Argumentative Contexts of National Identity Definition

2019 ◽  
pp. 133-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Pehrson
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Empirical Reality ◽  
National Belonging ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Ideal Types ◽  
National Boundaries ◽  
Civic Nationalism

People define the membership of their national groups in a variety of more or less inclusive ways. This has implications for how immigrants and minority groups are treated. Traditionally, variation national boundaries has been understood as a distinction between ethnic and civic nationalism. However, despite a developed empirical literature, it is difficult to find strong defenders of this distinction or its ability to capture the empirical reality of popular conceptions of nationhood. This chapter explores some of the deficiencies of the ethnic–civic distinction, arguing that these problems arise because when people report the importance of various criteria to national belonging, they are not selecting from philosophically derived ideal types on nationhood but rather are positioning themselves within the particular and local debates about nationality relevant in their time and place. The chapter proposes a situated and bottom-up investigation of how national boundaries are constructed and contested in particular places and how this differs across what this chapter will call ‘argumentative contexts’.

Palestinian Refugees between the City and the Camp

2020 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 607-621
Author(s):  
Faedah M. Totah
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
National Belonging ◽  
Palestinian Refugees ◽  
Social Distinction ◽  
Urban Refugees ◽  
Old City ◽  
Refugee Experience ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The City

AbstractThe camp and the city are both important for understanding the relationship between space and identity in the refugee experience of exile. In the Palestinian example, the camp has emerged as a potent symbol in the narrative of exile although only a third of refugees registered with UNRWA live in camps. Moreover, the city and urban refugees remain missing in most of the scholarship on the Palestinian experience with space, exile, and identity. Furthermore, there is little attention to how refugees understand the concept of the city and camp in their daily life. This article examines how Palestinian urban refugees in the Old City of Damascus conceptualized the relationship between the camp and the city. It illustrates how the concept of the camp remained necessary for the construction of their collective national identity while in Syria. However, the city was essential in the articulation of individual desires and establishing social distinction from other refugees. Thus, during a protracted exile it is in the interstice between the city and the camp, where most urban refugees in the Old City situated themselves, that informed their national belonging and personal aspirations.

Public health messages about COVID-19 prevention in multilingual Taiwan

Multilingua ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (5) ◽  
pp. 597-606
Author(s):  
Chun-Mei Chen
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Health Messages ◽  
Indigenous Populations ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Social Challenges ◽  
Substantive Content ◽  
Public Health Messages ◽  
Public Health Information

AbstractIn this paper, I explore multilingual preventative public health messages against the spread of COVID-19 in Taiwan between January and April 2020. Based on empirical data, the symbolic and substantive content of multilingual top-down and bottom-up public health strategies was analyzed and discussed. Findings suggest that the voices of indigenous people have largely been excluded from top-down efforts and strategies in public health communications. Top-down communication did not address the actual concerns of indigenous populations who relied on tourism to bolster their economy. Bottom-up efforts emerged from social exclusion and the inaccessibility of public health information to indigenous populations; such efforts were over-communicated, and the problems of indigenous populations remained unaddressed. I conclude by relating multilingualism and the needs of minority groups, and suggest an inclusive approach to social challenges and solutions for future pandemic preparedness.

scholarly journals “There'll Always Be an England”: Representations of Colonial Wars and Immigration, 1948–1968

2001 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 557-584 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy Webster
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Racial Difference ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Common Theme ◽  
National Belonging ◽  
Daily Mail ◽  
National Community ◽  
British Colonial ◽  
The 1950S

