A ‘European Migrant Crisis’? Some Thoughts on Mediterranean Borders

By Annalisa Lendaro

Volume 16, Issue 1, pages 148-157

Abstract

This paper addresses the ongoing ‘European Migrant Crisis’ by, first, discussing the return of internal borders within the European Union as zones for controlling and sorting migrants, and then both internal and external borders as areas in which policing and national policy choices deeply challenge international law, which was designed to protect all human beings regardless of their country of departure. The primary argument developed here is that some EU countries neglect to abide by the European and international regulations on migration, asylum seekers, and human rights, with unprecedented consequences. Border policies are presented here as paradoxical governmental tools, which are not applied equally and uniformly. The main consequence is the growing gap between rights guaranteed under the law and their selective application within a border management where the state of exception is increasingly visible.

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Ethnic and Regionalist Parties in Western Europe: A Party Family?

By Andreas Fagerholm

Volume 16, Issue 2, pages 304-399

Abstract

Parties that defend the interest of one or a few ethnic groups and/or regions are, despite their differences, recurrently grouped together into a single party family. This article systematically applies the multidimensional framework offered by Mair and Mudde in order to provide an up-to-date inventory of the universe of ethnic and regionalist parties in Western Europe and assess whether they form a family. The evidence indicates that although the ethnic and regionalist family appears to be somewhat less coherent than more established families, there are clear similarities between the proposed (core) member parties. More specifically, the common denominators that distinguish the members of the ethnic and regionalist party family are their rather similar origins, sociologies, and policy orientations.

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The Syrian Uprising: Imagining and Performing the Nation

By Salwa Ismail

Volume 11, Issue 3, pages 538-549

Abstract

The uprisings that are sweeping through the Arab world have brought to the fore challenges that emerge in processes of political-community-making. Integral to these challenges are questions of political peoplehood, which interrogate the narratives and histories of the nation.2 In the Syrian case, these questions point to the constraints on collective action and feelings of trepidation towards the political changes that could occur once the existing regime falls. In this essay, I discuss the ‘fear of sectarianism’ as a factor shaping how the protest movement is constituted, as well as the modes of action pursued by participants and leaders of the Syrian uprising. This factor, I argue, has played an important role in crystallising a certain vision of the political community while, at the same time, informing a re-imagining of the nation.

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‘Carnivals of Surplus Emotion?’ Towards an Understanding of the Significance of Ecstatic Nationalism in a Globalising World

By Michael Skey

Volume 6, Issue 2, pages 143-161

Abstract

This paper focuses on public events that celebrate the nation and how they may offer important insights into the study of wider discourses of (national) identity and belonging. Drawing on theories from both anthropology and media studies, it argues that these events should not be simply dismissed as sudden outbursts of patriotic emotion but instead can be used to extend Billig’s work on Banal Nationalism (1995) by analysing in more detail the relationship between the banal and the ecstatic. This approach to the study of such events will also echo the calls of those who have argued that we need to move beyond the functionalism of a Durkheimian position (Couldry 2003). This conceptual framework will then be used to provide a definition of what I have tentatively labelled ‘ecstatic nationalism’. In the final section, Sassen’s (2000) concept of the ‘strategic lens’ will be used to illustrate how such events may offer a significant opportunity for studying the complex subject of national identity during relatively bounded and liminal moments in an era that has been widely characterised as ‘globalising’ (Featherstone 1990).

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The Ethnic and Civic Foundations of Citizenship and Identity in the Horn of Africa

By Redie Bereketeab

Volume 11, Issue 1, pages 63-81

Abstract

The article seeks to analyse the ethic and civic forms of citizenship and identity in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia and to some extent Sudan are pursuing the ethnic model. While Eritrea and Djibouti pursue the civic model, Somalia represents a special case. Ethnic citizenship may guarantee equal rights, self-rule, and self-fulfilment; however, it could also be a cause of division and irredentism. Civic citizenship could create unity and cohesion in polyethnic societies; it could also lead to majority domination. The article contends that both models are relevant where the national level could be served by the civic model and the sub-national is served by the ethnic model. The article concludes that the politics of domination are the main obstacle to the equal rights of citizens, and therefore politics of domination should be replaced by the politics of rights.

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