Local Youth Work as Subpolitics of Multiculturalism: Professional Educators Constructing New Rationales in Eastern Finland?

By Antti Kivijärvi

Volume 10, Issue 2, pages 204-220

Abstract

This article examines how the notion of multiculturalism is defined at the level of Finnish youth work. Local youth work is examined as a subpolitical arena in a rapidly changing and culturally diversifying society where answers by public institutions are not available. The essential objective of this article is to unravel the rationales of multicultural subpolitics and examine which policies these rationales enable. The data of the study consists of ethnographic observations of and interviews with youth workers in eastern Finland. The results of the study indicate that the subpolitics of multiculturalism are implemented through strategies of rationalisation and governance of minority populations rather than by recognising national and cultural ambivalences. The thesis is that such (sub)politics may reinforce the risk of cultural and ethnic demarcations among young people.

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Earlier this year we published a virtual issue commemorating 70 years of communist rule in China. This virtual issue has been put together to explore various aspects of Chinese state-society relations, including state-led education, nationalism and patriotism, challenges to governance and resistance to it from civil society activists, young intellectuals and other actors. Covering both historical and contemporary periods in China’s modern history, the selected articles collectively demonstrate the ambiguities of asserting a nationalist ideology in China, discursive practices, including those at the local level(s), and debates over national identity. Some of the articles also reflect on the origins of the ‘one country, two systems’ framework, which has come to the fore, particularly recently, in the context of the ongoing protests in Hong Kong.

See the full list of articles here.

Politics of Primordial Loyalties and Its Transnational Dimensions: Tamilness as Pan‐ethnic and Supranational

By Athithan Jayapalan

Volume 17, Issue 2, pages 245-264

Abstract

The article pertains to the pan‐ethnic and transnational dimensions of contemporary political and cultural interaction and orientations between diverse ethnically/culturally and linguistically kindred ethnic groups such as Tamils. It explores the transnational dimensions and dynamics of habitats of meaning, identity formations, political cosmology/world view among kindred ethnic groups and their relation to historical processes, events of violence and trauma, and transnational communication, information, and travel technologies. The dynamics between kindred ethnic groups, facilitated by the technological advances and accessibility in the period of accelerated globalization, enhance engagement and attachment centred on primordial loyalties, cultural and ethnic/linguistic sentiments, and identity. The subsequent social interaction constitutes pan‐ethnic or trans/supra‐national political cosmologies/imagery and moral community. Beside the central role of cultural similarity and meaning, historical connectivity, or transnational technology and processes, it is historical events/moments of state violence and injustice which prove a central condition in enabling transnational political solidarity and engagement between people who would otherwise have imagined their linkages differently.

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Ghetto–Society–Problem: A Discourse Analysis of Nationalist Othering

By Kristina Bakkær Simonsen

Volume 16, Issue 1, pages 83-99

Abstract

This article examines the role of the ghetto in Danish political discourse. While ghetto studies have previously been conducted within the field of urban sociology, the article departs from this tradition in offering a discourse analytical perspective on the former Danish government’s strategy against ghettoization (The Ghetto Plan). Integrating perspectives from the literature on nationalism with Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse analytical framework, the analysis argues that the ghetto marks an antagonistic anti‐identity to Danish society. This discursive construction of the ghetto against society has the effect of confirming Danish identity, while at the same time precluding possibilities of the ghetto’s integration in society. Highlighting these implications, the study feeds into societal debates on integration, and suggests a framework for studying nationalist othering in a discourse analytical perspective.

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Sectarianism and Political Order in Iraq and Lebanon

By Adham Saouli

Volume 19, Issue 1, pages 67-87

Abstract

Although Iraq and Lebanon are deeply divided societies, they have followed varying political trajectories. Whilst Lebanon has accommodated sectarianism within a consociational democracy since its inception, until 2003 Iraq had an authoritarian regime that ostensibly repressed sectarianism. However, after 2003, Iraqi politics began to converge with the consociationalism of Lebanon. Taking a longitudinal approach, the study explains this puzzle by focusing on one factor: sectarianism. It asks how and why sectarianism has shaped the political trajectories and regime types in the two cases and, conversely, how sectarianism has been shaped by these trajectories and regimes.

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