scholarly journals Supporting Searchers’ Desire for Emplacement in Berlin: Informal Practices in Defiance of an (Im)mobility Regime

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-199
Author(s):  
Fazila Bhimji
Keyword(s):  
Global South ◽  
State System ◽  
Refugee Camps ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Economic Aspects ◽  
Formal Systems ◽  
Ethnographic Data ◽  
Informal Practices ◽  
Bureaucratic State ◽  
Temporary Accommodation

The article traces the ways in which refugees in precarious legal and economic circumstances in Lagers (refugee camps) in Germany participate in informal practices to reverse their displaced positions. More specifically, the paper demonstrates how refugees work in conjunction with a Berlin-based solidarity group in order to find access to informally organized housing outside of the formal bureaucratic state system. The study shows that refugees’ engagement with informal structures must be understood as struggles towards emplacement and formality. Much scholarship has discussed the economic aspects of informality in the global South and post-socialist countries. However, there is little discussion on how refugees may engage in informal practices within the nation-state in order to find emplacement and achieve formality. The article additionally demonstrates how informal acts are co-produced between citizens and refugees in the process of searching and offering of living places outside state defined formal systems. Thus, informality needs to be understood as resistance against displacement, struggles towards emplacement and formality. The study draws on ethnographic data and on-going participation in a Berlin-based grassroots group, Schlafplatzorga, which supports refugees on an informal level with temporary accommodation.

scholarly journals Exemplary Ethical Communities. A New Concept for a Livable Anthropocene

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 5582
Author(s):  
Daniele Conversi
Keyword(s):  
Large Body ◽  
State System ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Sustainable Communities ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Track Record ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Global Environmental

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.

The “Pugachev Rebellion” in the Context of Post-Soviet Kazakh Nationalization*

2004 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele E. Commercio
Keyword(s):  
Perceived Discrimination ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Socialist Republic ◽  
Soviet Socialist Republic ◽  
Independent State ◽  
The Core ◽  
Personnel Practices ◽  
Soviet Empire ◽  
Informal Practices ◽  
The Relationship

Freedom from the Soviet empire created an opportunity for elites of each former Soviet Socialist Republic to “nationalize” their newly independent state. Most observers of contemporary Kazakh politics would agree that Kazakhstan has taken advantage of this historic opportunity, and can thus be classified as a nationalizing state. For Rogers Brubaker, a nationalizing state is perceived by its elites as a nation-state of and for a particular nation, but simultaneously as an “incomplete” or “unrealized” nation-state. To resolve this problem of incompleteness and to counteract perceived discrimination, Brubaker argues, “nationalizing elites urge and undertake action to promote the language, culture, demographic preponderance, economic flourishing, or political hegemony of the core ethnocultural nation.” While the foundation of any Soviet successor state's nationalization program is a cluster of implemented formal policies that privilege the titular nation, these policies are often reinforced by informal practices, primarily discriminatory personnel practices, with the same function. Much has been written about Kazakhstan's nationalization strategy, and not surprisingly scholars rely on what they know about formal policies and informal practices to characterize that strategy. Little has been written, however, about the “Pugachev Rebellion” in Ust'-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan, and nothing has been written about the relationship between the official Kazakh reaction to what I call the “Pugachev incident,” and Kazakhstan's nationalization strategy in general. This article sorts out confusing events surrounding the Pugachev incident, and offers an interpretation of the official Kazakh reaction, which is best understood when situated in the broader context of Kazakh nationalization, to the incident.

Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-30
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Korean War ◽  
State System ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Territorial Sovereignty ◽  
The Korean War

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the book's main themes. This book tells a story of the changing script of warfare in the mid-twentieth century through the Korean War. At stake in this conflict was not simply the usual question of territorial sovereignty and the nation-state. The heart of the struggles revolved around the question of political recognition, the key relational dynamic that formed the foundation for the post-1945 nation-state system. This book argues that in order to understand how the act of recognition became the essential terrain of war, one must step away from the traditional landscape of warfare—the battlefield—and into the interrogation room.

