Author Archives: Junpeng Li

About Junpeng Li

Junpeng Li is a PhD candidate in the Sociology Department at Columbia University in NYC, USA. His areas of research are contentious politics and ethnic politics, with a geographical focus on China.

‘Elites and the Making of Post-Soviet Nations: Nationalising Regimes in Kazakhstan and Latvia’

‘Elites and the Making of Post-Soviet Nations: Nationalising Regimes in Kazakhstan and Latvia’

Diana T. Kudaibergenova

(Department of Sociology, University of Cambridge, 2015)

Supervisor: David Lane

Diana T. Kudaibergenova is a postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for Development Studies, POLIS Department, University of Cambridge. She was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the CERI Science Po, Paris, in the 2015–2016 academic year. Dr. Kudaibergenova is a political and cultural sociologist studying power and nationalism. She has published on nationalising regimes and ideologies and elites in Baltic States and Central Eurasia.

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Dissertation abstract

The primary focus of this dissertation is to evaluate how and why various successor states and political elites choose to invest into more exclusive nationalist ideologies and policies regardless of the heterogeneous socio-cultural composition of their societies. Why are some newly independent states more nationalistic than others? What have been the driving forces behind exclusivist dominant discourse of nation-building in multi-ethnic post-Soviet states? The dissertation focuses on two very distinct elite regimes of post-Soviet Kazakhstan and Latvia to test the following hypothesis. If post-Soviet nation-building are elite-led projects which create and control the dominant discourses of nation-building, then the evolution of such discourses depend on both regime variations of elite selection (from democratic to non-democratic) and on the inner elite’s competition for power and resources within and outside such a regime. The study relies on more than 150 elite interviews collected in Latvia and Kazakhstan, extensive archival data and meticulous analysis of nation-building legislation and processes from 1989 to 2013.

The choice of the case studies was of a great importance where the Russian-speaking minority almost outnumbered indigenous titular ethnicity before and after the independence in 1991. In more electoral democratic Latvia where the consolidation of pro-Latvian elites had pursued and developed a very exclusivist citizenship and nation-building policies, the regime failed to comply with the demands of its Russian-speaking minority even in matters of minority education or state language provisions. In a less democratic Kazakhstan the Russian-speaking minority was treated differently. Since the declaration of independence in 1991, the universal citizenship, duality of state (Kazakh) and official (Russian) languages, and minority language schools in which Russophone education dominated was promoted and became the flag-bearer of the Nazarbayev regime’s multicultural policy.

The concept of ‘nationalising regime’ is applied to study these processes of elitist nation-building projects, intra-elite competitions and legitimacy building for ideological regimes (Latvia) or personalized regimes (Kazakhstan). The concept of nationalising regime is a framework of decision-making in nation-building processes that is governed by specific elitist interests groups and networks within and outside the given country. The thesis examines the mechanisms and effects of these nationalising regimes on the society, polity and the democratic process.

 

Inspiration to undertake this research

I have always been interested in nationalism and the complex social dynamics behind nationalist movements. After completing the M.A. program in International and Intercultural Relations in the heart of the Basque Country, in Bilbao, I decided to explore these research questions to include them in my doctoral dissertation and shift the focus to the new so-called successor states. Studying two very different post-Soviet states in a comparative perspective sounded like a novel idea to me. I wanted to find out why some states engage in more nationalistic policies and discourses despite having almost similar ethnic divisions in the society. The context of the Russian-speaking population and bilingual or monolingual Russian speakers’ ratio is very similar in both Latvia and Kazakhstan. Yet Latvia, a European state with electoral democracy has far more restrictive citizenship and language policies and laws than does Kazakhstan. Doing fieldwork in Latvia and studying Latvian language was another great motivation and inspiration behind this project. I aimed at providing an interesting and unusual comparative perspective beyond regional and area-based distinctions in post-communist studies. Most importantly, I wanted to expand the conceptual apparatus by stepping out of ‘Central Asian’ or ‘Eastern European’ studies and combining the two from the perspective of political and historical sociology.

 

An in-depth look into one aspect of the dissertation

I use the concept of ‘nationalising regimes’ in the dissertation, defined as fields of power struggles centred on the dominant discourses of the nation. Nationalism in post-communist states have substituted the old ideologies of communism which have become the dominant discursive field for the power elites to compete for the spheres of their interests and political power. I argue that this requires a detailed conceptualisation in an in-depth historical perspective with the use of contemporary political ethnography to explain how these processes diverge in different political regimes.

