Tag Archives: national identity

SEN News Bites: 25-31 August 2014

The Diplomat (26/08/2014) features a piece on the implications that the Dokdo Islands territorial dispute between Japan and South Korea might have for Korean self-understanding and national identity.

 

Eurasia Review (28/08/2014) features a piece reflecting on the roots and contradictions of the spiral of suspicions and insecurities in Japan, South Korea and China.

 

The Guardian (29/08/2014) features an opinion piece on the different kinds of Russian nationalism and their influence on the current Russian policies in Ukraine.

 

Myanmar Times (30/08/2014) features a report giving details of a recent plea by a senior Buddhist monk to representatives of all parties in Myanmar to prioritise nationalism over human rights.

 

DailyNews Egypt (30/08/2014) features a piece on contemporary Egyptian national identity and cultural values.

 

AsiaOne World (31/08/2014) features an extended report on how the indigenous inhabitants of Guatemala, ethnic Mayans, drove an ultra Orthodox Jewish community out of the region.

 

The Straits Times (31/08/2014) reports on the opening of a new museum in Jakarta, Indonesia recognising the valuable contribution made by Chinese community in Indonesia to the struggle for the country’s independence.

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 Bites, May 26- June 2

 

Here’s another roundup of some of the key news found on the web this week!

Gardabani_03_Cropped

Research from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (27/05/2014) indicates that the number of people from ethnic minority groups has been consistently growing in Scotland.

The Washington Post (28/05/2014) features a piece on the results of the recent European elections.

Trinidad Express Newspapers (29/05/2014) reports on the recent plea by the Minister of National Diversity of Trinidad and Tobago to combat intolerance and ethnic bias.

The Derry Journal (29/05/2014) reports on the planned festival aimed at celebrating diversity and promoting community relations in Derry~Londonderry.

The National (01/06/2014) features an opinion piece analysing contemporary Emirati identity.

Democracy and Freedom Watch (02/06/2014) reports on increasing ethnic tensions and feared violence in the eastern Georgian town of Gardabani.

 

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.

Article Spotlights Round-Up: Contemporary European Far-Right, Tibet, Quebec

articlespotlight Read on for some SEN articles that reflect on some news items reported on the blog over the past several weeks:

Landscapes of ‘Othering’ in Postwar and Contemporary Germany: The Limits of the ‘Culture of Contrition’ and the Poverty of the Mainstream, Aristotle Kallis, Volume 12, Issue 2, October 2012, pp. 387-407.

In the 1930s the National Socialist regime embarked on a chillingly ambitious and fanatical project to ‘remake’ German society and ‘race’ by deploying a peerless – in both kind and intensity – repertoire of ‘othering’ strategies and measures directed at the Jews, the Sinti/Roma, and non-conformist groups within the Third Reich. At the heart of this campaign was the notion of a ‘zero-sum’ confrontation between the nation/race and its perceived ‘enemies’: namely, that the existence of these ‘enemies’ within German society threatened the very foundations of the German ‘race’ and posed the gravest threat to its mere survival. To what extent can the experience of the 1930s aggressive, violent, and eventually murderous ‘zero-sum’ mindset provide crucial insights into contemporary discourses of ‘othering’, linked with the European radical-populist right but increasingly ‘infecting’ the social and political mainstream? The contemporary ‘ethno-pluralist’ framing of the discussion divulges the persistence of a similar ‘zero-sum’ mentality that is nurtured by socio-economic and cultural insecurity, on the one hand, and powerful long-standing prejudices against particular groups, on the other. The article explores this ‘zero-sum’ insecurity mindset in the anti-immigration ‘mainstream’ discourses in the Federal Republic of Germany, both before and after re-unification. It demonstrates how – in contrast to the postwar ‘culture of contrition’ with regard to the memory of the Holocaust – this mindset continues to be a powerful political and psychological refuge for societal insecurities that has an enduring appeal to significant audiences well beyond the narrow political constituencies of the radical right.

Post-communist extremism in Eastern Europe: The nature of the phenomenon, Othon Anastakis, Volume 1, Issue 2, September 2001, pp. 15-26.

The recent electoral gains of extreme right parties in many countries of Europe have made European citizens realise that the extreme right is not to be regarded exclusively as a fringe phenomenon but as a force that can penetrate mainstream democratic politics. The resilience and occasional rise of the radical right poses a serious challenge for social scientists and policy makers. Social scientists are called upon to examine the nature of the phenomenon, the factors conducive to the existence and resilience of the forces of extremism and the impact of far right political mobilisation within national societies and Europe, at large. Governments and policy makers for their part explore ways to marginalise these forces in order to sustain, in Western Europe- and consolidate, in Eastern Europe, democracy in the continent. But while there is ample analysis of the West European experience, there is an inadequate understanding of the conditions and circumstances that breed extreme right forces in Eastern Europe. In what follows, the paper will attempt to address the academic debate on the causes and nature of the contemporary East European extreme right. It will assess the relevance of a western oriented approach in the East European context. The article mostly refers to extremism in countries like Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania. These countries are, by and large, functioning democracies, where extreme right parties compete in elections and in some of them are quite influential. All of these countries are applying to become members of the European Union, and this membership is subject to strict political criteria, requiring democratic principles, the rule of law and respect for human rights.

