Islamic Responses to Modernity

2006 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Helena Kaler
Keyword(s):  
Political Agency ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Social Fragmentation ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

By examining the ideas of modernity and their manifestations in the ideas of Ayman al-Zawahiri and Farid Esack, this essay argues that both thinkers are deeply affected by the West’s Enlightenment ideas and differ mostly in their applications. The first part examines the idea of modernity itself, tracing its forms in the thought of Marx, Nietzsche, Weber, Schmitt, Adorno, and Horkheimer, among others. The second part traces the relationship of al-Zawahiri and Esack to the ideas of modernity, defined here as subjectivity, political agency, social fragmentation, and the rise of the nation-state. In contrast to the assertion made by some that Islamist thinkers were only affected by technological, rather than ideological, modernity, it seems that both al-Zawahiri and Esack are, ideologically, children of their time.

Islamic Responses to Modernity

2006 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Helena Kaler
Keyword(s):  
Political Agency ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Social Fragmentation ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

By examining the ideas of modernity and their manifestations in the ideas of Ayman al-Zawahiri and Farid Esack, this essay argues that both thinkers are deeply affected by the West’s Enlightenment ideas and differ mostly in their applications. The first part examines the idea of modernity itself, tracing its forms in the thought of Marx, Nietzsche, Weber, Schmitt, Adorno, and Horkheimer, among others. The second part traces the relationship of al-Zawahiri and Esack to the ideas of modernity, defined here as subjectivity, political agency, social fragmentation, and the rise of the nation-state. In contrast to the assertion made by some that Islamist thinkers were only affected by technological, rather than ideological, modernity, it seems that both al-Zawahiri and Esack are, ideologically, children of their time.

Dalit Capital and Markets: A Case of Unfavourable Inclusion

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-61
Author(s):  
Aseem Prakash
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
Economic Resources ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Constitutional Order ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Market State ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
Institutional Space ◽  
The Relationship

The nature of our constitutional order is changing from a nation-state into a market-state. The market-state seeks to acquire legitimacy not as a provider or distributor of welfare goods and economic resources but strives to provide an enabling framework for the society to secure opportunities and better goods and services. As markets have acquired a pre-eminent institutional space, this article seeks to understand the aspirations of Dalits to enter markets as owners of capital and trade in diverse goods and services. The article examines the relationship between caste and capitalism, and argues that the current relationship of caste and capitalism does not operate on the notions of merit and efficiency. Markets are embedded in social relationships and, therefore, are more prone to be influenced by social customs rather than ideas of modern contracts, merit and efficiency. Drawing upon interviews with several successful Dalit entrepreneurs and their experiences, the article finds ‘unfavoured’ or ‘adverse’ inclusion of Dalits in the markets caused by social networks populated and controlled by upper-caste business peers.

scholarly journals Nimble Nationalism: Transgenerational Experiences of East Karelian Refugees in Finland and Sweden

2021 ◽  
pp. 267-293
Author(s):  
Seija Jalagin
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Oral History ◽  
Home Country ◽  
Nation State ◽  
World War ◽  
Migrant Community ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
History Narratives ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractLooking at the relationship of experiences and memory Jalagin discusses the significance of the nation for a minority of a minority. Focusing on Soviet Karelian refugees who sought asylum first in interwar Finland and then in post-World War II Sweden, the chapter explores family histories as presented by government authorities in archival documents as well as in written and oral history narratives. Jalagin argues that the nation-state dominated the national experience because the refugees were meticulously controlled by government immigration policies and practices. While considering Sweden their home country, the refugees emotionally tended to identify with the Finnish migrant community in Sweden. Their sense of Finnishness testifies to flexible nationalism, making the nation-state an ambivalent, yet important element in their life.

scholarly journals Bekim Fehmiu and (Yugoslav) Albanian Identity

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce Williams
Keyword(s):  
Nation State ◽  
East And West ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Double Indemnity

DOUBLE EAGLE, DOUBLE INDEMNITY: BEKIM FEHMIU AND (YUGOSLAV) ALBANIAN IDENTITY "ONCE upon a time there was a country, and its capital was Belgrade." These opening words of Kusturica's Underground (1995) allow us to reflect on the apparent unity forged by Tito in Yugoslavia and the notion, however fleeting, of Yugoslav cinema. As Dina Iordanova asserts, this statement at once foregrounds Kusturica's claim that Yugoslav union had been "an artificial political construction built on lies and mutual betrayal" (Iordanova 2002, 83), and evokes an undeniable nostalgia for the defunct state. In wake of the bombardment of Dubrovnik, the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo, and unrest in Macedonia, we recall with certain fondness an era in which Yugoslavia provided a peaceful and accessible portal between East and West. The ambivalence of Kusturica's stance recalls Edward Said's reconsideration of the relationship of divergent communities to the ever-fluctuating nation-state, an argument which has...