The analysis of the Latvian case allowed me to conclude that a stable nationalising regime was characterised by the static agenda of the national discourses and frameworks which had been constructed and agreed to by the dominant elites prior to independence. The dominant elites in this context were defined by the dominant (Latvian) ethnicity and culture. Non-Latvian elites had little chance to intervene in the 1990s with the restrictive Citizenship Law and limited quotas for naturalisation which meant that old Russian or other non-Latvian elites were able to run for office only at the beginning of the 2000s (the naturalisation quota based on the age groups from youngest to older groups was abandoned in 1998). However, even with the abolition of quotas for naturalisation many non-Latvian aspiring elites have found themselves in a difficult situation of addressing a marginal electorate with their non-Latvian agenda. Even today almost a quarter of Latvian permanent residents do not have access to their political rights as they are circumvented from the Latvian citizenship and remain in the status of non-citizens – permanent residents of Latvia with no political rights. This contextualises the pro-Latvian electoral participation and narrows down the pro-Russian political competition.

In Kazakhstan, the nationalising regime does not depend so much on the ethnic or even ethno-lingual groups, which has been the case in Latvia. There also has been little transformation of the ruling elite from the communist to post-communist context. This has taken further development of the nationalising regime away from just one dominant discourse and narrative. The interests of the power elites have been directly linked to the economic development of the country which has also  influenced and directed the development of the compartmentalized ideology. The nationalising regime in Kazakhstan is also more personalised, where power elites tend to be more stable and are formed in special competing fields or circles which are also usually identified as clans. I prefer calling them financial political groups of influence, a term used locally by the political analysts (Dosym Satpayev termed them lobby groups in the late 1990s). The survival rate of these groups of influence is dependent upon an affinity to the Nazarbayev regime, which is typical for the authoritarian regimes in general. However, the Kazakh case presents a hybrid regime, with the elements of democratic development and the persistence of formal institutions, such as political parties but also the domineering agenda of the power elites centered on the presidential circle. These elites depend upon the discourses of stability and development provided by the stability of the presidential power.

 

Perspective on the fields of nationalism, ethnicity, and race

At present there is a lack in both comparative studies of nationalism but also an absence of work reconceptualising post-Soviet nationalism. The framework of nationalising states (Brubaker 1994, 1996 and 2011) remains one of the few analytical tools; however, the growing interest and analysis of elite power requires a more detailed and adequate tool of analysis. Power intersections and power struggles cannot be explained simply through the state-centric paradigms but require more detailed and scrutinized frameworks of regime structures and elite fragmentations, competitions and settlements. Post-communist studies also suffer from the ‘transition’ studies, when perhaps historical sociology might be more useful for the analysis of current affairs and political development. The persistence of the ‘post’ agenda and limitations in political geographical comparisons and studies also continue to limit more fruitful analyses in the study of one of the most exciting regions affected by contemporary nationalisms. This region in particular provides the space for more conceptual studies of space, ideologies, power and elites within the realm of nationalism studies and beyond. There is still a lot of work to be done with the current geopolitical order and it is essential to highlight the old narratives in order to bring into the open the new dimension of power struggles across this vast region and historical and ideological terrain.

For instance, there is a lack of substantive conceptual study of Kazakhstan’s diversified nation-building – the regime in Kazakhstan addresses a number of conflicting discourses all at once. The growing interest and expanding publication of the so-called Baltic postcolonialism allows it to tie the ‘postcolonial’ agenda of the former Soviet empire (there are at least three forthcoming works addressing this important issue anew) as a whole. The expanding ‘political postcolonial’ agenda in Poland reflects similar trends of the Latvian, Estonian and other post-Soviet discussions. Territorial claims and the importance of cultural narratives take over the agenda and require further analysis and conceptualisation in this vast region that may benefit from some unexpected yet productive comparisons across these countries.

 

Reflections on the job market

I have only been in the job market for a short period of time and so cannot provide anything useful at the moment, but I can provide some insight on some aspects of postdoctoral fellowships, which are very useful for interdisciplinary and inter-institutional collaborations and discussions. My interdisciplinary postdoctoral experience in Paris and Cambridge allowed me to reflect more on my doctoral work, expand my research agenda, and to focus on the two forthcoming book manuscripts. It also allowed me to collaborate with a number of colleagues and push forward many theoretical possibilities with which to address the varying questions posed in my current fieldwork.

 

If you recently defended a Ph.D. in the fields of nationalism, ethnicity, identity, and/or race and would like to be featured on our blog, please visit here for more information on how to submit your dissertation abstract.

