national identities have continued to draw on
national-imperial constructions of identity. The paper will assess the legacy of national-imperial state-building on the
development of post-imperial citizenship and identity in the UK and the Russian Federation. It will explore how and in
what ways imperial decline encourages a process of transition where civic and ethnic nationalism
merge within competing (and conflated) post-imperial and post-colonial discourses within the former imperial
core. It will conclude by assessing the enduring influence of empire on the post-imperial British and Russian
states.
|
After Nationalism? The European Union and Nationhood |
Dr. Muriel Rambour(University Paris 1, Pantheon-Sorbonne) |
Post-Nationalism in Europe: Between Civic and Ethnic Conception of
Nationhood
Defining the sense of belonging to a European human
community has often been depicted as a battle between deeply rooted
memories and the still vague features of a forthcoming identity that
would be shared above national borders. The prospects of a European
identity illustrate how uneasy it is to dissociate civic and ethnic
perceptions of nationhood. In this debate, post-nationalism shed a
specific light on the way to deal with multiple references and national
histories in the European context. This theoretical assumption suggests
to develop a political identity which would be based on the general
principles of democracy and human rights. It supposes to build an
identity that could emerge beyond ethnic ties or specific traditions
determined by a particular national history. But the main critics of
post-nationalism point out that it somehow lacks the passionate,
historical dimension, conveyed by the ethnic conceptions of nationhood.
Following this point of view, principles of freedom and human rights may
be essential, but they would fail to catch the emotive engagement
carried by national identities, which have a thicker ethnic dimension
than what post-nationalism could ever suggest. From a non-normative,
strictly analytical perspective, post-national theory conducted at a
European level precisely underlines the kind of tension between the
universal prospects of human rights and the local conditions where they
apply. Post-nationalism then specifically highlights the difficulty to
find an alternative path between the civic and the ethnic forms of
belonging to a political entity.
|
Ms. Sofia
Vasilopoulou |
Ethnic Nationalism in Opposition to the EU�s Civic Supra-Nationalism:
The Case of Extreme Right Nationalist Parties Panel: After Nationalism?
The European Union and Nationhood
The great loss of human life as well as the
political and economic chaos resulting from the Second World War led
the European political elites to create a body of supranational
institutions with view to obstructing the re-emergence of ethnic
nationalism in Europe. The EU has created a type of civic
supra-nationalism to which the extreme right party family is opposed
due to its strong ethnic nationalist characteristics. This party
family has thus far been understood as a monolithic entity in terms
of its Euroscepticism. Contrary to this, this paper demonstrates
that in fact it adopts varying positions on Europe. Theoretically,
party positions on Europe are conceptualised as a three-fold
dimension, namely positions on first the principle, second the
practice, and third the future of EU cooperation. From this, three
types of Euroscepticism are derived. First, the �uncompromising�
type comprising parties wholeheartedly against all abovementioned
dimensions; second, the �conditional� type containing parties not
against the principle of EU cooperation but against its practice and
its future; and third, the �compromising� type including parties
accepting both the principle and the practice of EU cooperation but
oppose further cooperation. In accounting for this diversity the
paper argues that the extreme right displays three diferent patterns
of nationalism in its political discourse, which lead to these three
different types of attitudes towards the EU. The importance of this
paper lies in first, demonstrating policy divergence within an
otherwise similar party family; and second, explaining how different
patterns of nationalism cause this divergent stance.
|
16:30 � 18:00 |
Panel Session 9 |
State Nationalism vs. Indigenous Identity |
Dr. Chris Tooley |
State Inclusiveness vs. Indigenous Chieftainship in New
Zealand
This paper will begin by presenting an overview of
modern nationhood in New Zealand, including its founding document,
the Treaty of Waitangi (1840), and the different interpretations
observed by the State and Māori. Second, the paper will discuss the
notion of civic inclusiveness and how it is deployed by the State
through political concepts of individualism, citizen-equality and
ideological slogans of �we are one people�. Third, this paper will
discuss the notion of ethnic chieftainship advanced by Māori. In
providing an indigenous trajectory of nation formation it will
describe the narrative of Māori nationhood (chieftainship), namely
their historical tribal structure and the socio-politics of
genealogy, and outline the current debates over the establishment of
a national Māori body politic. It will also take note of the recent
adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
and how nationhood vis-�-vis self-determination has located Māori as
non-State actors.
