The Importance of Culture in Civic Nations: Culture and the Republic in France

By Vincent Martigny

Volume 8, Issue 3, pages 543-559

Abstract

This article discusses Hans Kohn’s argument that civic nations pay little attention to cultural claims in their definition and practice of citizenship, by looking at the political system in France and its relation to culture. Contrary to Kohn’s analysis, culture has played – and still plays – a fundamental role in the definition and modus vivendi of the civic republic in France, through a form of cultural nationalism implemented by the state. It is also argued that the opposition between civic and ethno-cultural nations can be misguided. Indeed the French civic nation can be conceived of as ‘cultural’ while rejecting ethnicity in its definition of citizenship. This calls for the redefinition of Kohn’s dichotomy and mismatch between culture and ethnicity.

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Towards a Trans-border Identity in the Upper Rhine Area? Regional Cohesion in the Grip of the Nation-State

By Angeliki Koukoutsaki-Monnier

Volume 15, Issue 2, pages 213-229

Abstract

How should we discuss trans-border identities across the Franco-German-Swiss border area? Adopting a multidisciplinary approach, this article aims to establish a conceptual framework in order to apprehend and study border regions. Focusing on the Franco-German-Swiss border area usually designated as the ‘Upper Rhine’, the article seeks to show how actors’ strategies – mainly those of institutional agents – articulate with, complement, or contradict the habitus (i.e. the practices and materialities of everyday life), giving rise to a diverse set of identity constructions and sketching a more or less precise contour of this region, and of border territories in general.

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Understanding Taliban Resurgence: Ethno-Symbolism and Revolutionary Mobilization

By Kareem Kamel

Volume 15, Issue 1, pages 66-82

Abstract

This article argues that the post-2001 Taliban resurgence was due to their capacity to act as resourceful ethnic entrepreneurs through selective usage of dominant Pashtun and Islamic mythomoteurs in the process of symbolic cultivation. Through comparative historical analysis and an ethno-symbolist theoretical framework, it shows that the main identity determinants informing the movement’s behaviour have played a fundamental role in the process of revolutionary mobilization. With Afghanistan as their territorial referent, the ideological lenses of Pashtun nationalism and Islamism, coupled with their situational ‘village’ lens, have been used interchangeably by the Taliban to shed light on specific symbolic resources for successful resistance.

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Anticipatory Representation: Building the Palestinian Nation(-State) through Artistic Performance

By Chiara De Cesari

Volume 12, Issue 1, pages 82-100

Abstract

This article aims to illuminate the ways in which artists and cultural producers can participate in forging the nation(-state) by performing its institutions, and by mocking its operations. It explores two experiments in setting up a Palestinian national museum, which are also art projects in themselves. It also discusses the recent Palestinian art biennials, organised by a Palestinian non-governmental organisation in 2007 and 2009 in various locations across the Mediterranean. It is my argument that the experiments with the Palestinian national museum and the biennials constitute a kind of artistic practice that does not just represent or imitate the social world: they are artistic practices that purport to produce new social arrangements – in particular, a set of new ‘state’ (art and cultural) institutions under conditions of statelessness. I also discuss how such a tactic of anticipatory representation, which calls into being, by representing them beforehand, institutions that do not yet (fully) exist, bears resemblance with recent policies adopted by the Palestinian political establishment.

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Ethnic Politics, Political Elite, and Regime Change in Nigeria

By Henry Ani Kifordu

Volume 11, Issue 3, pages 427-450

Abstract

Since the 1960s, intermittent social conflicts in Nigeria appear mostly linked to ethnic groups’ differences. Considering the importance of regime change in social and political stability, this article critically analyses the historic and dynamic role of the core political executive elite in the political system’s stability. The article argues that ethnic politics persist in Nigeria based on the nature of interactions between political institutions, institution-builders, and society. It asserts a contradictory link between deep-rooted elite interests and popular preferences in ways that undermine orientations towards democracy. The empirical focus is on the composite nature of the core political executive elite analysed through their ethnic and educational backgrounds. It is observed that, although ethnic shocks are variously motivated, the atypical shape and inequity in power and role distribution at the highest levels of executive office-holding stand out as a salient source and target of antagonism by ethnic groups. This finding has a paradoxical implication: deep-seated economic and political interests of the elite play a diversionary role from the real causes of ethnic conflicts in Nigeria.

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