(Trans)national Queers Online: An Analysis of LGBTQ Websites in Poland and Turkey

(Trans)national Queers Online: An Analysis of LGBTQ Websites in Poland and Turkey

Lukasz Szulc

(Department of Communication Studies, University of Antwerp, 2015)

Supervisors: Alexander Dhoest, Bart Eeckhout

 

Lukasz Szulc is a postdoctoral fellow of the Research Foundation Flanders at the University of Antwerp (Belgium) and a Marie Curie fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science (UK). Since June 2016, he has been the Student and Early-Career Representative at the International Communication Association’s LGBTQ Interest Group. Lukasz was awarded a Ph.D. in communication studies from the University of Antwerp in February 2015. Three articles written during his Ph.D. have received awards from international academic associations, including BASEES, ICA and OTSA. His academic interests include the social and cultural role of new media, LGBTQ identities, nationalisms, and transnationalism. He has published extensively on these topics in international peer-reviewed journals such as the International Journal of Communication, New Media & Society, and Sexualities. For more information about Lukasz you can contact him through his website or send him a tweet @LukaszSzulc.

 

Lukasz Szulc

 

Dissertation abstract

The Internet has generally been recognized as a particularly advantageous medium for LGBTQs, that is, lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, trans* people and/or queers. However, as I explain in this doctoral dissertation, LGBTQ Internet studies remain dominated by US scholars working on US cases who tend to ignore or take for granted the contexts of their research, which results in the exaggeration of the role of the Internet as ‘the’ medium of globalization in general, and LGBTQ globalization in particular. By contrast, in this research project I aim to provide a closer and more nuanced look at the intersections of LGBTQ sexualities, Internet communication, the nation and nationalism. In the most general terms, I investigate what is left of the supposedly discarded nation and nationalism on the Internet. Following Michael Billig’s (1995) concept of banal nationalism, I am primarily interested in the subtle, often unnoticed and taken-for-granted (re)productions of both individual nations and the world as a world of nations. The arguments put forward in this doctoral dissertation are based on a qualitative analysis of about 30 relatively popular LGBTQ websites in Poland and Turkey. I examine the websites’ homepages, hyperlinks and domain names to investigate how web content and web-specific technologies are put into work to (re)produce or challenge (particular) national discourses online. I additionally support my arguments with the analysis of user-generated content and e-mail interviews with the authors of LGBTQ websites. Taken together, the case studies presented here demonstrate that the nation and nationalism still do matter online. Even if nations are not always explicitly referred to or accentuated and the framework of the world as a world of nations is not always clearly apparent, my research shows that individual nations and the world as a world of nations continue to be (re)produced on LGBTQ websites in a more banal way. More broadly, I argue against the conceptualizations of the Internet as borderless and deterritorialized and ‘the global gay’ (Altman 2001) as homogenous and Westernized.

 

Inspiration to undertake this research

This Ph.D. project was largely inspired by my personal story. First, the Internet proved to play a major role in the exploration of my non-normative sexuality, which made me wonder about the importance of new media for LGBTQs. Second, my long-term stay abroad—six months in Turkey and more than six years in Belgium, led to an unexpected discovery that I am profoundly Polish, which resulted in my interest in routine reproductions of national identities. I wanted to better understand my own identifications, feelings and practices as well as to connect them to broader social and cultural mechanisms. Therefore, I decided to conduct research on the online intersections of sexuality and nationalism.

 

An in-depth look into one aspect of the dissertation

In one chapter of my dissertation, I look at a particular web-specific technology, country-code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs, such as .uk for the United Kingdom), to investigate to what extent and how it is employed to enforce or resist particular national discourses. I propose that while ccTLDs may often go unnoticed, they do play an important role in (re)producing, in a banal way, individual nations and the world as a world of nations. In my analysis, I focus on the particular case of the .tr domain for Turkey. This is because at one point in my research I was struck that while in Poland the majority of sample LGBTQ websites use the Polish ccTLD, in Turkey only one website uses the Turkish ccTLD. I wondered if there is a particular reason for why the authors of LGBTQ websites in Turkey tend not to use the Turkish ccTLD. To investigate this question, I first tracked the allocation procedure of .tr and employed critical discourse analysis to examine the policies governing the procedure. Next, I conducted e-mail interviews with the authors of six LGBTQ websites in Turkey and asked them how they decided about the choice of their websites’ Top-Level Domains. The results demonstrate that .tr is employed by Turkish authorities to (re)produce, in a banal way, a heterosexist notion of Turkishness online. Additionally, my research shows that some authors of the analyzed websites do not dismiss .tr as banal but refuse to use it as a way of setting up resistance against the Turkish national requirements embedded in the domain. This chapter has been published in New Media & Societyand its earlier version was awarded an Honourable Mention by the 2013 Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association.

 

Perspective on the fields of nationalism, ethnicity, and race

Michael Billig’s (1995) concept of banal nationalism is undoubtedly the concept with which I engaged most profoundly in my research. In general, I share the author’s conviction about the continued persistence of the nation and nationalism, also in the Internet age: ‘Maybe, nations are already past their heyday and their decline has already been set in motion. But this does not mean that nationhood can yet be written off, and its flaggings dismissed as pastiche or nostalgia’ (Billig 1995: 177).

