The Persistence of Nationalism

The Persistence of Nationalism
Author: Angharad Closs Stephens
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 178
Release: 2013-03-12
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1136691995

This is a book about the difficulties of thinking and acting politically in ways that refuse the politics of nationalism. The book offers a detailed study of how contemporary attempts by theorists of cosmopolitanism, citizenship, globalism and multiculturalism to go beyond nationalism often reproduce key aspects of a nationalist imaginary. It argues that the challenge of resisting nationalism will require more than a shift in the scale of politics – from the national up to the global or down to the local, and more than a shift in the count of politics – to an emphasis on diversity and multiculturalism. In order to avoid the grip of ‘nationalist thinking’, we need to re-open the question of what it means to imagine community. Set against the backdrop of the imaginative geographies of the War in Terror and the new beginning promised by the Presidency of Barack Obama, the book shows how critical interventions often work in collaboration with nationalist politics, even when the aim is to resist nationalism. It claims that a nationalist imaginary includes powerful understandings of freedom, subjectivity, sovereignty and political space/time which must also be placed under question if we want to avoid reproducing ideas about ‘us’ and ‘them’. Drawing on insights from feminist, cultural and postcolonial studies as well as critical approaches to International Relations and Geography, this book presents a unique and refreshing approach to the politics of nationalism.

Nationalism in a Global Era

Nationalism in a Global Era
Author: Mitchell Young
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2007-03-07
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1134123108

This volume makes a unique contribution to the literature on nations and nationalism by examining why nations remain a vibrant and strong social cohesive despite the threat of globalization. Regardless of predictions forecasting the demise of the nation-state in the global era, the nation persists as an important source of identity, community, and collective memory for most of the world's population. More than simply a corrective to the many scholarly but premature epitaphs for the nation-state, this book explains the continued health of nations in the face of looming threats. The contributors include leading experts in the field, such as Anthony D. Smith, William Safran, Edward Tiryakian as well as younger scholars, whom adopt a variety of approaches ranging from theoretical to empirical and historical to sociological, in order to uncover both the reasons that nations continue to remain vital and the mechanisms that help perpetuate them. The book includes case studies on Ireland, Thailand, Poland, the Baltic States, Croatia and Jordan. Nationalism in a Global Era will be of great interest to students and researchers of international politics, sociology, nationalism and ethnicity.

Nationalism and the Moral Psychology of Community

Nationalism and the Moral Psychology of Community
Author: Bernard Yack
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 344
Release: 2012-04-06
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0226944689

Nationalism is one of modern history’s great surprises. How is it that the nation, a relatively old form of community, has risen to such prominence in an era so strongly identified with the individual? Bernard Yack argues that it is the inadequacy of our understanding of community—and especially the moral psychology that animates it—that has made this question so difficult to answer. Yack develops a broader and more flexible theory of community and shows how to use it in the study of nations and nationalism. What makes nationalism such a powerful and morally problematic force in our lives is the interplay of old feelings of communal loyalty and relatively new beliefs about popular sovereignty. By uncovering this fraught relationship, Yack moves our understanding of nationalism beyond the oft-rehearsed debate between primordialists and modernists, those who exaggerate our loss of individuality and those who underestimate the depth of communal attachments. A brilliant and compelling book, Nationalism and the Moral Psychology of Community sets out a revisionist conception of nationalism that cannot be ignored.

Everyday Nationhood

Everyday Nationhood
Author: Michael Skey
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 342
Release: 2017-11-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1137570989

This edited collection explores the continuing appeal of nationalism around the world. The authors’ ground-breaking research demonstrates the ways in which national priorities and sensibilities frame an extraordinary array of activities, from classroom discussions and social media posts to global policy-making, as well as identifying the value that can come from feeling part of a national community, especially during times of economic uncertainty and social change. They also note how attachments to nation can often generate powerful emotions, happiness and pride as well as anger and frustration, which can be used to mobilize substantial numbers of people into action. Featuring contributions from leading social scientists across a range of disciplines, including sociology, geography, political science, social psychology, media and cultural studies, the book presents a number of case studies covering a range of countries including Russia, Germany, New Zealand, Serbia, Japan, Azerbaijan, Greece and the USA. Everyday Nationhood will appeal to students and scholars of nationalism, globalization and identity across the social sciences as well as those with an interest in understanding the role of nationalism in shaping some of the most pressing political crises- migration, economic protectionism, populism - of the contemporary era.

