Tag Archives: language

SEN News Bites: May 5 -11

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Here’s another roundup of some of the news related to ethnicity and nationalism found on the web this week. Keep an eye on this blog for weekly updates!

 

NBC News (05/05/2014) reports the results of new research indicating that 10 million Americans, especially Hispanics, as well as Americans of mixed race, American Indians and Pacific Islanders, changed their race or Hispanic-origin categories when filling out the 2010 census.

The Independent (06/05/2014) reports the results of a newly published report by the think tank Policy Exchange suggesting that the numbers of people from ethnic minority communities in Britain could double by 2050 totalling between 20 and 30% of the population.

SETimes.com (07/05/2014) features an article linking the unveiling of a monument to Pope John II in Sarajevo to multi-ethnic politics and reconciliation.

Ahramonline (07/05/2014) reports on the protests of members of the Oromo community in Cairo over the killings of many ethnic Oromos in Ethiopia.

Myanmar’s Newsmagazine The Irrawady (09/05/2014) features an article detailing the concerns of ethnic Chin organisations in Myanmar over the question of ethnicity in the country’s recent national census.

WantChinaTimes.com (09/05/2014) reports on the ANC’s campaigning strategies among the ethnic Chinese community in South Africa during the electoral campaign in the run up to the country’s elections last week.

Hungarian website Politics.HU (10/05/2014) features a brief report on the Hungarian state secretariat’s preparation of a teaching-aid package for Hungarian diaspora Sunday schools.

Reuters (10/05/2014) reports on the pledge by the newly re-elected Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to stand up for autonomy for ethnic Hungarians beyond borders.

The Indian Express (11/05/2014) reports on the campaign of local activists in the state of Tripura in north-east India to promote Roman script for Kokborok, the native tongue spoken by many of the tribes in that state.

News compiled by Anastasia Voronkova

If you would like to write a response to any of these news stories, please email us at sen@lse.ac.uk.

SEN News on Sunday: January 12 – 19, 2014

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  • The New York Times (19/01/14) explores the topic of education and nationalism in Israel, as Arabs grapple with what curriculum to teach children.
  • The Japan Times (19/01/14) also looks at nationalism and language education in East Asian countries, and argues that “English-language education is fraught with deeper undercurrents of language protectionism and national identity”.

Continue reading →

From Dissidence in Israel to Theorising Ethno-Linguistic Holism

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articlespotlight

Inter-connections between our past academic articles and last week’s news, read it here:

Bent Twigs and Olive Branches: Exploring the Narratives of Dissident Israeli Jews Volume 13, Issue 1, pages 20–37, April 2013

This article explores symbolic boundaries and identity-formation of the ‘ethnonational Us’, using narrative analysis of eleven Israeli-Jewish dissidents. The hegemonic nationalist discourse in Israel – Zionism – constructs the dissidents’ identities as the ‘Virtuous Us’, yet these individuals genuinely try to connect with the ‘Demonized Palestinian Other’. I suggest that the dissidents attempt to use alternative national identity discourses to overcome symbolic boundaries. I highlight inconsistencies within individual dissidents’ narratives and attribute them to the employment of multiple discourses, suggesting that some discourses fail to coherently reconcile ‘national’ history with the well-being of the Other, whilst others repel dissidents by appearing to negate or destroy their identities. The dissidents, therefore, cannot use the available discourses to fully overcome symbolic boundaries. Only the hegemonic nationalist discourse can offer a self-evident and compelling enunciation of the dissidents’ political reality, leading one insightful dissident to conclude that there is ‘no way out’ of his dilemma.

A Holistic Approach to Language, Religion, and Ethnicity Volume 13, Issue 1, pages 101–104, April 2013

If language, religion, ethnicity, and nation are all sources and forms of social distinction and personal identification, what happens when these categories/identities overlap or cut across each other? How are these terms used in everyday contexts, and what can we learn from the slippages between them? In light of these two questions, we question Brubaker’s sanguinity regarding religious and language pluralism in the twenty-first century.

SEN News on Sunday: August 29 – September 1, 2013

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Migration is Changing the World (Part 3/3)

  • The Guardian (29/08/13) reports on the claim that Westminster’s welfare reforms could actually strengthen the case for independence.
  • Bloomberg.com (29/08/13) features an article by Paul Collier, who argues that nationalism could combat racism rather than inflame it.
  • The Economist (28/08/13) blogs about recent studies which designed methods of ranking languages on a universal scale of difficulty.
  • NPR.org (28/08/13) features a unique audio-visual experiment which reflects on the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington, one of the largest civil rights rallies in U.S. history, and where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his iconic “I have a dream” speech.
  • 972mag.com (27/08/13) analyses the creation of national identity in Israel, in light of the country’s proposed controversial law, “the Basic Law: Israel – the Nation-State of the Jewish People”.

Stay tuned for SEN Article Spotlights, which will be posted later in the week.

News compiled by Karen Seegobin.

If you would like to write a response to any of these news stories, please email us at sen@lse.ac.uk.