scholarly journals Longitudinal change in East Timorese tertiary student attitudes to national identity and nation building, 2002-2010

2012 ◽  
Vol 168 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 219-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Leach
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Student Attitudes ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Longitudinal Change ◽  
Tertiary Student ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Timor Leste

The attitudes of the tertiary students who are likely to comprise the next generation of leaders are pivotal to understanding the challenges of nation-building and national identity formation in post-conflict settings such as Timor-Leste. This article examines post-independence debates over national identity in Timor-Leste, presenting the findings of a longitudinal survey (Dili, 2002, 2007 and 2010) of East Timorese tertiary student attitudes to national identity. In particular, in the wake of the 2006 political-military crisis, the paper examines the evidence for differences in attitudes between students from eastern and western districts, concluding that the few significant differences in attitudes peaked in the 2007 survey, and were associated with the overt politicization of regional identity within Dili, and concerns over post-independence leadership, rather than any genuine ‘ethnic’ or ‘regional’ variation in attitudes. The paper also examines significant changes in some youth attitudes since independence, including a significant increase in the acceptance of the co-official status of the Portuguese language in the tertiary student demographic since the early years of independence. The survey also highlights the ongoing importance of tradition and adat in understandings of political community, but reveals significant gender differences in attitudes towards the role of traditional authorities.

scholarly journals ‘‘We have resisted, now we must build’’: Regionalism and nation-building in Timor-Leste

2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-70
Author(s):  
Elfie Shiosaki
Keyword(s):  
Nation Building ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Eastern Region ◽  
Social Divisions ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Timor Leste ◽  
Peacekeeping Forces ◽  
New Nation ◽  
International Peacekeeping

During Timor-Leste's political and security crisis in 2006, a seemingly latent regional division re-emerged between Timorese from its eastern region, lorosa'e, and those from its western region, loromonu. The conflict between lorosa'e and loromonu revealed critical weaknesses in nation-building. Only four years after independence in 2002, international peacekeeping forces, led by Australia, were redeployed to the new nation-state. This article argues that the enduring political significance of regionalism weakens nation-building in Timor-Leste. This case study revitalises traditional security paradigms by relocating identity-building from the periphery of nation-building to its centre. Identity-building supports the formation of a unifying national political community which transcends social divisions within post-conflict societies.

scholarly journals Nexus between Ethnic Federalism and Creating National Identity Vis-À-Vis Nation Building in Contemporary Ethiopia

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 37
Author(s):  
Desta Abebe ◽  
Ephrem Ahadu
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
General Pattern ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Federal State ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
Shared Identity ◽  
Ethnic Federalism ◽  
Ethiopian Government ◽  
Past Injustices

The current regime of Ethiopia (EPRDF) implemented ethnic federalism and reshaped the state along ethnic lines as soon as it assumes political power in 1991. As an exception to the general pattern in Africa the Ethiopian government, though not explicitly, encourages political parties to organize beside ethnic lines, and champions an ethicized federal state with a secession option, it is a worthy case study. This desk study, used secondary sources of data got from numerous literatures, aims to identify the nexus between ethnic federalism in creating national identity in relation with nation building. Although the Constitution embodies a doctrine of balance between unity and diversity to build one economic and political community by rectifying” past injustices”, politicization of ethnicity under the context of ethnic federalism has encouraged ethnic cleavages by forming distinctiveness and differences which is a backlash against nation building and shared aspirations. Therefore, there is the need for visionary thinking outside the box of past injustices so that the antithesis for these injustices is not taken too far to the extent of derailing shared identity and shared aspirations. Ethnic Federalism may lead the country into never-ending ethnic wars and eventually to disintegration. Thus, ethnic conflicts prevailing in Ethiopia may be caused by such technicality problems and the ethnic federal arrangement in Ethiopia needs an urgent reconsideration before the case moves to the worst scenario.

scholarly journals Citizenship, National Identity, and Nation-Building in Azerbaijan: Between the Legacy of the Past and the Spirit of Independence

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Ayça Ergun
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
Territorial Integrity ◽  
The Past ◽  
Independence Movement ◽  
Building Process ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Citizenship Identity

