Imagining Nations and Making States

2020 ◽  
pp. 14-31
Author(s):  
Christine Leuenberger ◽  
Izhak Schnell
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
State Building ◽  
National Identities ◽  
Nation State ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Building Process ◽  
New Geography

It is central for international relations to support state- and nation-building; “nation-building” entails forging common national identities, and “state-building” consists of establishing infrastructures to enhance governance. This chapter examines some of the ways that nation-states have been made—through narratives, ideas, and practices as well as through technologies and infrastructures—and how this has been reproduced in Israel/Palestine. Various disciplines were recruited to the service of nation-state building. Cartography helped stake out a territory, history and archaeology were used to make claims on it, and geographers were called on to formulate a new geography of the new homeland. At the same time, the Zionist vision and a Jewish metaculture as well as the quasi-state institutions of the Yishuv contributed to the establishment of the Israeli state. Throughout the 20th century, the high-modernist state used science and technology to take on its people as a state project. Israel exemplifies how the use of science and technology contributed to the belief that a society, its people, and its territories could be known, managed, and improved. Science and technology charted grand new futures for societies, furthering scientific and technical frontiers, expanding the power of states, and leaving behind all those people and lands that were not considered part of the state-building process.

Contacts, Collisions and Relationships

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrés Baeza Ruz
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
State Building ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Spanish American ◽  
Cultural Encounters ◽  
Building Process ◽  
The World ◽  
State Actors ◽  
Independence Era

This is a study on the relations between Britain and Chile during the Spanish American independence era (1806–1831). These relations were characterised by a dynamic, unpredictable and changing nature, being imperialism only one and not the exclusive way to define them. The book explores how Britons and Chileans perceived each other from the perspective of cultural history, considering the consequences of these ‘cultural encounters’ for the subsequent nation–state building process in Chile. From 1806 to 1831 both British and Chilean ‘state’ and ‘non–state’ actors interacted across several different ‘contact zones’, and thereby configured this relationship in multiple ways. Although the extensive presence of ‘non–state’ actors (missionaries, seamen, educators and merchants) was a manifestation of the ‘expansion’ of British interests to Chile, they were not necessarily an expression of any British imperial policy. There were multiple attitudes, perceptions, representations and discourses by Chileans on the role played by Britain in the world, which changed depending on the circumstances. Likewise, for Britons, Chile was represented in multiple ways, being the image of Chile as a pathway to other markets and destinations the most remarkable. All these had repercussions in the early nation–building process in Chile.

scholarly journals Samisk kunst og norsk kunsthistorie. Delvise forbindelser

10.16993/bbm ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica Grini
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Art History ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
National Identities ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Disciplinary Boundaries ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The 19Th Century

Sápmi, the Sámi area, is transnational; it transcends four nation states, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. Art and art history has been considered natural parts of a nation state’s inventory at least since the 19th century and has contributed to the production and maintenance of national identities and narratives. What is the role of the nation state in art history, and how has the national paradigm affected the presentation of Sámi art, historically and today? Focusing on the discipline of art history in Norway, the volume exposes the prevailing representation of Sámi art, duodji, and dáidda as ethnographic material and relates it to the politics of nation building in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. The book examines the representation of Sámi art, artefacts, practices, materialites, actors, concepts, and themes in Norwegian Art History, to uncover some of the established disciplinary mechanisms and narratives. The central method is historiography in combination with fieldwork in archives and museums, aimed at doing art historiography in the expanded field – to move beyond the traditional textual focus and question naturalized institutional and disciplinary boundaries. This is one of very few historiographical studies of the art historical discipline in Norway, and the only one that does this by centring on Sámi traditions, items, actors, and conceptualizations.

scholarly journals Nation Building and Social Values in Nepal

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-21
Author(s):  
Tara Nath Ghimire ◽  
Amrit Kumar Shrestha ◽  
Shyam Prasad Phuyel
Keyword(s):  
Social Values ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
State Building ◽  
The State ◽  
Federal State ◽  
Nation State ◽  
State Structure ◽  
Building Process ◽  
General Recognition ◽  
Social Tradition