Overall, it will be argued that the States notion of civic
inclusiveness perpetuates existing asymmetrical power-relations
between ethnic groups in society, and in New Zealand, privileges the
dominant Pakeha while systematically marginalising Māori. Drawing on
the distinction between individual-liberalism and
collective-liberalism articulated by Charles Taylor (with original
material from an interview) it will be argued that notions of civic
inclusiveness are neither neutral nor universal but are culturally
particular. Yet, such a repositioning should not be necessarily
problematic, but offer a point of departure for both the State and
Māori to establish a more just and balanced conception of
nationhood.
|
Prof. Elena Dorothy Estrada-Tanck(Mexico City Commission of Human Rights/Escuela Libre de Derecho) |
Multiculturalism and Indigenous Peoples in Mexico
The Mexican Constitution, anchored in the definition of indigenous peoples given
by ILO Convention 169, establishes specific rights for indigenous peoples; 12% (62 language groups) of
the total population of 106 million. The paper analyses the way law has helped to shape how Mexicans view
their nationality and ethnicity, as well as the contributions and setbacks made by legal discourse and
public policies in the effective enjoyment of rights by indigenous persons. Mexico shares some aspects of the ‘Western’ concept of nationalism as a means of
political unity, and some of the ‘Eastern’ conception based more on ethnic lines. The first was used in
Mexico’s independence in 1821, reflected in its first Constitution and in legal and political documents
today; while the second was enhanced by recent indigenous demands for recognition of cultural and linguistic
differences. Because of its rich cultural and ethnic diversity Mexico is called ‘the extreme West’. The paper examines the current situation of autonomy in indigenous communities,
its implications for the people in those communities – especially women and minorities, the interrelation
among indigenous people and the rest of the population, and the links between the various indigenous
legal systems and the national legal system. It explores the effectiveness of multiculturalist policies to
peacefully accommodate ethnic and cultural differences, and it compares the multiculturalist view with classic
liberalism, egalitarian liberalism, and value pluralism. This paper will propose possible solutions to respond to
the challenge of coexisting views, among them conceptions of justice, in a pluriculturalist Nation.
|
Mr. Juan Manuel Espinoza Benza(University of St. Andrews) |
Othering the State's Nation: National vs. Indigenous Identities in Bolivia
During the last decade, along with the decline of state-sponsored, assimilationist policies, indigenous identities in Bolivia have emerged as a political force, permeating other
official and subaltern spheres and inspiring indigenous groups to frame their political and territorial claims in
terms of ethnic sovereignties at a national level. This phenomenon has challenged the liberal model of the Bolivian
state, its politics of identity, and the very foundations of the ongoing nation-building process. As
such, it has also generated radical reactions from the hegemonic Creole and mestizo sectors of society.
Reactions that, at best, continue to advocate for the homogenisation of the nation-state through the ‘integration’
of the indigenous society and, at worst, promote attitudes of fascist-racist characteristics. The election
of an indigenous man as the Bolivian national president in 2005 has radically intensified expectations of
structural reform and fears of reversed racism, thus, polarising society even further. This paper explores the structural contradictions between ethnic and national
identities in Bolivia that lie behind this process of apparent mutual exclusion, or mutual ‘othering’. By
looking at indigenous communities in the north of Potos�, an overwhelmingly indigenous area in the
Bolivian Andes, the paper contests the notion that political difference in Bolivia stems from opposing
ethnic ideals of what the nation should look like, and suggests that an analysis on competing nationalisms and
national reforms in this context, must depart from definitions of the state’s nation, and consider how
diverse and competing notions of the State itself coexist in the Bolivian rural indigenous margins.
|
Multiculturalism, Theory and Practice |
Dr.Eprahim Nimni(Queen's University Belfast) |
Beyond the ‘Civic’ vs. ‘Ethnic’ Dichotomy: The Archbishop of Canterbury, Islamic Law and the Perils of Liberal Secularism
This paper begins with a brief discussion of the lecture of the Archbishop of
Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams, on Islam in English Law, and the alarmingly ill-informed way in which
it has been received. I shall briefly argue that contemporary European Muslims appear to receive the
treatment reserved to Jews in the interwar period, and thus contemporary European Islamophobia is a variant of
European anti-Semitism. The Archbishop of Canterbury argues that civic secular nationalism asserts that
common citizenship requires from individual citizens only to be under the rule of the uniform law of a
sovereign state, and all other commitments belong to the realm of the private. This, Dr. Williams argues, is an
unsatisfactory account of political life, for social, and indeed state identities are not constituted by
one exclusive set of loyalties and modalities of belonging. In this vein, I shall further argue that the
distinction between ‘civic’ vs. ‘ethnic’ nationalism cannot be sustained because most civic nationalisms universalise
secular mores derived from a particular (ethnic) culture which becomes coercive by rendering invisible its
cultural origins under the hijab of universalism. Militant secular ‘civic’ nationalism could be as oppressive as
its inverted image, ethnically based religious fundamentalist nationalism. Multicultural Nationalism in contrast, attempts to deconstruct the project of
the nation state by suggesting a model for a multi-nation state that allows for differential democratic
representation of its constituent religious and ethnic communities. This project aims to secure the institutional
recognition of ethnic diversity and the recognition of democratic collective rights and of supplementary
multicultural jurisdictions of its minority communities.