At the same time, I believe that my dissertation makes at least two important contributions to the concept of banal nationalism. First, while Billig developed his argument based on the analysis of the British press, my work updates the concept in relation to the Internet. Contrary to the suggestions of some researchers, my results show that the affordances of the Internet do not critically challenge the idea of banal nationalism: banal (re)productions of individual nations and the world as a world of nations can easily be traced in web content as well as web-specific technologies such as hyperlinks and the Domain Name System. Second, my dissertation indicates the need for qualifying the arguments about the banality of some instances of nationalism. When Billig writes that ‘The national flag hanging outside a public building in the United States attracts no special attention’ (1995: 6), he does not consider that the flag could attract special attention. Conversely, when I compared ccTLDs to national flags hanging outside a public building, I emphasized that while ccTLDs usually go unnoticed, they could and do lose their banality at particular times and for particular groups.

 

Reflections on the job market

The academic job market in Europe is much saturated, especially in humanities and social sciences. While fresh Ph.D.s in the USA normally start their careers as regular university employees, obtaining such positions right after defending a Ph.D. seems unrealistic for the majority of their European colleagues. A common alternative is to apply for highly competitive postdoctoral fellowships and continue devoting much time to research (instead of teaching) in order to improve one’s CV. This is not necessarily a worse alternative but it does not help to eliminate the feeling of uncertainty among junior academics.

 

If you recently defended a Ph.D. in the fields of nationalism, ethnicity, identity, and/or race and would like to be featured on our blog, please visit here for more information on how to submit your dissertation abstract.

‘The Missing Ink’: Re-evaluating Socialisation and Nationalism in the Work of Ernest Gellner

‘The Missing Ink’: Re-evaluating Socialisation and Nationalism in the Work of Ernest Gellner

Judith O’Connell

(Faculty of Arts, School of Political Science and Sociology, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland, 2015)

Advisers: Sinisa Malesevic and Kevin Ryan

 

Having returned to academia after working in the private sector, Judith O’Connell completed both her Ph.D. and B.A. at the National University of Ireland in Galway, and is currently an assistant head of first year on the B.A. in political science and sociology at the same university.

 

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Dissertation abstract

This thesis expands on Ernest Gellner’s theory of nationalism. Gellner provides an analysis in the ‘why’ of nationalism—why nations and nationalism develop—but neglects to elaborate on the details of how this takes place or by what method the nation is reproduced. This is the ‘missing ink’ in the title of the thesis, or the ‘how’ of nationalism. In considering Gellner’s theoretical position, thie thesis employs the concept of the socialisation of nationalism, which is an application of a theory of socialisation to nationalism as a social construct. By taking Gellner’s modernist approach to the study of nations, I examine how the nation is reproduced through a complex process of socialisation that crosses between a centralised state education system and social learning. This is synthesised with Bourdieu’s theory of socialisation and adapted by shifting the focus of analysis from social class to what is presented as ‘national doxa’.

This is not to say that Gellner was entirely wrong in prioritising mass-compulsory education; however, I examine socialisation through a textual analysis of history text books, using Ireland as a case study. These findings are used to modify Gellner’s theory by emphasising the mutable nature of nationalism, i.e. in contrast to the linear view of development found in Gellner’s work—nationalism is a more complex process whereby the past is reconstructed in accordance with present concerns.

Three time frames are identified as being pivotal eras during Ireland’s history. The first period is 1831 until 1922 when Ireland was still under British rule. The second period covered is from the foundation of the Irish Free State in 1922 until 1971. This was the first time that the content of Irish text books was under the control of an Irish State. The third and final period examines textbooks from 1971 onwards and the advent of what was termed the ‘new curriculum’. These contrasting social and political epochs enable us to observe that the substance of what is taught in schools reflects adjusting national priorities.  Under these periods the subject matter is presented as follows: firstly the educational material is discussed under the headings Ancient Origins of the Irish, Empire/Colonialism, and the Famine.

These findings substantiate the thesis that education acts as a tool of the socialisation of nationalism; this is only possible due to a centralised state education system maintained by a national government. Nationalism and the modern state work in tandem with one another, the socialisation of nationalism ensures their existence.

 

Inspiration to undertake this research

Having read Bourdieu as an undergraduate, I felt his analysis of class formation was comprehensive and insightful yet surprisingly under utilised in relation to wider aspects of society. Whilst studying Gellner, I felt Bourdieu’s frame analysis would provide the means by which to gain a deeper understanding of Gellner’s core theory. This provides us with the ‘socialisation of nationalism’, and the ‘missing ink’ of the title.