Abstract The aim of this article is to shed light on the process of nation-building and the formation of national identity in post-Soviet Azerbaijan. The peculiarity of Azerbaijani nation-building is that the debates on how to build a nation and define national identity were nourished by two discourses: Azerbaijanism (Azerbaycançılıq) and Turkism (Tűrkçűlűk). The article focuses firstly on the discourses on national identity and nation-building in the pre-independence period while elaborating on the roots and premises of the nationalist independence movement. Secondly, it highlights the discourses of nation-building in the post-independence period while discussing the meanings attributed to national identity and nationhood. It shows how these two discourses shaped the existing identity formation in Azerbaijan with a particular emphasis on citizenship identity, marked by multiculturalism, hospitality, tolerance, and patriotism. Yet one can still categorize the country as having an incomplete nation-building process, due the violation of territorial integrity as a result of the Karabakh conflict.

scholarly journals Nomads, warriors and bureaucrats: nation-building and film in post-Soviet Kazakhstan

2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 399-416 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rico Isaacs
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Social Critique ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Political Condition ◽  
Building Process ◽  
A Site ◽  
Modern Perspective

Nation-building is a process which is often contested, not just among different ethnicities within a nation-state, but also among the titular ethnic majority. This article explores the contested nature of the nation-building process in post-Soviet Kazakhstan through examining cinematic works. Utilizing a post-modern perspective which views nations and national identity as invented, imagined and ambivalent it identifies four discursive strands within recent post-Soviet Kazakh cinema pertaining to nationhood and national identity (ethno-centric, civic, religious and socioeconomic). Rather than viewing government-sponsored efforts of identity formation in cinema as a top-down process in which the regime transmits its version of nationhood and identity, the discursive strands revealed in this article illustrate there are varying understandings of what constitutes the nation and national identity in Kazakh cinematic works. Furthermore, the strand which focuses on the socioeconomic tensions of modern nation-building in Kazakhstan uncovers how film is used as a site for dissent and social critique of Kazakhstan's modern political condition. What the article illuminates is how discourses related to nation-building can be both competing and complementary and that nation-building is a fluid and transgressive process in which among the titular majority there is no fixed unambiguous understanding of nationhood and national identity.

scholarly journals THE EXPRESSION OF NATION-BUILDING AND THE CHARACTER-BUILDING SPIRIT AS FORMS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY AS OBSERVED IN THE ISTIQLAL MOSQUE’S ARCHITECTURE

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (04) ◽  
pp. 399-412
Author(s):  
Iqbal Ardiansyah; C. Sudianto Aly
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Spatial Organization ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
State Level ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
Visual Composition ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Character Building

Abstract- A political regime generally possesses an identity and has insight into nationally idealistic cultural values. Its expression can be observed in the art and physical architecture that blossoms in its era. This insight gives birth to national identity. The formation of national identity itself originated from several dimensions, namely the sub-national dimension, the personal dimension, and the supra-national dimension. In the transition between the Netherland-East Indies and the Republic of Indonesia, Indonesia as a new country possessed ideals in the formation of physical architectures that can represent its national identity. This insight is realized in detail within nation-building and character-building ideas within several mega-projects pioneered by the Old-Order government. One of them was the Istiqlal Mosque as a national house of worship. The expression of Istiqlal Mosque architecture cannot be separated from the dimensions of national identity formation in architecture. The focus of this research is on the observation of Istiqlal Mosque architecture. Indicators of the national identity’s expression in Istiqlal Mosque architecture are: the discussion of national-identity dimensions in architecture (national-identity dimension – sub-national dimension, national-identity dimension – personal identity and national-identity dimension- supra-national identity). The discussions of expression in architecture that can be achieved through visual composition formation are (a) domination, (b) repetition, and (C) continuity in composition of one architectural object. The object of architecture was further examined, arranged by form and material, general design principles, contextual relations, and physical, semantic and spatial organization of an architectural object. The Istiqlal Mosque is one example of an architectural product from the previous political regime that can profoundly and critically sharpen our thoughts concerning the Indonesian nation’s identity on the national and state level. Keywords: national identity, nation-building and character-building, sub-national dimension, personal dimension, supra-national dimension, Istiqlal Mosque

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