|
Ms. Annika Hinze(The University of Illinois at Chicago) |
Bringing State Responsibility Back In: Multiculturalism and the Role of
the State in France and Germany
The idea of acknowledging or even protecting minority groups certainly is quite
novel a phenomenon in the political debates in France and Germany. After a few decades of active
mobilization and political visibility of immigrant minorities, France for the first time moved towards implementing
official anti-discrimination measures in 1998/1999. Despite the assimilationist strategies of the state,
immigrants in France remained quite visibly immigrants instead of turning into Frenchmen. They marched for
their equality in spite of their difference, demanding their ‘droit � la difference’ and the acceptance of
hyphenated identities by the state. Germany, with the beginning of the 21st century finally realized that it was –
and had been for many years – a country of immigration. Along with that realization went the implementation of
a new citizenship law, which, for the first time since the codification of a common German citizenship
law in 1913, acknowledged the principle of Jus Soli.1 These important developments are slowly paving the
way for an equally important question: What role will immigrants play as new, legitimate members of German
society? Approaches toward implementing policies of multiculturalism have been
half-hearted at best in both countries. Though France has at least rhetorically moved beyond the
assimilationist approach, both France and Germany have so far coped poorly with acknowledging difference. Difference,
is not only not recognized but (in the case of Germany) blatantly discouraged. This paper will
explore the barriers as well as possible avenues toward a state-directed multiculturalism in France and
Germany.
|
Mr. Tim Reeskens |
Beyond the Civic-Ethnic Dichotomy: The Nature of
Citizenship Concepts in More than 20 Countries
The distinction between civic and ethnic
nationhood and citizenship was already established several decades
ago, and it continues to dominate the study of citizenship,
nationalism and identity. In recent years, various authors have
questioned the dichotomous character of these concepts. In this
article, we investigate the empirical validity of this dichotomy,
based on analysis of survey data from 13 OECD countries in the 1995
(n = 16,644) and the 2003 (n = 14,846) waves of the ISSP survey. The
analysis demonstrates that this dichotomous structure indeed can be
detected by means of confirmatory factor analysis. We can also
observe, however, that both concepts can be defined in a negative
manner: for the ethnic concept of citizenship, obeying the laws of
the country clearly is not a sufficient condition; while for the
civic concept there is no need to be born in the country. Contrary
to theoretical assumptions, including the criterion of ancestry does
not lead to a stable dichotomy. Moreover, further analysis reveals
that the measurement of both concepts is not equivalent
cross-culturally, so that findings on civic and ethnic citizenship
should not be directly compared across societies.
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Czech Nationalism: Civic or Ethnic? |
Ms. Tereza
Novotna (Boston University) |
Civic and Ethnic Conceptions of Nationhood in the First
Czechoslovak Republic: Emanuel Radl�s Theories of Nationalism
External forces (such as Hitler�s expansive
politics) are usually seen as a main source of the break-up of
Czechoslovakia before the WWII. The paper, however, argues that no
less significant a factor was the tense internal relationship
between the Czechoslovak nation and national minorities (mainly
German and Hungarian). One of the rare Czech political thinkers who
saw the fragility of Czechoslovakia was Emanuel Radl. Radl�s
critique of the inconsistent founding conception of the Czechoslovak
state based on so-called �Czechoslovakism� is the focus of the
paper. The author firstly examines Radl�s two concepts of nation
(political and organic) and then she proceeds to his two concepts of
nationality (tribal/racial-cultural and ideological/political).