Social norms play an important role in the state-building process. If the time of formation of Nepal is considered as the period of unification, then some important facts regarding the formation of the state of Nepal and the structure of the society here can be recounted. Regarding the formation of the nation-state, the structure of the Nepali state, and the position of the Nepali society are not of the same nature. From the pre-unification states of Limbuwan, Khumbuwan, Kirat, Khas, Baisi, Chaubisi, Shen, etc. to the restructuring period of the state, the state structure has not been formed in the recognition of the nation-state. Because the small and big states before unification were states built on power. Due to power, the great form of the Gurkha state had built a unitary Nepal. There is not general recognition of the state-building process of the nation-state. In the same way, even when restructuring the state, that recognition was not accepted. The foundations of federal-state formation, such as language, religion, and the basis of equality and plurality of the population, were also not accepted, which is a form of recognition of the nation-state. In such a situation, this article attempts to study a state-building and social tradition which is already coming together in Nepali society

scholarly journals National narration and Politics of Memory in post-socialist Georgia

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 222-240
Author(s):  
Salome Dundua ◽  
Tamar Karaia ◽  
Zviad Abashidze
Keyword(s):  
Historical Memory ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
State Building ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Politics Of Memory ◽  
Memory Politics ◽  
Cultural Life ◽  
Future State ◽  
Building Process ◽  
The Rose

Abstract The article is dedicated to analyse the politics of so called “historical memory” during the state-building and nation-building process in post-socialist Georgia After the Rose Revolution 2003, the new government that aimed at building the “new Georgia,” implementing radical changes in many key spheres, including institutions, readdressing the totalitarian past, faced number of problematic manifestations in political and cultural life in this post-Soviet country. The “politics of memory” became one of the key factors of reconstructing of “new, democratic, western Georgia”. This process can be evaluated as leading toward state nationalism. Analyzing the politics of memory, symbolism is the most notable attitude and that is why former President Mikheil Saakashvili used commemorative ceremonies continuously. The authors argue in favour of approach, that the so called “memory politics” is the integral part of one’s legitimacy building, but at the same time, it can be used as tool for reconsidering of Polity’s future and mobilization of population under the “citizenship” umbrella towards the strong loyalty to the actual and future state-building.

Ethnic Diversity and the Nation-State in the 21st Century

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-49
Author(s):  
Francis Kok Wah Loh
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Ethnic Diversity ◽  
Political Power ◽  
State Building ◽  
Cultural Identities ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Minority Communities ◽  
Building Process ◽  
The Status

Abstract The cause of conflict in multi-ethnic and multi-religious societies is not diversity in and of itself. Instead, it is one’s attitude towards diversity. Do we share political power and economic development with the regions and minority communities? Do we respect and recognise the cultural identities of minorities? This requires that the nation-state building process be imagined in more inclusive civic territorial lines rather than exclusive ethnic-genealogical lines. With the above as a backdrop, the article explores the status of the Christian minority in Malay-Islamic majority Malaysia and the plight of the Rohingyas in Bamar-Buddhist majority Myanmar.

Nations, Nationalism, National Identity: New Dimensions in Academic Discourse

2015 ◽  
Vol 59 (11) ◽  
pp. 91-102
Author(s):  
I. Semenenko
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
Academic Discourse ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Russian Science ◽  
Interethnic Relations ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
Nation States