“In Malaya,” theDaily Mailnoted in 1953, “three and a half years of danger have given the planters time to convert their previously pleasant homes into miniature fortresses, with sandbag parapets, wire entanglements, and searchlights.” The image of the home as fortress and a juxtaposition of the domestic with menace and terror were central to British media representations of colonial wars in Malaya and Kenya in the 1950s. The repertoire of imagery deployed in theDaily Mailfor the “miniature fortress” in Malaya was extended to Kenya, where the newspaper noted wire over domestic windows, guns beside wine glasses, the charming hostess in her black silk dress with “an automatic pistol hanging at her hip.” Such images of English domesticity threatened by an alien other were also central to immigration discourse in the 1950s and 1960s. In the context of the decline of British colonial rule after 1945, representations of the empire and its legacy—resistance to colonial rule in empire and “immigrants” in the metropolis—increasingly converged on a common theme: the violation of domestic sanctuaries.Colonial wars of the late 1940s and 1950s have received little attention in literatures on national identity in early postwar Britain, but the articulation of racial difference through immigration discourse, and its significance in redefining the postimperial British national community has been widely recognized. As Chris Waters has suggested in his work on discourses of race and nation between 1947 and 1963, these years saw questions of race become central to questions of national belonging.

Borders, Ideology, Geography and Maps – The Case of Israel

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evan Perlman
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Geographic Education ◽  
The Past ◽  
Israeli Government ◽  
Political Boundaries ◽  
Mental Mapping ◽  
National Boundaries ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Education Support

Although there are dozens of countries with present day border disputes, few have received such unrelenting international focus as Israel. Maps, cartography and geographic education support the developing doctrine of national boundaries that form collective national identity and ideology. Geographically, throughout the past century, the borders of Israel have become a melding of the phenomena of national identity with physical territory – also referred to as territorial socialization. My paper argues that Israel’s use of geographic description of borders specifically through cartography over time is an example of how boundaries are a powerful tool in the naturalization of ideology of Jewish Israelis. This argument is analyzed by examining historical and biblical cartography, territorial evolution, geography curriculum and textbooks, the Atlas of Israel and mental mapping by citizens. Varying portrayals of Israel’s historical, biblical, natural and political boundaries creates an ambiguous definition of Israel’s borders for citizens. In turn, this importantly shapes the present day religious and seculargeographies of the population of Israel as well as the political behaviours by the democratically representative Israeli government.

scholarly journals "Re-Imagining" the Homeland? Languages and National Belonging in Ukrainian Diasporas since the Euromaidan

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 89-109
Author(s):  
Ivan Kozachenko
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Civic Identity ◽  
National Belonging ◽  
Democratic Change ◽  
Crucial Part ◽  
The Continuum ◽  
Ethnic And Linguistic Diversity

From the first days of the Euromaidan protests, Ukrainian diasporas around the globe took an active part in supporting democratic change in Ukraine. These diasporic communities actively used social media to “represent” their national identity, to promote their visions of Ukraine’s past and future, and to network and coordinate their actions. This paper argues that the events of the Euromaidan made Ukrainian diasporas in Western countries “re-invent” and “re-imagine” their national belonging. In these processes historical memory, language, and regional identifications play a crucial part within the continuum between conservative ethnonationalist identities and “civic” ones that try to accommodate the ethnic and linguistic diversity of Ukraine in the diasporic setting. This study reveals that “civic” identity elements became more visible across Ukrainian diasporas, but that Russian aggression somewhat haltered the acceptance of diversity and reinforced previously existing conservative sentiments.

Israel

2018 ◽  
pp. 193-272
Author(s):  
Michèle Lamont ◽  
Graziella Moraes Silva ◽  
Jessica S. Welburn ◽  
Joshua Guetzkow ◽  
Nissim Mizrachi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Social Exclusion ◽  
Metropolitan Area ◽  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
National Belonging ◽  
Group Boundaries ◽  
Tel Aviv ◽  
The Status ◽  
Ethiopian Jews

This chapter examines the experiences and responses of Arab Palestinians, Ethiopian Jews, and Mizrahi Jews in Israel to stigmatization and discrimination. It first explains the historical and socioeconomic context for the three groups, taking into account the legacy of Zionism that shapes their experiences, the status of Arab Palestinians in the Jewish polity, and questions of ethno-national identity, exclusion, and inclusion affecting Mizrahim and Ethiopians in Israel. It then provides an overview of the Tel Aviv–Jaffa metropolitan area, the research site, before discussing the role of national belonging, race, and ethnicity in the formation of groupness among the respondents, with emphasis on self-identification and group boundaries. It also analyzes the groups' experiences of stigmatization and discrimination, and especially assault on worth, before concluding with an assessment of their reactions to such incidents as well as their views about the best ways to deal with social exclusion.