Having been born with the gift of dual nationality my personal relationship with both identities is somewhat ambivalent. This is mainly due to the contentiousness of these almost opposing nationalities (Irish and English). From an early age it was apparent that both had contrasting points of view regarding historical and political events (one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter). The drives and motivations behind these nationalisms fascinated me. Why are some people fervent nationalists and others less engaged?  Though Gellner verbalized some of what I had ruminated on, his theory did not entirely clarify the how of nationalism: how does nationalism come into being. I felt Gellner provided a ‘why’ of nationalism but not the ‘how’.

 

An in-depth look into one aspect of the dissertation

That nationalism is socialised is substantiated by the analysis of text books. It is further reinforced by the chapter entitled ‘national habitus’, which could be referred to as ‘observable manifestations of national habitus’. This provides a supporting body of evidence to support the claim that nationalism is socialized and identifies a variety of ways in which the nation is embodied and performed or enacted in the context of everyday social life.

Bourdieu employed the concepts of doxa, habitus, and hexis to reveal the dynamics of social construction in society. I demonstrate how these ideas can be applied to the reproduction of nationhood. In Bourdieu’s terminology doxa refers to that what is taken for granted in any particular society. When applied to nationalism, national doxa denotes culturally specific behaviours, attitudes, traditions, customs and norms which remain more or less unquestioned within that societal group.

A national doxa is more or less culturally specific, imbued through a subject’s surroundings, reinforcing the national identity of the bearer. It is in the unconscious embodiment of belonging to a social group. The national hexis is the actual physical incarnation of a national doxa. The examples discussed in this chapter illustrate clearly that these bland and innocuous instances both fortify and reinforce the nation, binding together the collective community. The examples discussed in this chapter cover aspects of behaviour such as differing national cutlery usage and greeting customs. Also discussed are aspects of society which in themselves reinforce national socialisation such as time zones, maps and stamps.

The origins of these behaviours can be reconstructed. Specifically, how they operate as subliminal markers of national identity, which become tacit and taken for granted actions. We could refer to these as nation-centric behaviours, beliefs, or values. Such qualities are imbued through the process of socialisation and have been clearly imparted through the channels of society. This could be described as either the process of nationalist socialisation or nation-centric socialisation. Normative behaviours which are the accepted codes of conduct we use to identify with co-nationals and distinguish us from ‘others’.

 

Perspective on the fields of nationalism, ethnicity, and race

The study of nationalism, ethnicity and race is pivotal to the human experience as they have become markers by which we initially define ourselves and others. Thus their attendant potency if unexamined could feasibly make them the most dangerous of influences. By examining such fields, we defuse the possibility of the misuse of these cultural signifiers.

 

Reflections on the job market

As we live in an era in which neo-liberal market economics have infiltrated many aspects of life including academia we are witnessing a rapidly changing job market which appears to offer less and less security or space for the creative process. If everything is to be boiled down to its pure economic value, the future does not look bright for the humanities. I think as a whole the field must learn somehow to fight back or we will observe its slow and steady decline. The role the humanities plays in deepening the human experience and its contemporary relevance must somehow be made apparent.

 

If you recently defended a Ph.D. in the fields of nationalism, ethnicity, identity, and/or race and would like to be featured on our blog, please visit here for more information on how to submit your dissertation abstract.

Exhibiting ‘Turkishness’ at a Time of Flux in Turkey: An Ethnography of the State

Exhibiting ‘Turkishness’ at a Time of Flux in Turkey: An Ethnography of the State

Canan Nese Karahasan

(Department of Sociology, University of Edinburgh, UK, 2015)

Supervisors: Michael Rosie, James Kennedy

 

Canan Nese Karahasan recently received her Ph.D. degree in sociology from the University of Edinburgh. Her Ph.D. research is an ethnographic study of the state, focusing on exhibiting oppositionary, namely secular Republic and Islamic Ottoman, pasts of ‘Turkishness’ in competing state museums (Anıtkabir and Topkapı Palace museums) at a time of flux in Turkey. Her research interests include Turkish nationalism, museums, ethnography of the state, and secularism and Islam in Turkey.

 

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Dissertation abstract

This thesis investigates the contested processes of displaying ‘Turkishness’ in competing state museums in Turkey at a time when over the last decade secularist-Kemalist state power has been overturned under neo-Islamist Justice and Development Party government. It poses the question: how are the oppositionary – namely secular Republican and Islamic Ottoman – pasts of ‘Turkishness’ remembered, forgotten, and negotiated in Anıtkabir, Atatürk’s mausoleum, and Topkapı Palace Museum, the imperial house at a time of flux in Turkey? Anıtkabir, under the command of the Turkish Armed Forces, the guardian of secularism, and Topkapı Palace, linked to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, an arm of the government, are more than pedagogical warehouses of the state, displaying contending pasts. They are state institutions, endowed with diverse power sources in exhibiting the binaries of ‘Turkishness’ polarised between West-modern-secular and East-backward-Islam.

