The BNG’s (Bloque Nacionalista Galego) rise to being the second largest regional force in Galicia’s autonomous parliament can be attributed to a political structure which provided favourable opportunities to nationalist parties. Similarly, the SNP’s rise was due to favourable circumstances created by devolution. In his article Ramon Maiz cites the complex organisational work and clear ideological moderation of the BNG as its way of eliminating immediate rivals, a framework in which the SNP has also operated. Maiz points out that decentralisation was clearly responsible for policies which led to the promotion of Galician culture, language and economy. In the United Kingdom, as in Spain, decentralisation seems to be a key step in in the secessionist process. Read more in:
‘Making Opportunities: Contemporary Evolution of Galician Nationalism in Spain (1982-2001)’ by Ramon Maiz – Vol.3 No.2 2003
As part of our current series on Scotland and secessionist movements, SEN Journal: Online Exclusives is excited to present this original piece by Professor Daniele Conversi, Research Professor at the University of the Basque Country and the Ikerbasque Foundation for Science, who has written about the wider issue of secessionist politics and the state.
One can study the new secessionist wave in the West and elsewhere from a number of perspectives: by looking at how nationalist leaders mobilize their constituencies, at the form of the state, at the international dimension, and so on. However, I believe what is paramount is that we are witnessing a rather precipitous fall of political legitimacy of the neoliberal state. Beyond nationalism, this can be seen in the rapid rise of anti-system movements, like the M-15 or indignados (aka “outraged”) in Spain, Beppe Grillo’s direct democracy movement in Italy, the Occupy movement in the USA, UK and elsewhere, and the electoral gains of Syriza in Greece, each of them with its different organizational roots, but all deeply dedicated to change the current political system. At the same time, the spread of populism, often accompanied by anti-Europeanism, threatens to twist the European Union’s hard-won achievement of tolerance through a seemingly unstoppable wave of xenophobia, Islamophobia and racism – a trend amplified by the challenge of the extremists’ intense online activism (Conversi 2012a).
Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism (SEN) is currently seeking authors to write reviews for our upcoming special issue on “Ethnicity, Nationalism and Education”. The reviews are intended for publication in SEN volume 13 number 3 (2013). The deadline for submission of finished review articles is 1 June 2013 (early submission is greatly appreciated).
Authors are welcome to review volumes of their own choice, as long as they deal with the topic of “Ethnicity, Nationalism and Education” and have been published within the last two years. Examples of relevant themes that may be discussed in the books under review include:
• Hegemonic education and ethnic minorities
• Cultural autonomy and education
• Schools and nationalist education
• Educational attainment and xenophobia
• Education and nation-building in developing countries
Please forward suggestions for reviews along with any questions or queries to the SEN book review editors at sen.reviews@lse.ac.uk
SEN’s review guidelines can be found here.
“Nationalisms and the Workplace”
Diversity management approaches often struggle in conceptualizing employees’ diverse origins and descents as a relevant dimension of diversity. Usually origin and descent are adumbrated under the ambiguous constructs of race or ethnicity, and the concept of racism is utilized to explain origin-based mechanisms of exclusion. In doing so scant attention is paid to employees’ nationality, a contingent construct massively loaded with stereotypes that influence everyday workplace-situations, especially for those employees who are not perceived as “domestic” in terms of their nationality in different national settings. Taking into account that the dimensions of ethnicity, race, nationality, and also religion are not clear-cut phenomena, and very often interact within individuals and workplace situations they are confronted with, this stream wants to put an emphasis on nationality and nationalisms.