Renée Vivien: French Poet?

2020 ◽  
pp. 37-65
Author(s):  
Melanie C. Hawthorne
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
National Belonging ◽  
Lesbian Identity ◽  
American Writer ◽  
Class Privilege ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
National Boundaries ◽  
The One ◽  
The Cost

This chapter uses the example of the Anglo-American writer Renée Vivien (Pauline Tarn, 1877-1909) to explore what it might mean to claim a lesbian identity at the turn of the nineteenth century. The child of an English father and an American mother who chose France as her primary residence, Vivien embodied a transnational existence. But for those with her class privilege, national boundaries were often flexible, as illustrated by the fact that, while she travelled extensively, Vivien may never have possessed a passport. On the one hand, such an evasion of national belonging may have been liberating, but perhaps at the cost of a sense of shared (sexual communtity) community.

Martina L. Weisz, Jews and Muslims in Contemporary Spain: Redefining National Boundaries. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2019. 189 pp.

2021 ◽  
pp. 300-302
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
The Political ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Comparative Framework ◽  
Collective Self ◽  
National Boundaries ◽  
Cultural Negotiations ◽  
Contemporary Spain ◽  
The Way

This chapter studies Martina L. Weisz's Jews and Muslims in Contemporary Spain: Redefining National Boundaries (2019). This book aims to analyze “the place granted to Jews and Muslims in the construction of contemporary Spanish national identity, with a special focus on the transition from an exclusive, homogeneous sense of collective self toward a more pluralistic, open and tolerant one, in a European context.” This narrative of progress, however, is challenged by the excellent information provided in the book itself, which shows how these processes have been filled with contradictions and deep ambivalence, both historically and in the present, and how exclusionary nationalism has not been left behind. One of the book's richest contributions is its Jewish/Muslim comparative framework, which, as the author argues, is not usually undertaken. Ultimately, this book contains an abundance of useful information and insights for all those interested in Spain's relationship with its Muslim and Jewish minorities, the political and cultural negotiations of multiculturalism in Spain, and the way these relationships are affected by international events and diplomatic concerns.

National museums and international museums

1993 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 273-278
Author(s):  
David M. Wilson
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Country Of Origin ◽  
Important Material ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
National Museums ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
National Boundaries

At a time when nationalism grows more strident, the role of national museums assumes great importance. National museums encourage not only an understanding of national identity, but also patriotism. While this is natural, it has dangers in that the museum can be used politically to endorse racial and other charged emotions. The great international museums have provided an antidote to such tendencies by providing a universal view of the culture and natural history of the world from the earliest times. Because these museums have important material from other countries they are often attacked as odious relics of colonialism. Rather they should be seen as representative of internationalism and encouraged to collect as widely as possible—within the law. They should not be pressurized into returning material to its country of origin for narrow nationalistic purposes. National museums should themselves collect outside their own national boundaries so that countries can see themselves against the background of other cultures. As nationalism grows, internationalism must be stressed in national museums so that countries may understand each others' culture and points of view.

National Identity and Political Legitimacy in Turkmenistan*

1999 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 271-290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shahram Akbarzadeh
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
State Policies ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
National Population ◽  
Political Events

This paper traces political events and modes of generating legitimacy in Turkmenistan since the Soviet collapse. The emphasis here is on state policies and social movements that relate to “nation building” for their contribution to political legitimacy. The extent of nation-building success is not an immediate subject of inquiry, for this paper is not about public perception and bottom-up response to state policies, but the reverse. It is certain that state-sponsored proclamations and nationalist ideas espoused by the intelligentsia do not always find resonance among the national population at large. However, attention given to social movements in this paper may compensate for this shortcoming in a small way. It must be stated that social movements in Turkmenistan, and Central Asia, as a whole, have been top heavy. They were principally initiated and steered by the urbanized intelligentsia. The extent of mass involvement in such movements is suspect and hard to gauge.

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