Through an ethnography of these agencies of the state, this research traces the negotiation processes of exhibiting the competing pasts of ‘Turkishness’. The focus of this study is twofold. First, it explores how different bureaucratic practices in Anıtkabir and Topkapı Palace museums act as power mechanisms among museum staff and vis-à-vis visitors. Second, it looks at the ensuing representations of ‘Turkishness’. ‘Civil servant mentality’, as coined by the members of the museum staff in Topkapı Palace, and being ‘servants of the state’, as expressed by the cultural producers of Anıtkabir Museum, work in reproducing and challenging established power relations. In both museums, bureaucracy safeguards the Kemalist imagination of ‘Turkishness’ that replaced the decadence of the Empire with the formation of the modern Republic. Competing traditions and national days pertaining to Islamic Ottoman and secular Republican histories are re-invented both through daily museum performances and museum events that fall beyond the bureaucracy of exhibition-making. However, formal/informal processes of exhibition-making reveal that these institutions do not reproduce stable categories of Islamism/neo-Ottomanism or secularism/neo-Kemalism. Binaries of ‘Turkishness’ are crystallised through Topkapı Palace and Anıtkabir museums’ perceptions of their visitors and their re-enactment of competing fragments of history. Museums’ institutional ‘high culture(s)’ reflect on the ways in which they relate to the competing pasts they are exhibiting. In Topkapı Palace Museum, a Westernised-modernised ‘high culture’ and imperial life are portrayed, while Anıtkabir simultaneously re-sacralises and humanises Atatürk’s cult in creating a ‘horizontal comradeship’. Therefore, this study argues that binaries of ‘Turkishness’ are not irreconcilable; rather they are reversed, negotiated, and transformed in the quest for state power in the everyday practices of these museum bureaucracies.

 

Inspiration to undertake this research

As the child of an architect working in the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, I spent a considerable amount of my childhood running around in museum courtyards and exhibition halls. Besides my emotional attachment to museums, my point of departure was to see how the Turkish state re-imagines the ‘homogenous time’ of the nation and displays an image of ‘Turkishness’ in its museums. More specifically, I was interested in the transformation of this state-shaped image of nationness at a time when the Kemalist-secularist state power and its official state ideology have been overturned by the neo-Islamist Justice and Development Party government. Within this context, I wanted to see how the Turkish state, in its contested form, negotiates and displays oppositionary pasts of ‘Turkishness’ in its own museums. While state museums act as mirrors of the state, as institutions endowed with competing sources of power they function differently and prepare displays accordingly. Therefore, among many state museums in Turkey, I focused on Topkapı Palace and Anıtkabir museums, not only due to the competing pasts they are displaying but also the competing institutions and power networks they are affiliated with.

 

An in-depth look into one aspect of the dissertation

The making of ‘Turkishness’ by competing actors of the state entails ‘choreography’ (Kadıoğlu and Keyman 2011) between binaries of West/East, secular/sacred, modern/backward, and oppressed/oppressor. These binaries do not merely overlap or coincide. Likewise, they are not only overturned, but also reconciled and transformed in the quest for power. Topkapı Palace Museum shifts an image of the corrupt Islamic Ottoman Empire and hails an image of already modern sultans and palace life. In Anıtkabir, the secular Republican past and the National Struggle are displayed as popular movements led not by a symbolic and distant cult, but by the human Atatürk as a religiously traditional yet secular figure. Therefore, within the political polarisation of Turkey, these museums do not merely reproduce Islamist or secularist versions of Turkish history. Instead, they reconcile, negotiate, and thereby transform the binaries that reproduce this polarisation.

These findings reflect upon Raphael Samuel’s suggestion to view the ‘invention of tradition as a process rather than an event’ (2012:17). This research does not seek to identify events, artefacts and exhibitions in their relation to fixed binaries of ‘Turkishness’ such as West/East; secular/Islamic; good/bad; oppressed/oppressor. Rather, it traces the making of ‘Turkishness’ through the creation of competing ‘high culture[s]’ associated with these binaries. Unlike Gellner’s (1983) universalistic and standardised notion of ‘high culture’, these processes distinguish and elevate particularistic understandings of ‘ourselves’ and ‘our history’.