Criticism of “Colonial Modernity” through Kurdish Decolonial Approaches

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Engin Sustam
Keyword(s):  
Global Capitalism ◽  
First Century ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Political Movement ◽  
The West ◽  
Colonial Modernity ◽  
Western Modernity ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

Western modernity with its colonial application has created an identity trauma and patriarchal domination of the memory of colonized and oppressed peoples. Critiques from colonized territories encourage us to reread the colonial epistemes of modernity, whether or not centered on the West. The Kurdish political movement thus defines a new interpretation of modernity based on the critique of colonialism and global capitalism: “democratic modernity.” This chapter problematizes the relations between modernity, the nation state, the destruction of ecology, social confinement, the relationship of the forces of these relations, but above all the modalities by which it becomes possible to act on them to break the “stalemate” of the modernity of thought in the twenty-first century.

scholarly journals Can You Anchor a Shimmering Nation State via Regional Indigenous Roots? Kim Scott talks to Anne Brewster about That Deadman Dance

2011 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Brewster
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Pacific Region ◽  
The Novel ◽  
New Novel ◽  
Indigenous Sovereignty ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

This interview focuses mainly on Kim Scott’s new novel That Deadman Dance which won the regional Commonwealth Writers Prize (Southeast Asian and Pacific region) and the Miles Franklin Award. The topics of conversation include Scott’s involvement in the Noongar language project (and the relationship of this project to the novel), the novel itself, the challenges of writing in English, the resistance paradigm and indigenous sovereignty and nationalism.

scholarly journals Space, as it relates to Nationalism: Ramifications for the Taiwan Straits Crisis

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (6) ◽  
pp. 78-84
Author(s):  
Anthony Baker
Keyword(s):  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Political Capital ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Chinese Nationalism ◽  
Chinese Nation ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The World ◽  
Taiwan Straits ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

Before the modern nation-states took form, borders between polities were often ill defined, with a political capital having more control over regions which are closer than those at a distance. However, the nation-state redefined a government's relationship to the region over which it claimed control, lending to a consolidation of control to the center and sharp-formed borders. This paper takes a historiographical approach to understanding space as it relates to the nation, and its ramifications for the Taiwan Straits Crisis. We will also look at how the theories and approaches used by environmental historians can be applied to Taiwan's place in the Chinese nation. This paper also explores the relationship of space and nationalism with the aid of works of theory, works which deal with both theory and practice in other polities in the world, this paper focus those theories and practices to Chinese nationalism.

Light unto the Nations

2020 ◽  
pp. 157-200
Author(s):  
Adam Sutcliffe
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Political Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Jewish State ◽  
History Of ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Century Thought

This chapter focuses on the purpose of the Jews in relation to the potential and meaning of nationhood, in both Zionist and non-Zionist contexts. It talks about Moses Hess, a writer in Germany in the 1860s, who linked a profoundly negative view of the Jews' diasporic role as arch-capitalists to his irenic view of the role of the Jews in his Zionist vision of the future. It explains how a Zionist grappling with the idea of Jewish exemplarity runs through the twentieth-century history of the movement. This chapter also highlights the cultural Zionism of Ahad Ha'am and the political rhetoric of David Ben-Gurion, who repeatedly invoked Isaiah's “light unto the nations” as his vision for the Jewish state. It analyzes the relationship of Jewish exemplarity and purpose to the broader political life of the nation state that became a rich and complicated seam of debate within twentieth century thought.

The Internet, National Citizenship, and the “Sovereignty Paradox”

2015 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Amadu Wurie Khan
Keyword(s):  
State Sovereignty ◽  
Political Agency ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Nation State ◽  
The West ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
National Citizenship ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter explores the potential of the Internet for asylum seekers'/refugees' political agency and for challenging the boundaries of national citizenship and state sovereignty. It considers that Western governments' formulation of “restrictionist” and “assimilationist” citizenship policies and the conjoining “managerialist” approach to asylum are aimed at asserting state sovereignty and national citizenship. However, it is argued that attempts at the territorial construction of membership amounts to a “sovereignty paradox”: policies promote an international humanitarian norm of citizenship, which depends on state sovereignty for its realisation. Asylum-seeking migrants' views and practices are therefore deployed to explore the counterproductivity of the UK government's attempt to coerce would-be British citizens to have loyalty and allegiance to the nation-state. This UK case study provides empirical substantiation of asylum-seeking migrants' political agency in the West, and the resilience of state sovereignty in affirming an international humanitarian norm of citizenship. It also contributes to an understanding of asylum-seeking migrants' political agency through the Internet in holding political elites in the West accountable for their migration-citizenship policies. This perspective has been strikingly missing in the citizenship and international relations theories, particularly given the context that non-citizen asylum-seeking migrants residing in liberal democracies are a major trigger for these policies. The chapter also attempts to deconstruct the relationship between transnationalism and globalisation: a project that continues to be problematic in the academy.

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