Orientalism and Nation: Jews and Muslims as Alterity in Southeastern Europe in the Age of Nation-States, 1878–1941

2009 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dietmar Müller

AbstractThe process of assigning the place for Jews in the Romanian nation code and for (Albanian) Muslims in the Serbian one is analyzed as Orientalistic. While the Great Powers served as role models in the Romanian and Serbian identity construction, these principal Others were represented as uncivilized and non-European, preventing the nation-states from their European destiny. This discursive construction of the nation in major debates is identified as a first step which was followed by policy recommendations from intellectuals and actual attempts to fulfill the dream of an ethnically homogenous nation-state. This sequence's latter parts are represented by a number of case studies, such as citizenship regulations in the Constitution and other laws, the possibilities for representing political interests and cultural rights for Jews and Muslims, colonization projects in Kosovo and Dobrudja, and measures to “protect Romanian labor”.

2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Case

AbstractDiscontent simmers within social science over states and nation-states as units of analysis. Disputes over what even constitutes a state, whether simply an organizational apparatus, albeit with unique legitimacy, or a broader complex of social relations, have never been resolved. But it is not just its murky delineation with which the state is afflicted. It has lately come under attack from above and below, with causality seen to be draining away to transnational and sub-national forces. This paper begins by rehearsing the economic and social vectors along which assaults on the state and the nation-state are conveyed. It then turns to Southeast Asia, a part of the developing world in which the state would seem especially vulnerable, its powers having been usurped by transnational firms and corroded internally by connected rent-seekers and provincial “men of prowess.” However, this paper tries also to show that in Southeast Asia, national states and territorial borders have remained quite intact. Neither globalized markets, regional formations, local identity construction, administrative decentralization or migration have shaken the standing of the state and the nation-state as appropriate units of analysis. This is especially the case when addressing major questions about regime types and change in the region.


Author(s):  
Philip G. Roeder

National Secession asks which projects for new nation-states give rise to campaigns that cause discord—and sometimes mayhem—in the politics of existing states. This has been explained by identities, grievances, greed, and tactical-logistical opportunities. Yet, under the strategic constraints faced by most national-secession campaigns, the essential element in almost all campaigns is the ability of the campaign’s program to coordinate expectations within a platform population on a common goal so that independence becomes the only viable option. In their strategy of programmatic coordination, which has guided the most important national-secession campaigns, the critical task of campaign leaders is propagating an authentic and realistic nation-state project. This explains which campaigns are most likely to draw attention in the capitals of the great powers that control admission to the international community, bring their disputes with their central governments to an intractable deadlock, and engage in protracted intense struggles to convince the international community that independence is the only viable option.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 5582
Author(s):  
Daniele Conversi

This article argues that we need to look at living examples provided by non-state communities in various regions of the world that are, perhaps unwittingly, contributing to the maintenance of the Earth’s optimal thermal balance. These fully sustainable communities have been living outside the mainstream for centuries, even millennia, providing examples in the global struggle against the degradation of social–ecological systems. They have all, to varying degrees, embraced simple forms of living that make them ‘exemplary ethical communities’ (EECs)—human communities with a track record of sustainability related to forms of traditional knowledge and the capacity to survive outside the capitalist market and nation-state system. The article proceeds in three steps: First, it condenses a large body of research on the limits of the existing nation-state system and its accompanying ideology, nationalism, identifying this institutional–ideological complex as the major obstacle to tackling climate change. Second, alternative social formations that could offer viable micro-level and micro-scale alternatives are suggested. These are unlikely to identify with existing nation-states as they often form distinct types of social communities. Taking examples from hunter-gatherer societies and simple-living religious groups, it is shown how the protection and maintenance of these EECs could become the keystone in the struggle for survival of humankind and other forms of life. Finally, further investigation is called for, into how researchers can come forward with more examples of actually existing communities that might provide pathways to sustainability and resistance to the looming global environmental catastrophe.


Exchange ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 360-382 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abamfo Atiemo

AbstractA revolutionary development that resulted from Africa's experience of colonialism was the emergence of the nation-state made up of previously separate ethnic states. By the end of the colonial period the rulers of these ethnic states — the chiefs — had lost most of their real political and judicial powers to the political leaders of the new nation-states. But in spite of the loss of effective political power the chiefs continued to wield moral influence over members of their ethnic groups. The limited reach of the nation-state in the post-colonial era has also meant a dependence on the chiefs, in many cases, for aspects of local governance. This, for example, is the case of Ghana. However, in the modern context of religious pluralism the intimate bond between the chiefs and the traditional religion exacerbates tension in situations of conflict between people's loyalty to the traditional state and their religious commitment. In some cases, chiefs invoke customary laws in attempt to enforce sanctions against individuals who refuse to observe certain customary practices for religious reasons. But this has implications for the human rights of citizens. This article discusses the implications of this situation for the future of chieftaincy as well as prospects for the protection of the human rights of citizens who for religious reasons choose to stay away from certain communal customary practices.