 

Perspective on the fields of nationalism, ethnicity, and race

I pursue an ‘eventful approach’ (Brubaker 1996) to nationalism to highlight the contested processes that make up nationhood and ethnicity. These processes are embedded in the minute details of everyday life and in a network of ‘power sources’ (Mann 1986). They reveal the ways in which nationhood and ethnicity are constructed, negotiated, and transformed by different stakeholders, disrupting the taken-for-granted binaries about ‘ourselves’ and ‘the others’. This approach moves beyond dichotomous ways of studying nationalism, which categorise nationhood or ethnicity in binary oppositionary categories (Western/Eastern, ethnic/civic, and good/bad forms of nationalisms). Likewise, it also shifts the focus away from monolithic approaches, which view nationness or ethnic identities as ‘one-way’ (top-down/bottom-up) constructions. Without undermining the role of the state, I approach ‘the state’ as disunity and with a particular emphasis on its daily (inter-institutional and intra-institutional) power mechanisms. I provide a perspective from within the state, which deliberates, negotiates, and reproduces nationhood through its routine bureaucracy and decision-making processes.

 

Reflections on the job market

I believe that there is a growing need for ethnographic research that concentrates on processes, daily routines, and power struggles through which nationhood and ethnicity are reproduced and transformed. A focus on processes not only deconstructs the binaries of nationhood and ethnic identities (us/the others, secular/sacred, Western/Eastern, and good/bad forms of nationalism), but also demonstrates the ways in which they are utilised, negotiated, and transformed by different (state and non-state) actors. Within this competitive academic environment producing an ever-growing scholarly literature, such research would take us beyond the peculiarities of our case studies towards new horizons for thinking about nationalism and ethnicity. Besides comparative and historical studies, it is significant to bring different dimensions of nationalism and ethnicity together, emphasising the ways in which religion, ethnicity, race, gender, class, and nationhood intermingle. While such intersectional approaches are far from novel, it is not sufficient to show the overlapping and invented natures of nationhood and ethnicity. These phenomena are not invented once and for all by drawing on such different aspects. They are constantly deliberated, (un)made, and transformed. These processes are intricately related with remembering and forgetting the past(s) through which ‘our history’ and ‘ourselves’ are imagined. I think that interdisciplinary cooperation between nationalism, ethnicity and social memory studies is also significant.

 

If you recently defended a Ph.D. in the fields of nationalism, ethnicity, identity, and/or race and would like to be featured on our blog, please visit here for more information on how to submit your dissertation abstract.

Amazigh Culture and Media: Migration and Identity in Songs, Films and Websites

Amazigh Culture and Media: Migration and Identity in Songs, Films and Websites

Abdelbasset Dahraoui

(Department of Media Studies, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2014)

Supervisors: Patricia Pisters and Daniela Merolla

 

Dr. Abdelbasset Dahraoui was born in Morocco in 1976 and received his master’s degree in cultural analysis from The University of Amsterdam in 2006. On 29 April 2014, he successfully defended his Ph.D.  thesis from the department of Media Studies from the same university. Currently, he is a member of the advisory committee of The Prince Bernhard Culture Fund [Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds], The Hague, The Netherlands and member of the advisory board of Africa Book Link [Boechout, Belguim].

 

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Dissertation abstract

Five decades ago, the exodus of Amazigh people from the Moroccan Rif region and their re-settlement to Europe began. Since then the notion of migration is constitutive to their subjectivity, where Imazighen perceptions of migration are usually ambivalent and problematic. Although parts of the Amazigh community tend to see migration as a threat to their cultural identity and memory, other parts of the community consider it to be a journey or a process during which the identity of an Amazigh migrant is partially re-constituted. This thesis deals explicitly with this tension.

Migration is a fluid process that has a beginning and an uncertain end, and many Imazighen attempt to articulate their identity within this uncertainty. Many reify their culture and try to create a sort of temporal certainty in their existence by portraying Amazigh culture as a stable, rooted culture, born and developed in North Africa. However, these reactions show the attitude of a community in extremis struggling against oppression in Morocco and against rejection in diaspora. It is important to note that many European states have recently become less welcome in offering re-settlement for immigrants. Like other minority groups in Europe, Imazighen have become the scapegoat of many far-right parties and their supporters. Diasporic Imazighen are now trying to articulate their identity in these uncertain environments.

In view of the contemporary uncertainty, I question the roles the Amazigh media play in highlighting and assisting the construction and re-articulation of identities concerning the situations in which many Imazighen live. To respond to these questions, I build on and extend Benedict Anderson’s model that regards a nation-state as an ‘imagined community’ that acquires a political consciousness through the exposure of its inhabitants to printed media (2006:6). I argue that the Amazigh media form a common ground for Imazighen both in Morocco and in diaspora, and that these media shape Amazigh consciousness and play a part in enhancing and re-generating a transnational Amazigh identity. That is to say, this imagined community makes use of media, such as songs, films, and websites, to enhance Amazigh transnational identity.

My thesis is situated in the interdisciplinary fields of media studies, literary theory, cultural anthropology, and socio-economic theory. My methodological framework is intertextual reading based on Mikhail Bakhtin’s idea of the dialogic interaction between what he calls ‘real and represented worlds’ (Bakhtin:254). I make use of this methodology to highlight the meanings yielded from semiotic interactions within and resulting from cinema, music, and internet forums. I build on Bakhtin’s idea of interaction to demonstrate that the media I address in this thesis have internal dialogues, dialogues with other texts, and dialogues with ‘the environment that surrounds them’ (1984:184-85).