Finally, she introduces Radl�s proposal of contractual state and a
volitional model of nationality, a theory applied in the
Czechoslovak practice. In each case, Radl�s ideas are contrasted
with actual situation and documents such as the Czechoslovak
constitution, so-called �language law�, and census results. The
author criticizes certain limitedness and incongruousness of Radl�s
theoretical suggestions. Nevertheless, she appreciates Radl�s
endeavour to include German national minority into the Czechoslovak
political system so that Czech Germans can become constitutive parts
of Czechoslovakia. Moreover, the author finds Radl�s vision that the
solution of the relation between Czechs and Germans would affect the
development of the entire Central European region rather prescient.
|
Dr. Polina Golovatina |
Politics of Multiculturalism Tested by Banal Nationalism:
Example of the Czech Republic
The overall focus of the present paper is to investigate the challenges of the
politics of multiculturalism in new European states, particularly the clash of the official paradigm of
multiculturalism and prevalence of the traditional national framework of thinking. I am going to discuss the banal
nationalism in the Czech Republic, which is typically considered one of the most successful democratic
transitions among other CEE countries. Despite the fact that it is quite a homogeneous national state, there
are still national minorities, increasing number of immigrants and guest workers from Eastern Europe. All that
contributes to the growth of tensions within the society. Based on the analysis of several Czech mass
media and forum discussions, interviews, speeches and statements of the Czech officials, as well as of the
official polls and already existing studies on the similar subject, I am going to look at the Czech popular
perception of German national minorities and the Germans and attitudes towards them. There is a number of acknowledged and widely discussed problems (such as the
Czech Roma issue), however, as even a mere talk with some Czechs shows, the object of banal
nationalism is much wider, and the acceptance of policy of multiculturalism is much more problematic. The
explanation to this, which I propose, is on the one hand, the incomplete process of the formation of national
identity or its (trans)formation under new conditions and on the other the fact that national
framework of thought and discussion is deeply rooted in the minds of intellectuals, politicians, and
average people.
|
Dr. Laura Cashman (University of Glasgow) |
Designing an Appropriate Integration Strategy for Roma:
Experiences of Ethnocultural and Socio-Economic Policies in the
Czech Republic
Romani communities offer a challenge to theorists
of minority rights because they do not fully fit models of national
minorities, immigrant communities or transnational minorities.
Further problems ensue from the reluctance of many Roma to register
their ethnicity officially. The actual size of Romani communities
across Europe is unknown and as a result, it is difficult to measure
their needs or to assess the effectiveness of programmes designed to
support socially excluded Roma. The Czech government has recognised
the need for support specifically targeting ethnic minorities but
given the lack of data about Romani communities, such programmes are
difficult to implement. Therefore, the state has opted for a
combination of programmes, some targeting Roma specifically and
others tackling social exclusion more generally. However, my
research has revealed problems which emerge when local authorities
choose not to follow official guidelines and develop their own
interpretations of how policy should be implemented.
Based on the case study of a city in the Czech
Republic, this paper first outlines the debates about whether
specific programmes or general anti-exclusion policies are more
effective in terms of supporting Romani integration. It then
discusses the problems which arise when policies are implemented at
the local level.
|
Supranationalism
and Multiethnicity in the Balkans |
Ms. Camille Monteux |
Multiethnicity Vs. Ethnic Coexistence: The
International Intervention in Kosovo Institution Building |
Prof. Aleksandar Pavkovic (University of Macau and Macquarie
University, Sydney) |
Supranationalism as an
Escape from Ethnic Nationalism? The Case of Yugoslavism
Multinational states often propagate a conception
of individual identity which is inclusive of the members of all its
national or ethnic groups. Since such a conception of is usually
superimposed on existing national identities, one can call it
'supranational' identity. Such identities are often embedded in
particular political � supranational � ideologies which aim to
legitimize the state and mobilize the multinational population in
its support. In its Program of 1958 the League of Communists of
Yugoslavia articulated a supranational ideology which promoted a
non-ethnic Yugoslav identity. In the late 1 960s, however, the
communist leadership denounced Yugoslavism as a pernicious
nationalist (that is, ethnic) ideology and denied Yugoslavs the
status of a recognized national group in Yugoslavia. The younger
generation of communist leaders shared no common national or
supranational identity and saw in the Yugoslav identity a potential
obstacle to the mobilization of their national constituencies. The
latter identity flourished outside the confines of any political
ideology: in 1981, 1.2 million citizens (out of the population of
around 20 million), to the dismay of the communist leaders and
ideologues, declared themselves to be Yugoslavs. This suggests that
Yugoslavism, as a non-ethnic identity, had a potential to develop
into a civic identity resistant to communist or nationalist
manipulation. As nationalist mobilization and conflict grew apace in
the 1980s, Yugoslavism simply had no chance to emerge as a civic
alternative to the exclusive national identities.
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18:00-18:30 |
Closing Address |
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