scholarly journals IDENTITY, STATE, AND TRADITION: A THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 392-399
Author(s):  
Ankita Dutta

Purpose of the Study: This research endeavors to highlight the complex notion of ‘identity’ and the process of identity formation that involves complex socio-political dynamics that need to be located within the larger socio-cultural spectrum. Methodology: The study is based upon a socio-political and socio-anthropological analysis of the questions of identity, state, tradition, and culture. It has been carried out using relevant theories and concepts borrowed chiefly from the available literature on political sociology and anthropology. It is based on a theorization of the concept of identity as a societal construct and its dynamic relationship with not only the state but also people’s traditional beliefs and practices. Main Findings: Based upon secondary sources, the results of the study showed that ‘identity’ as a social construct is based on various conflicts and contestations centering around people’s diverse identities at one and the same time. Identity politics plays a crucial role in the context of the state machinery, which is not a static entity. It is very much affected by the changes taking place within society, which, in itself, is representative of diversity and heterogeneity. People’s traditional beliefs and practices also play a significant role in the formation of identities through institutions recognized as “traditional.” They play an important role in reflecting the changing power relations in society through the instrument of law. Applications of this Study: Both formal state laws and community-backed laws are indispensable in our society because they function within a particular social context that is responsible for the gradual process of internalization of the law and legal processes among people. This, in turn, gets reflected in the formation of various social identities among different groups and communities of people. Novelty/Originality of this study: This research builds a model to understand the different ways in which institutions recognized as “traditional” create new identities or reinforce the already existing ones vis-à-vis the different stages of political development in a society.

Author(s):  
Breandán Mac Suibhne

Observing the abandonment of traditional beliefs and practices in the 1830s, the scholar John O’Donovan remarked that ‘a different era—the era of infidelity—is fast approaching!’ In west Donegal, that era finally arrived c.1880, when, over much of the district, English replaced Irish as the language of the home. Yet it had been coming into view since the mid-1700s, as the district came to be fitted—through the cattle trade, seasonal migration, and protoindustrialization—into regional and global economic systems. In addition to the market, an expansion of the administrative and coercive capacity of the state and an improvement in the plant and personnel of the Catholic Church—processes that intensified in the mid-1800s—proved vital factors, as the population dwindled after the Famine, in the people breaking faith with the old and familiar and adopting the new.


1997 ◽  
Vol 36 (4II) ◽  
pp. 715-742
Author(s):  
Mohammad Wseem

Conflicts in Pakistan emanate from a configuration of factors relating to the state system, the unstable regional setting, and the global system at large. The state system in Pakistan has been characterised by problems of constitutionally underdeveloped provincial set-ups, dysfunctionality of elections for the prevalent system perceived by a privileged migrant leadership, a centralist authority structure, and a domineering role of army. During the last five decades, the state system passed through various phases of centralism, populism, and constitutional engineering by the military-bureaucratic establishment as well as Islamisation, largely at the expense of provincial autonomy and a sense of participation in the business of the state shared by all communities. Non-recognition of electoral mandate as the final source of legitimacy led to the emergence of ethnic movements in East Pakistan, the NWFP, Balochistan, and Sindh. The perceived Punjabisation of the state has created feelings of ethnic hostility among all regions other than Punjab. Social insecurities caused by rapid social change, such as urbanisation in general and in-migration in Karachi in particular, have fuelled ethnic hatred all around. Similarly, the influx of refugees from neighbouring countries, along with arms and drug trafficking, has led to new patterns of identity politics and higher levels of political violence. The state's relative non-performance at the local level has pushed many sectarian groups to exit from the parliamentary framework of politics towards a blatant use of arms. What)s needed is the creation of a third tier of government at the district and sub-district levels. At the top of the priority list should be a policy of decentralisation and continuity in the electoral process to bring the recalcitrant elements into the mainstream, de-weaponisation, and strengthening of political parties as interest-aggregating and policy-bearing institutions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-104
Author(s):  
Ewa Michna

This article concerns identity politics in the broader, theoretical perspective. The author discusses the activities of Silesian activists who are striving to have the Polish state formally recognize their group’s separateness. Their activities are subject to the rules arising from the national system for the protection of minorities, which rests on two ideas: the principle of non-discrimination in the treatment of all citizens, and the right to preserve and protect one’s own identity (with the active aid of the state in this regard). In Poland, obtaining the right to protection requires the state’s legal recognition of a group, that is, the group must be inscribed in the Law on National and Ethnic Minorities and Regional Languages. The Silesians have been unsuccessfully attempting to obtain such recognition for over a dozen years. The author, on the basis of her own research, addresses the question of how non-inclusion in the system for protecting minorities is seen by leaders of an excluded ethnic group.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Monika Frėjutė-Rakauskienė ◽  
Olga Sasunkevich ◽  
Kristina Šliavaitė

Abstract This article analyzes how institutions influence the process of identity formation within the Polish minority communities in Belarus and Lithuania. We focus on ways that the identities of people who consider themselves Poles in Belarus and Lithuania are targeted by institutions like the state, schools, and nongovernmental organizations. We aim to shed light on how these processes are shaped by institutional settings and broader political contexts. The authors take a bottom-up approach to institutions and look at how members of the Polish communities in the two neighboring countries conceptualize the role of various institutions—NGOs, schools, Karta Polaka (the Polish Card)—to shape their sense of ethnic belonging. The article is built on a cross-case analysis. Data for the Lithuanian and Belarusian cases, consisting of interviews and secondary sources, were collected independently and then reread in light of a common research question. Through our analysis, we show differences and similarities in how analogous institutions function on the two sides of the border and elaborate on the reasons why these differences occur and what role state policy and supranational regulations play in the process.