Intercultural Citizenship, Civic Nationalism, and Nation Building in Québec: From Common Public Language to Laïcité, Jean-François Dupré, Volume 12, Issue 2, October 2012, pp. 227-248.

This article analyses the current citizenship-nation building nexus in Québec in light of government publications and recent public discourses on ethnocultural pluralism and immigrant integration. First, the article surveys the changing relationship between Québécois nationalism and citizenship according to political circumstances in Québec, suggesting that debates over immigrant integration have played a central role in the creation of a civic Québécois identity, initially based on French as the public language and interculturalism. The article then analyses recent public debates surrounding ‘reasonable accommodation’ in Québec, and identifies a growing emphasis on laïcité – the secularisation of the public space – as identity marker. This article attributes this growing focus on secularism to dissatisfied nationalists seeking to reclaim the cultural prominence of the French Canadian majority in provincial institutions and press for measures aimed at enhancing Québec’s distinctiveness and autonomy within the Canadian institutional framework. On a more normative note, the article argues that while language nationalism is reconcilable with ethnocultural pluralism, recent discourses on the secularisation of the public space constrain the emergence of an openly pluralistic stance on national belonging in the province, and undermines the legitimacy of Québec interculturalism.

Reinterpreting the Past or Asserting the Future? National History and Nations in Peril – The Case of the Tibetan Nation, Anne-Sophie Bentz, Volume 6, Issue 2, September 2006, pp. 56-70.

This paper explores the idea that the importance of the past tends to become overwhelming when the nation is in peril. The Tibetan nation is one of those nations which is, or thinks it is, in peril; hence, Bentz contends, its constant need to assert its existence. I intend to examine how the history of Tibet has been transformed into a national history by discussing key historical events and relating them to the Tibetan interpretation as it developed in exile, particularly in India. With this Bentz aims to shed a new light on how national history, or, more precisely the (re)construction of a national history, can become instrumental in asserting a threatened nation’s existence and how this can affect the very content of the nation’s history.

SEN News on Sunday: September 8-15, 2013

Red Square, Moscow

  • Globe and Mail (12/09/13) reports that Québécois MP, Maria Mourani, has been kicked out of her Parti Québécois for denouncing the party’s Charter of Quebec Values as discriminatory.  The National Post (13/09/13) comments on the subject and on the Charter’s widespread condemnation by other Canadian leaders.
  • RiaNovosti (11/09/13) reports on a recent national poll in Russia, which examined key factors which influence national identity, and revealed that sexual orientation and ethnicity were on top of the list.
  • Albawaba (10/09/13) reports on Saudi themed contact lenses which have become popular in celebrations of Saudi Arabia’s national day, to be held on September 23rd.
  • Al Jazeera (09/09/13) reports on Norway’s recently held national elections, in which the Conservative Party and its right-wing allies defeated the incumbent Prime Minister.

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.

First-hand Experience: National Pride and the Olympics

As the Paralympics kick off in London tonight, SEN Journal: Online Exclusives is delighted to present our final exclusive article on the theme of nationalism, ethnicity and sport. Regular contributor Sonia Morland writes of her own experiences at the Olympic games earlier this summer, describing some of the differences in national crowds, and reflecting upon an unexpected source of national pride. Let us know what you think! 

Photo credit: flickr, ianpatterson99

A lot has been said over the past few weeks about the revival of national pride in Britain, as our nation’s sportsmen claimed medal after medal at the Olympics. But that was not my experience of London 2012. I was working at Earls Court, where the volleyball was playing. For a British patriot, there was small comfort available there – neither the men’s nor women’s team managed to make it as far as the quarterfinals. Yet this did not stop me or my colleagues having a positive experience, as we all enjoyed watching the spectators from other countries, as they turned up to watch their nations compete in the volleyball. There was a certain enjoyment in watching nations live up to their stereotypes; I helped clean the stadium after every game and it was after the Russia vs. Poland match that we had to pick up the most empty alcohol bottles. I was especially interested by the varying efforts of different nations to showcase their national pride. Few Brits dressed up or brought flags along with them, whereas almost every Pole came entirely decked-out in the national colours of red and white. Long after the Polish team lost one match, the fans continued to sing the Polish national anthem and displayed an obvious reluctance to leave. This made me wonder whether the success of one’s national team is really an essential ingredient to one’s sense of national pride. At the volleyball, many fans simply relished the chance to display their patriotism and, when I spoke to a few, they confessed to never having shown an interest in volleyball prior to the game they had received tickets for.

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