scholarly journals Interpretation of History in the Contemporary Lithuanian Essayistics

Literatūra ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 226-233
Author(s):  
Birutė Meržvinskaitė
Keyword(s):  
Collective Identity ◽  
The State ◽  
Literary Imagination ◽  
New Historicism

The article discusses the peculiarities of the representation of history in Sigitas Parulskis’s essay collection Eternity does not move me (2018). The essay as genre in this book unites subjectivity, critical and ironic mode of narration and the conventional categories of historiographical analysis (the state, religion, society, collective identity, culture). Explanation on the ambivalent sense and relationship between literary imagination and historical facticity is done to prove the New Historicism slogan “the historicity of texts and the textuality of history”.

L'ethnie: les vicissitudes d'un concept

1997 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luc de Heusch
Keyword(s):  
Collective Identity ◽  
Social Space ◽  
The State ◽  
Nation State ◽  
African History ◽  
Cultural Entities ◽  
Ideas And Institutions

In spite of recent criticisms the concept of ethnicity should be retained in anthropological analysis to designate more or less coherent cultural entities. These entities will be fluctuating, of course, due to their position in a larger social space where women, goods, ideas, and institutions are exchanged. Ethnicity is not, as some have argued, a colonial invention, but an incontestable anthropological fact, where identity is nurtured by otherness. Ethnicity does not of itself have a political vocation: traditional African states were more often than notpluri-ethnic. The ‘national’ phenomenon, the convergence of the State and ethnicity, is rare in pre-colonial African history. The nation-state is a modern phenomenon, the product of a more or less arbitrary manipulation by an elite having a certain number of ethnic traits; a political re-modelling of collective identity.

The Sound of Constitutional Silence

City, State ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 17-50
Author(s):  
Ran Hirschl
Keyword(s):  
Collective Identity ◽  
Constitutional Law ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Public Law ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Human Sciences ◽  
Comparative Constitutional Law ◽  
Spatial Governance ◽  
Constitutional Discourse

This chapter examines four introductory dimensions of the political and constitutional discourse around cities. The first is the tremendous interest in cities throughout much of the human sciences as contrasted with the silence of public law in general, and of comparative constitutional law in particular. Next, the chapter takes a look at the dominant statist stance embedded in constitutional law, in particular as it addresses sovereignty and spatial governance of the polity. A brief account of what national constitutions actually say about cities, and more significantly what they do not is then given. Finally, the chapter turns to the tendency in political discourse on collective identity to understand the “local” almost exclusively at the national or regional levels, rather than distinguishing urban interests from those of the state. Taken together, the four angles of city constitutional (non)status examined here highlight the bewildering silence of contemporary constitutional discourse with respect to cities and urbanization, as well as the strong statist outlook embedded in national constitutional orders, effectively rendering the metropolis a constitutionally non-tenable entity.

The Plurality of Meanings Shouldered by the Term “Aboriginality”: An Analysis of the Delgamuukw Case

2007 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 591-613 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dimitrios Panagos
Keyword(s):  
Collective Identity ◽  
The State ◽  
Specific Reference ◽  
Protective Capacity ◽  
Aboriginal Rights ◽  
Canadian Context ◽  
Aboriginal Title ◽  
The One ◽  
Cette Question

Abstract. There is an emerging consensus that group differentiated rights can protect collective identity, furnishing the state with important tools of accommodation. What happens, however, to the efficacy of these rights as tools of accommodation and their protective capacity if the identity they are meant to protect and accommodate is contested? In addressing this question, this paper explores the intersection of identity contestation and group differentiated rights in the Canadian context with specific reference to aboriginality and existing aboriginal rights. First, the paper offers a presentation of the plurality of meanings shouldered by the term “aboriginality”. Second, it traces the numerous decisions which comprise the Dlegamuukw case and examines the various explanations, descriptions and characterizations of aboriginality contained therein. In the process, it exposes that a particular understanding of this collective identity underpins the Court's ultimate characterization of aboriginal title, the aboriginal right at issue in this case. This represents a problematic interpretation, given that the version of aboriginality selected differs from the one put forward by the aboriginal litigants.Résumé. Un consensus émergeant s'établit sur l'idée que les droits différenciés en fonction de l'appartenance à un groupe peuvent contribuer à la protection de l'identité collective, en fournissant à l'État d'importants outils d'accommodement. Qu'arrive-t-il, cependant, à l'efficacité de ces droits compris comme des outils d'accommodement, de même qu'à leur capacité de protection, si l'identité qu'ils sont censés protéger et accommoder est contestée? En répondant à cette question, cet article explore l'intersection entre la contestation identitaire et les droits différenciés en fonction du groupe dans le contexte canadien, avec, comme cas d'étude spécifique, l'autochtonie et les droits des autochtones. D'une part, il explore la pluralité de sens que revêt le terme “ autochtonie ”. D'autre part, il retrace les nombreuses décisions que comprend le cas Delgamuukw et examine les diverses explications, descriptions et caractérisations de l'autochtonie qu'elles contiennent. Dans ce cadre, il souligne qu'une compréhension particulière de cette identité collective sous-tend l'ultime caractérisation par la Cour suprême du titre autochtone, soit le droit des autochtones qui est au cœur de ce procès. Ceci constitue une interprétation problématique puisque la version de l'autochtonie sélectionnée diffère de celle que prônaient les litigants autochtones.

scholarly journals Discreet Signs of the Supreme Idea: On Certain Transcendent Categories in Russian and Soviet Constitutional Law