2. States, Nations, and Empires

2021 ◽  
pp. 27-47
Author(s):  
Stephanie Lawson
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
The State ◽  
State System ◽  
Political Order ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Modern State ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Global Order ◽  
European State

This chapter discusses what is often regarded as the central institution, not only of domestic or national political order but also of current international or global order—the state. Alongside the state, we must also consider the idea of the nation and the ideology of nationalism—perhaps the most powerful political ideology to emerge in the modern world. There is, however, another form of international political order that has actually been far more common throughout history, and that is empire. With the rise of modernity from around the beginning of the seventeenth century, we also encounter the rise of the modern state and state system in Europe along with ideas about sovereignty, citizenship, the nation-state, and democracy. The chapter then looks at the effective globalization of the European state system through modern imperialism and colonialism and the extent to which these have been productive of contemporary global order.

The Possibilities for Diplomacy in Southeast Asia

1967 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 258-305 ◽  
Author(s):  
John T. McAlister
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
State System ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Political Fragmentation ◽  
Battle Scenes ◽  
Mainland Southeast Asia

At Angkor, where the remains of an antique kingdom's abandoned capital are found deep in the Cambodian jungle, the exquisite bas-reliefs tell a story more compelling than written history. Battle scenes with a great cavalry of war elephants meld into episodes of river combat between handsomely carved fleets of oar-powered boats in an unending stone panorama of warfare as it was fought centuries ago in Southeast Asia. For one who has seen these carved panels it is not difficult to realize that when the Europeans arrived in mainland Southeast Asia in the early seventeenth century they found warfare endemic there. This conflict was not less bloody nor less protracted than that which Europe had already experienced or was about to endure in the Thirty Years' War. But this violent interaction in Asia did not seem to hold the prospect for the development of a nation-state system such as was emerging from European warfare. Rather than moving toward centralized states and configurations of alliances, the peoples of Southeast Asia in the seventeenth century appeared to be entering a phase, repetitious in their history, in which political fragmentation and spasmodic conflict were hallmarks.

Caste Diasporas beyond National Boundaries: Digital Caste Networks

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 145-159
Author(s):  
Jillet Sarah Sam
Keyword(s):  
Nation State ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Ethnographic Data ◽  
National Boundaries

Although castes are organizing as cross-border formations empirically, the literature seems preoccupied with analyzing caste diasporas in terms of the boundaries of the nation-state. This article examines how digital caste networks serve as border-spanning caste diaspora by drawing on Steven Vertovec’s conceptualization of a diaspora. The analysis draws on ethnographic data to analyze the case of the Cyber Thiyyars of Malabar, a digital caste network that seeks to mobilize members of the Thiyya caste by foregrounding regional affiliations with Malabar.

scholarly journals THE ISLAMIC EPISTEME OF POLITIES DEVELOPMENT IN INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

2020 ◽  
pp. 445-471
Author(s):  
Labeeb Bsoul
Keyword(s):  
Islamic Law ◽  
State System ◽  
Nation State ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
Development And Management ◽  
Modern Nation State

This paper illustrates the contributions of Islamic law to the development of transnational socio-political organisations that transcend racial and geopolitical fixations. Those are best enshrined in the premise of the unıty of believing community and humanity led to the Shari‘ah/Islamic law. Islam advocates the development and consolidation of communities. Thıs study dıscusses the concept of ‘ummah’ (community of believers) according to the tradıtıon of Prophet Muhammad and surveys ıts development throughout the Islamıc caliphates, sultanates, and imamates up untıl colonialısm and modern ‘nation-state’ system. The article argues that there are ontological, epistemological, and normative differences spanning the divide between Muslim and Western worldviews especially concerning the development and management of their polities.

Public Memory

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Houdek ◽  
Kendall R. Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Public Memory ◽  
Global Network ◽  
Nation State ◽  
The Past ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Rhetorical Studies ◽  
Informal Practices ◽  
The Way

The term public memory refers to the circulation of recollections among members of a given community. These recollections are far from being perfect records of the past; rather, they entail what we remember, the ways we frame it, and what aspects we forget. Broadly, public memory differs from official histories in that the former is more informal, diverse, and mutable where the latter is often presented as formal, singular, and stable. Beginning in the 1980s, scholars from various disciplines became interested in the way ideas about the past were crafted, circulated, and contested. A wide variety of artifacts give evidence of public memory, including public speeches, memorials, museums, holidays, and films. Scholars interested in public memory have observed the importance of such informal practices in relation to the conception of the nation-state, as well as a growing sense of an interconnected transnational or global network of memories. While the study of public memory spans multiple disciplines, its uptake in communication and rhetorical studies has produced a wealth of critical and theoretical perspectives that continues to shape the field.

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