2010 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 267-290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha Tisdale Driskill ◽  
Paige LeForce DeFalco ◽  
Jill Holbert Lang ◽  
Janette Habashi

AbstractThe study of children's images as delineated in constitutional documents highlights the historical transitions that have occurred within and among countries, as manifested in the Convention of the Rights of the Child. As such, content analysis was administered to examine constitutional and amendment documents of 179 nation-states listed and recognized by the United Nations Development Programme in the Human Developmental Index. This analysis produced quantitative and qualitative data in which it described the ranking of each country and it's postulation toward children's protection, provision and participation as outlined by CRC. The findings provide greater understanding of the nation-state posture towards children as active rights bearers.


2011 ◽  
Vol 45 (6) ◽  
pp. 1423-1463 ◽  
Author(s):  
MICHAEL EILENBERG

AbstractPost-independence ethnic minorities inhabiting the Southeast Asian borderlands were willingly or unwillingly pulled into the macro politics of territoriality and state formation. The rugged and hilly borderlands delimiting the new nation-states became battlefronts of state-making and spaces of confrontation between divergent political ideologies. In the majority of the Southeast Asian borderlands, this implied violent disruption in the lives of local borderlanders that came to affect their relationship to their nation-state. A case in point is the ethnic Iban population living along the international border between the Indonesian province of West Kalimantan and the Malaysian state of Sarawak on the island of Borneo. Based on local narratives, the aim of this paper is to unravel the little known history of how the Iban segment of the border population in West Kalimantan became entangled in the highly militarized international disputes with neighbouring Malaysia in the early 1960s, and in subsequent military co-operative ‘anti-communist’ ‘counter-insurgency’ efforts by the two states in the late 1960–1970s. This paper brings together facets of national belonging and citizenship within a borderland context with the aim of understanding the historical incentives behind the often ambivalent, shifting and unruly relationship between marginal citizens like the Iban borderlanders and their nation-state.


1968 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 228-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans O. Schmitt

The expectation that a customs union in Europe will ultimately lead to political unification is based on the so-called spillover effect. This effect operates whenever any step toward integration creates new needs and fresh demands to proceed further in the same direction. Thus a customs union may create pressures to integrate not only commodity markets but capital markets as well. An integration of capital markets in turn may necessitate currency unification for its effective functioning, and a unified currency finally may imply a pooling of sovereignties sufficiently complete to destroy the separate identities of the participating nation-states. The process could also work in the opposite direction: from an insistence on the integrity of the nation-state to an ultimate rejection of the customs union itself.


2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 175-177
Author(s):  
Didem Havlioğlu

Since the 1950s, historiographical trends in scholarship have re-considered the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire and the subsequent nation-state building of the Republic of Turkey. The social and political evolution of the imperial system into a nation-state has been alternatively explained through geopolitical pressures, domestic resistance, the expanding economy and modernism in Europe, and the inability of the Ottoman establishment to cope with the rapid changes of the nineteenth century. Constructing one holistic narrative of a vast time period of upheaval is a difficult endeavor for any scholar. In the case of the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of the Republic of Turkey, ethno-religious networks, two world wars, geopolitical competition between the great powers, regional and pan-regional insurgencies, demographic displacement, nationalist fervor sweeping through the Balkan and Arab provinces and into Anatolia, and finally the Kurdish armed resistance renders succinct historical narratives all but impossible to achieve. Thus, while there are many stories of the end of the Ottoman Empire, an overview of the issues for students and general audiences is a much needed, but audacious, undertaking. Yet for understanding the Middle East and Southeastern Europe today, a critical narrative must be told in all its complexity.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-82
Author(s):  
Roy Wentas

The progress of science and technology tends to give rise to differences between the older generation and the younger generation. Therefore learn the value orientation among young people and learners, especially the attitude of diversity is certainly important. Coaching youth as the next generation is a shared responsibility between families, communities and the nation state. Religious Education can run and practice the teachings of Hinduism so that the formation budhi noble character and noble morals. In the holy book, Bhagavadgita stated two trends affect the human character, the properties of all devata's (daivi sampat) and properties of giant (asuri sampat). Both of these trends are directly or indirectly will shape human character. The rapid development of science and technology these days have influenced the characters of the children, who are faced with heavy challenges. Teaching children should be then directed towards strenghtening their morals. Regarding that, it needs a neo-traditional norm that is based on the traditional origins. The Hindu education could become the normative agent that builds any modern Indonesian characters through their local wisdoms that are motivative to the children. On the instrumental level, the primary values to be taught are autonomy, dignity, creativity, morality, pride, and sense of aesthetics, and democracy awareness. They should preserve the local cultural heritage, including the languages and the arts, while adapting the global trend. As the educators, the teachers at schools as well as the parents at homes must be the role models whose responsibilities and disciplines are followed


2012 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 91-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tijana Bajovic

This paper aims to describe the development of the recent wave of interest in memory and the past in general (so-called ?memory boom?), as well as the overall cultural climate that encouraged this ?invasion? of the past in both public and scientific discourses. While the first wave of memory boom was supposed to legitimate the emerging nation-states, the second boom signified the exhaustion of the old paradigm of nationalism, decline of the nation-state, as well as the emergence of a new paradigm: globalization.


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