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jakub Sadowski
Keyword(s):  
Collective Identity ◽  
Political Power ◽  
World View ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
The State ◽  
Socialist Republic ◽  
Legal Text ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
Federative Socialist Republic

AbstractThe purpose of this article is to analyse world-view and mythological expressions in Russian and Soviet Constitutional acts that implicitly or explicitly refer to any kind of idea legitimising the shape of the state, its political system or the nature of political power. The object of the argument will be exclusively such provisions of fundamental laws which: (1) having neither a purely regulatory nor a purely programmatic character, model mental representations of the world of the legal text by reference to ‘situationally transcendent’ ideas in Mannheim’s sense (i.e. ideas which refer to a reality different from the perceived one; those that sketch visions alternative to it); (2) justify the content of the legal provision by means of such imagery, without being part of the preamble or any different integral part of the Constitution, characterised by a different ontology of the text; (3) justify the content of provisions linked to political power and/or the nature of the state. The materials of the analysis are: Fundamental Laws of the Russian Empire of 1906, the Constitutional texts of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics of 1924, 1936 and 1977, and the current Constitution of the Russian Federation. Consecutive Constitutions of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic are also referred to. The analysed formulations, legally irrelevant in a conventional reading of a legal text, participate in the semiosis of both the provisions that contain them and the entire texts of the fundamental laws. In this way, the Constitutions incorporate into their complex of meanings either religious expressions, mythologised ideological figures or figures of historical memory associated with collective identity.

scholarly journals Reconstructing Multiculturalism in Malaysia through Visual Culture

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (4-1) ◽  
pp. 99-105
Author(s):  
Noraini Md. Yusof ◽  
Z. J. Esmaeil
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Visual Culture ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Ethnic Conflict ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
The State ◽  
Multicultural Society ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
The Road ◽  
Ethnicity And Race

Abstract The terms ‘ethnicity’ and ‘race’ bear social and political importance in a multicultural society. Introduced in Malaysia by the British back in the colonial era, these terms have been influencing the politics of the state and everyday life of the grassroots. Since the early days of independence, Malaysia has been witnessing ethnic conflict and right from the very beginning of making a new Malaysia, the Malaysian governments have introduced concepts and plans to eradicate the ethnic conflict but it has not been very successful although the country boasts of its racial stability. Multiculturalism in Malaysia still remains an ambivalent nationalist project. In fact, the road to a collective national identity through multiculturalism is paradoxical. This paper examines how visual culture can help reconstruct a multicultural society and argues that Malaysia’s plan in creating a national identity will remain a myth as long as one ethnicity and its values are more important than other ethnicities. It also investigates whether a collective identity is really needed for a multicultural country such as Malaysia.

scholarly journals The role of military service in the development of the Serbian strategic culture

Vojno delo ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
pp. 85-104
Author(s):  
Srđan Starčević ◽  
Srđan Blagojević
Keyword(s):  
Collective Identity ◽  
Military Service ◽  
Logical Consequence ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Strategic Culture ◽  
Military Alliances ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The Impact

The general obligation to do military service in Serbia was introduced in the second half of the 19th century with the national standing army. The authors show that this obligation has played an important role in the development of the Serbian strategic culture in the young modern Serbian state, but also in encouraging the Serbian military and political elite to hear the "whisper" of the Serbian social character and understand those structures of national culture that are important, perhaps determinative, for what is today called strategic culture. The development of the Serbian strategic culture has been considered through the analysis of the actions of two differently directed, but complementary currents, one being marked as elitist, and the other one as structuralist. Regardless of the obvious differences, both currents are important for the establishment of the Serbian military doctrine, at the dawn of the 20th century, before the historical storm of the Balkan wars and the First World War. The obligation to do military service was maintained until the Decision on the suspension of the obligation to do military service, which was passed by the National Assembly in December 2010. Having in mind that the Republic of Serbia has made the decision to be military neutral, the authors suggest that the reconsideration of the decision to suspend the obligation to do military service is a logical consequence of this choice. The decision on military neutrality requires not only that others (the international community) respect such a decision of a state, but also the respect within the state itself. This means that a state that aspires to neutrality does not give up on defending its own values or handing them over to the others at the mercy and/or protection, but establishes (or preserves) the ability to credibly defend its identity and values. The burden of the consequences of this decision is even harder because it does not count on military alliances. The neutral countries in Europe base their ability of credible defense mainly on the concept of total defense, but it also implies a large number of citizens trained for the military tasks and the tasks of civil protection, which calls for the obligation to do military service. At the same time, military service is the best way for citizens to understand the impact of the decision on military neutrality, but also to accept it as their own free choice and a part of a collective identity. Thus, the obligation to do military service remains an important fulcrum point of the state in actively shaping its strategic culture.

scholarly journals Processes of Coping with Difference among Adolescents

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie Powroznik ◽  
Dilek A. Tepeli ◽  
Martina Loth
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Coping Strategies ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Degrees Of Freedom ◽  
The State ◽  
Special Challenge

Against the backdrop of their collective identity, identity formation poses a special challenge to young Alevis and Afghan Christians. In Turkey, Alevis constitute a marginalized group not officially recognized by the state. In Afghanistan, conversion to Christendom is denounced as apostasy and is punished with death. This contribution compares the coping strategies of two young adults who are radically segregated by the state’s majority due to their marginalized religious identity. German diaspora offers new degrees of freedom. Thus, besides many psychosocial burdens for immigrants and their descendants, the two adolescents can confidently accept their difference and integrate it into their diverse identity.

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