Analyzing discourses on interethnic relations can contribute to a clearer understanding of the focal points of tensions in contemporary political communities sharing a common territory and common political institutions. These discourses represent the complex of problems related to nation-building and are generated both in the public sphere and in academic discussion. As such, they often develop separately one from the other. Assessing the current academic discourse on nations and nationalism, on nation-building and the nation-state, on citizenship, cultural diversity and interethnic conflict can contribute to the formation of the agenda of a politics of identity aimed at building a civic nation. Memory politics deserve special attention in this context, as the interpretation of historic memory has today become a powerful instrument that political elites can use to consolidate the nation and, in different contexts, to politicize ethnicity and deepen cleavages in existing nation-states. The affirmation of a positive civic (national) identity is a reference framework for modern democratic societies, and it is in meeting the challenges of politicizing ethnicity that political priorities and academic interests meet. However, the current domination of politics over academia in this conflict prone sphere contributes to its radicalization and to the formation of negative and exclusive identities that can be manipulated to pursue elitist group interests. Evaluating models of political organization alternative to the ones known today (such as “the nation-state”) does not aspire to “write off” the nation, but this can help to come up with visions and ideas politics can take up to overcome the conflict potential that contemporary societies generate over ethnic issues. Acknowledgements. This article was prepared with financial support provided by the Russian Science Foundation [research grant № 15-18-00021, “Regulating interethnic relations and managing ethnic and social conflicts in the contemporary world: the resource potential of civic identity (a comparative political analysis)”]. The research was conducted at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO), RAS.

Imagined democracy? Nation-building and elections in Central Asia

2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 495-513 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donnacha Ó Beacháin ◽  
Rob Kevlihan
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Weak States ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Central Asian Countries ◽  
Soviet Central Asia ◽  
Nation State Formation

Is an imagined democracy more important than actual democracy for nation-building purposes? After 20 years of independence, Central Asian countries present a mixed bag of strong and weak states, consolidated and fragmented nations. The equation of nation and state and the construction of genuine nation states remains an elusive goal in all of post-Soviet Central Asia. This paper examines the role that electoral politics has played in nation-state formation. We argue that electoral processes have been central to attempted nation-state building processes as part of efforts to legitimize authoritarian regimes; paradoxically in those few countries where (for brief periods) partial democratization actually occurred, elections contributed, at least in the short term, to nation-state fragmentation.

scholarly journals Overlapping Histories, Co-produced Concepts: Imperialism in Chinese Eyes

2020 ◽  
Vol 79 (3) ◽  
pp. 685-706
Author(s):  
Leigh K. Jenco ◽  
Jonathan Chappell
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
State Building ◽  
People’S Republic Of China ◽  
Nation State ◽  
People's Republic Of China ◽  
Territorial Expansion ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Chinese Nationalism ◽  
Nation States

Many historians of China, particularly those based in North America, insist that the Qing dynasty's territorial expansion was imperial and comparable to the imperial expansions of other global empires. Other historians, particularly but not only those based in the People's Republic of China, continue to resist this interpretation. They argue that dynastic expansion in the Ming and Qing periods was simply a form of nation-state building, akin to similar processes in Europe. Rather than rejecting their claims as a product of Chinese nationalism, we argue that the term “empire” should be (re)understood as a global co-production, emerging from multiple intersecting histories and scholarly debates about those histories. Doing so challenges influential definitions of empire that rely on a distinction between empires and nation-states, highlighting their dual presence in both Euro-American and Chinese pasts (and presents). This move demands a rejection of periodizations that suggest that empires ceased to exist following the period of decolonization from 1945 to the 1970s. This opens up new avenues of historical and normative inquiry to acknowledge the modern continuity between empires and nation-states.

11. Federal and local government institutions

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Loughlin
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Federal States ◽  
Government Institutions ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Building Process ◽  
Territorial Organization ◽  
Post War ◽  
Modern Nation State

This chapter focuses on federal and local government institutions. More specifically, it considers the ways in which territorial governance has been understood and implemented within the nation-state model. The territorial organization of nation-states may be either federal or unitary, although each of these categories may be further categorized as being either more or less decentralized. The welfare states of the post-war period represent the culmination of the nation-state-building process and placed emphasis on central control over sub-national levels of government. The chapter begins with a discussion of the modern nation-state and territorial governance, citing the rise of nationalism in unitary states and federal states. It then considers territorial governance in welfare states, along with the classical distinction between federal and unitary states. It also examines trends towards regionalization and decentralization in unitary states before concluding with an assessment of local government and local autonomy.

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