2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-51
Author(s):  
Md. Nazmul Islam ◽  
Yılmaz Bingöl ◽  
Israel Nyaburi Nyadera ◽  
Gershon Dagba

This article aims to examine the legacy and policy of AK Party in Turkey, Ennahda’s political movement in Tunisia, and Jamaat-e-Islami (BJI) in Bangladesh, which is ostensibly identified with Islamic political ideology and acquainted with the world as a ‘moderate-conservative political Islam party.’ The study interrogates the nature, processes, and the characteristic features of the three countries’ administrative system, comparatively from three regions of the world, particularly from the Middle East and Europe region, Africa and Arab region, and the South Asian region. This study also highlights these political parties’ history, political ideology differences, and their practices reflective of democratic principles from a theoretical perspective on politics, policy, and philosophy. It also acknowledges whether the political development of Turkey from 2002 onward is feasible for Bangladeshi and Tunisian Islamic political parties to accept as a role model in their political arena.


2008 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 479-497 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franck Düvell

The concept of clandestine or illegal migration dates back to the 1930s but only became prominent during the 1980s and 1990s. It is an umbrella term that refers to a complex set of conditions and embraces various patterns. Instead of applying the conventional but crude legal/illegal dichotomy this article suggests a fine-tuned analysis of clandestine migration on a scale between the two poles. This contribution surveys the state of the art and discusses various approaches in clandestine migration research; it aims at clarifying as yet blurred definitions, discusses often problematical quantitative aspects, and gives an overview of various major patterns in clandestine migration. Finally, in reflecting on the specific conditions that determine clandestine migration, it argues that this phenomenon is a social construct of the 21st century.


2000 ◽  
Vol 4 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 379-404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel Budd

AbstractProtestant iconoclasm has generally been understood as an assault on the beliefs and practices of traditional religion. This article challenges that understanding through a detailed study of Cheapside Cross, a large monument that was repeatedly attacked by iconoclasts in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It draws on contemporary pamphlets and the manuscripts records of the City of London to reveal the complex variety of associations that Cheapside Cross acquired before and during the Reformation era. It argues that perceptions of the monument were shaped not only by its iconography but also by its involvement in ceremonies and rituals, including royal coronation processions. The iconoclastic attacks on Cheapside Cross should be interpreted not merely as a challenge to traditional beliefs but as attempts to restructure the monument's associations. The paper concludes that attacks on other images may be understood in a similar manner.


1974 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Pettman

Zambia inherited a system of government and administration in 1964 which was ill-suited to the tasks of political development to which her new leaders were dedicated. What little national unity and mobilisation had been achieved in the independence struggle declined with the removal of the common enemy. The Government rested on a fragile base, without the support of agreed rules and practices to limit and contain conflict, and without adequate instruments available for the implementation of its policies. So the search began for a more suitable political system, which could cope with the new needs of independence, and provide for the stability of the state and the survival of the Government.


2021 ◽  
pp. 244-255
Author(s):  
S. Navacinsk ◽  
E. Gardinali

In this article we intend to analyze what is the state of the art in which the São Paulo City is in relation to the concept of Mil Cities, instituted in 2018 by UNESCO. From a group of metrics developed by the institu­ tion, we intend to see and measure effective actions that have already been implemented or are under development, that can serve as a basis to enable the construction of a MIL City in the analyzed public institu­ tion. In this tracking we want to understand how public communication from the perspective of public interest can establish itself as a paradigm, when governments, organizations and society demand a new and higher level of interlocution and exchange, with the purpose of transforming reality for a project that can transform the city of São Paulo into a MIL City. We use exploratory research in primary and secondary sources as a methodology.


Author(s):  
Andrei N. Komarov ◽  

The article reveals an evolution of political ideologies in Canada in 1993–2019. Following the Russian and foreign historiography, as well as the election programs of Conservatives and Liberals, the author analyzes the influence of political ideologies on the voting of Canadian voters in parliamentary elections in the late 20th – early 21st centuries. The author of the article comes to the conclusion that Canada is still a country committed to political ideologies. He also considers as unacceptable the thesis about an absence of ideologies in Canada within the existing post-industrial society. The author believes that the model for political development of Canada, laid down in the second half of the 19th century by the founders of the state, is still effective at the present time. In a post-industrial society, Canada clearly follows national traditions based on previously developed political ideologies. That is what constitutes the foundation for the rule-of-law state and civil society in Canada. The author emphasizes that, despite the activities of other political movements, conservative and liberal ideologies represent the leading directions of the state development in Canada. Other political ideologies, like social democracy, are largely secondary and do not determine the present and future of the Canadian state.


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