The SAGE Handbook of Nations and Nationalism

The SAGE Handbook of Nations and Nationalism
Author: Gerard Delanty
Publisher: SAGE
Total Pages: 598
Release: 2006-06-14
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1446206440

′With its list of distinguished contributors and its wide range of topics, the handbook is surely destined to become an invaluable resource for all serious students of nationalism′ - Michael Billig, Professor of Social Sciences at Loughborough University and author of ′Banal Nationalism′ (SAGE 1995) ′The persistence - some would say: revival - of nationalism across the recent history of modernity, in particular the past two decades, has taken many scholars in the social sciences by surprise. In response, interest in the analysis of nationalism has increased and given rise to a great variety of new angles under which to study the phenomenon. What was missing in the cacophony of voices addressing nationalism was a volume that brought them together and confronted them with each other. This handbook does just that. It deserves particular praise for the wide range of approaches and topic included and for the systematic attempt at studying nationalism as a phenomenon of our time, not a remnant from the past′ - Peter Wagner, Professor of Social and Political Theory, European University Institute; and Professor of Sociology, University of Warwick ′For students concerned with the contemporary study of nationalism this will be an invaluable publication. The three-fold division into approaches, themes and cases is a very solid and sensible one. The editors have commissioned essays from leading scholars in the field [and]this handbook provides the best single-volume overview of contemporary nationalism′ - John Breuilly, Professor of Nationalism and Ethnicity, London School of Economics Nationalism has long excited debate in political, social and cultural theory and remains a key field of enquiry among historians, anthropologists, sociologists as well as political scientists. It is also one of the critical media issues of our time. There are, however, surprisingly few volumes that bring together the best of this intellectual diversity into one collection. This Handbook gives readers a critical survey of the latest theories and debates and provides a glimpse of the issues that will shape their future. Its three sections guide the reader through the theoretical approaches to this field of study, its major themes - from modernity to memory, migration and genocide - and the diversity of nationalisms found around the globe. The overall aim of this Handbook is to relate theories and debates within and across a range of disciplines, illuminate themes and issues of central importance in both historical and contemporary contexts, and show how nationalism has impacted upon and interacted with other political and social forms and forces. This book provides a much-needed resource for scholars in international relations, political science, social theory and sociology.

Black Nationalist Thought in South Africa

Black Nationalist Thought in South Africa
Author: Hashi Kenneth Tafira
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 375
Release: 2016-07-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 1137586508

This book maintains that South Africa, despite the official end of apartheid in 1994, remains steeped in the interstices of coloniality. The author looks at the Black Nationalist thought in South Africa and its genealogy. Colonial modernity and coloniality of power and their equally sinister accessories, war, murder, rape and genocide have had a lasting impact onto those unfortunate enough to receive such ghastly visitations. Tafira explores a range of topics including youth political movement, the social construction of blackness in Azania, and conceptualizations from the Black Liberation Movement.

Nationalism and the Multination State

Nationalism and the Multination State
Author: Alain Dieckhoff
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2016
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780190607913

Published in English for the first time, this book defends the idea that nationhood remains a central aspect of modernity. After the breakup of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia in the 1990s, the following decade confirmed this hypothesis with the rise of independence movements in Europe (in Scotland and Flanders) and the persistence of claims to nationhood the world over (for example, in Kurdistan and Tibet). A dual perspective informs Dieckhoff's analysis: to understand the hidden social and cultural underpinnings of post-Cold War identity dynamics, from Kosovo to Catalonia and from Flanders to Corsica, and to examine how societies can meet the challenge of national pluralism. Finding liberalism, republicanism and multiculturalism unequal to this task, he argues that only by building 'multi-nation' democratic states can the issues be properly addressed and secessions prevented. Contemporary liberal discourse often treats nationalism as an archaic aberration - as a primitive form of tribalism astray in the modern world. Dieckhoff's sensitive and clear-headed analysis shows why nationalism is in fact a fundamental facet of modernity, which must be dealt with as such by states vulnerable to breakup.

The Cultural Politics of Nationalism and Nation-Building

The Cultural Politics of Nationalism and Nation-Building
Author: Rachel Tsang
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 355
Release: 2013-10-08
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1134592086

Rituals and performances are a key theme in the study of nations and nationalism. With the aim of stimulating further research in this area, this book explores, debates and evaluates the role of rituals and performances in the emergence, persistence and transformation of nations, nationalisms and national identity. The chapters comprising this book investigate a diverse array of contemporary and historical phenomena relating to the symbolic life of nations, from the Yasukuni Shrine in Japan to the Louvre in France, written by an interdisciplinary cast of world-renowned and up-and-coming scholars. Each of the contributors has been encouraged to think about how his or her particular approach and methods relates to the others. This has given rise to several recurring debates and themes running through the book over how researchers ought to approach rituals and performances and how they might best be studied. The Cultural Politics of Nationalism and Nation-Building will appeal to students and scholars of ethnicity and nationalism, sociology, political science, anthropology, cultural studies, performance studies, art history and architecture.

Nations

Nations
Author: Azar Gat
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 451
Release: 2013
Genre: History
ISBN: 1107007852

A groundbreaking study of the foundations of nationalism, exposing its antiquity, strong links with ethnicity and roots in human nature.