 

Bibliography

Anderson, Benedict. O’G. 2006. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism. Revised edition. London: Verso.

Bakhtin, Mikhail. 1988. The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays, ed. Michael Holquist. Trans. Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist. Austin: University of Texas Press.

———. 1984. Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics, ed. and trans. Caryl Emerson. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Karim, H. Karim. 2003. ‘Mapping the Diapsoric Mediascape’. In The Media of Diaspora, ed. Karim H. Karim. London: Routledge.

 

Inspiration to undertake this research

Given that my MA research revolves about Amazigh music and a sense of identity, it was difficult for me to find academic works that deal with the issues of cultural artifacts and identity construction as far the Amazigh community is concerned, they are indeed scarce. I am also part of this Amazigh community which left North Africa and settled in the space of migration. These among other reasons inspired me to conduct research that looks at the way this migratory group makes use of cultural productions, such as songs, films and websites, to re-articulate our cultural identity.

 

An in-depth look into one aspect of the dissertation

One important aspect of my dissertation is dialogism and polyphony in Amazigh websites.

In light of Mikhail Bakhtin’s concepts of dialogism and polyphony, I argue that many Amazigh websites allocate spaces where different voices express their divergent perspectives on topics vital for Imazighen in the Rif region and diaspora—especially in relation to the idea of home and cultural identity. In addition, I highlight how these websites assist in the interaction of Amazigh voices and elements at various levels, addressing and reflecting issues of communal interest to Imazighen. I contend that ‘home’, which usually symbolises stability and certainty, takes on another dimension online and becomes a complex process that involves various elements. In The Media of Diaspora, Karim writes, ‘Diaspora re-create home by instilling such resonance into the spaces they occupy; they do it with their languages, customs, art forms, arrangement of objects and ideas’ (2003:10). Here the meaning of home is the resonance of the livelihood of a particular community living in a geographical location, carved in spaces occupied by subjects who are far away from this location and believe that they are part of that community. Imazighen throughout the world believe they belong to Tamazgha, a politically and territorially unified Maghreb, or North Africa, and try to re-create home in the spaces they occupy. For instance, Riffian Imazighen in diaspora consider Amazigh websites as home because in and through these spaces they can gather, interact, re-articulate their cultural identity, learn the latest news about the Rif area, see the role of the past in the re-construction of their current identity and discuss and stimulate the use of their native language. These websites provide provisional certainty for their Amazigh users concerning their identity and the idea of ‘belonging’.

Amazigh websites address a range of issues such as the evolution of the Amazigh migration from Morocco, the uncertainty of migrants in their host country, cultural identities of Amazigh diasporas, memory, mobility of both migrants and Imazighen in their country of origin, and fantasies and desires relating to migration. Here, I focus mainly on the subject of ‘home online’ on the Amazigh websites: dalil-rif.com, agraw.com, and timazighin.nl. These sites allow visitors to access free articles, music, and films. They also provide space for chat rooms and discussion forums where participants can interact and share data. In effect, I use a combination of media, literary, and social theories to show the dialogic nature of these Amazigh websites that many Imazighen consider as online homes and examine the meanings that emerge out of these dialogues. I argue that ‘home online’, or the hominess procured online, for many Imazighen is an inspiration created by a necessity to interact and bond in an increasingly fragmented and chaotic world. Home online is also an idea projected by diasporic Imazighen into Amazigh websites to help to alleviate uncertainty and sustain and assist them in the process of re-articulating their cultural identity.

 

Perspective on the fields of nationalism, ethnicity, and race

In effect, nationalism, ethnicity and race are closely interrelated. The idea of a nation, ethnic group or a race depends on the perspectives of those who believe in these ideas. And given that people’s perspectives are shaped, affected and somehow determined by their expectations, knowledge and beliefs, that are set in memories, narratives and discourses. Therefore, I see nationalism, ethnicity and race as three invented and ongoing fields that are mutating, and at the same time, interacting with each other continuously, as they are addressed in disciplinary and interdisciplinary research. I do not see the idea of a nation, for instance, in terms of common territory, history and political arrangements; instead, for me the idea of a nation is constituted when a significant number of individuals in a community accentuate their belief in the fact that they constitute a nation.

 

Reflections on the job market

It is difficult to assess the job market for those who are in the fields of nationalism, ethnicity and race because it depends on many factors, such as the researcher him/herself and his/her aspirations, how universities make and spend their money, the significance of these fields in a particular university, the impact of the economic crisis or growth on universities, and the particular country.

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