»The German likes quarrelling.« Conflict and belonging in German diasporic communities around 1900

Discourses of inclusion and exclusion were an integral part of German nation building after 1871. The paper shows that they were not confined to the metropole but were, in fact, reciprocated abroad. Selected instances of conflict within German migrant communities around the world are taken as a springboard to analyze public contestations of (trans-)national belonging. The sources abound with gossip, aggressive bickering, and official complaints to authorities. Contentious issues cover the areas of politics, religion, class, and language. The case studies engage critically with a number of wider issues. First, they question contemporaneous interpretations of an Imperial diaspora as a unified and Heimat-oriented block. Second, on a theoretical level the article argues that internal ruptures are constitutive elements of diaspora construction and should be considered in concomitant theorizations. Third, the case studies highlight the close connection between diaspora and nation building. Fourth, the discourses studied did not only take place within communities, but also between them, as well as with the metropole, all in multi-directional ways. Questions of belonging were discussed around the world with strikingly similar arguments and terminology. Globalization was at work at the discourse level.

El concepto de ciudadanía en la obra de Dominique Schnapper: entre el tipo ideal sociológico y el ideal de sociedad democrática

Este artículo analiza la evolución del concepto de ciudadanía en la obra de Dominique Schnapper como uno de los ejemplos más destacados en la sociología contemporánea de una aproximación completa a la cuestión. A través de un recorrido exhaustivo por su obra, el objetivo es profundizar en la comprensión de la tensión entre la dinámica democrática y la idea de ciudadanía en cuanto que tipo ideal del vínculo social y como principio regulador de las sociedades democráticas. La autora propone en sus primeros trabajos una noción de ciudadanía vinculada al proceso político de construcción de la nación que no distingue entre la definición de un tipo ideal sociológico y la construcción de un ideal de sociedad. Esta confusión se corrige al introducir posteriormente en el análisis la incidencia de la democracia sobre las experiencias individuales de la ciudadanía, aportando una perspectiva de análisis de gran utilidad tanto para la comprensión de la dinámica contemporánea de las sociedades democráticas como para la necesaria defensa de la ciudadanía como vínculo social fundamental y como principio fundador de la legitimidad política.

Estados Unidos y la guerra por el desarrollo: el control de la natalidad en Chile, 1960-1970

Bajo el paradigma de modernización y desarrollo norteamericano -y en un contexto de Guerra Fría-, durante la década de 1960 se adecuaron a la realidad chilena programas de control de natalidad que no sólo buscaron disminuir las altas tasas de mortalidad materno infantil, sino que además respondieron al proyecto de seguridad hemisférica norteamericana de contención a posibles revoluciones populares en países del Tercer Mundo.

Från nationsbyggare till global marknadsnomad : Om medborgarskap i svensk utbildningspolitik under 1990-talet

I den här avhandlingen är intresset riktat mot svensk utbildningspolitik och medborgarskap. I tider av globalisering, och med ett etablerat svenskt medlemskap i Europeiska unionen, har det nationella policyskapandet kring utbildningens medborgardanande funktion hamnat under ökat tryck. I studien undersöks hur detta hanteras i svensk utbildningspolitik under 1990-talet, en tid som utmärker sig genom betydande förändringar på utbildningsområdet i Sverige. Frågan är, mera precist, vilken riktning för skolans, enligt lag befästa, uppdrag att fostra demokratiska medborgare som utstakas i svensk utbildningspolitik vid denna tid. Genom att fästa vikt vid mål, visioner och motiv som formuleras i utbildningspolitiska 1990-talstexter klarläggs förståelser av medborgarskap som karaktäriserar svensk utbildningspolitik under denna tid. Även en bredare historisk analys görs, ur vilken historiska målsättningar med skolans medborgarfostran som föregår 1990-talets framträder. Studiens syfte är kritiskt. Förståelserna granskas utifrån vad de innesluter och vad de utesluter, vilka möjliga konsekvenser de kan tänkas få för olika individer och grupper i samhället, och om det finns öppningar för tänkbara alternativ. Studien visar på två historiska skiften vad gäller medborgarskapets innehåll och mening i det inhemska policyskapandet. Det första skiftet äger rum under 1990-talets tidiga del. Då bryts en etablerad samhällsbyggande medborgarroll upp, till förmån för andra mera marknadsorienterade medborgarroller. Under 1990-talets senare del, då marknadsorienteringen förstärks i neoliberal riktning, sker ett andra skifte; en historiskt vedertagen gemenskapstanke – nationen – bryts upp som grund för medborgerlig gemenskap. Denna tanke ersätts av en annan som är globaliseringsinriktad, vilken visar sig ha andra inne- och uteslutande mekanismer för olika individer och samhällsgrupper. Utifrån dessa forskningsrön tecknas avslutningsvis några konturer till ett alternativt sätt att tänka kring medborgarskap och gemenskap. Detta alternativ tar form i ambitionen att, i högre grad än vad som blir synligt i svensk utbildningspolitik, resonera kring möjligheter för ett medborgarskap bortom förhandstecknade indelningsgrunder för ett “vi”. Språk som politisk och samhällelig förändringskraft ges en central betydelse i avhandlingen. I analysen av texternas tal om skolans medborgarfostrande roll undersöks pågående politiska motsättningar när det gäller att vinna tal- och tolkningsföreträde till skolans fostransmål. Utgångarna av dessa motsättningar belyses genom tre områden för medborgarfostran som urskilts som centrala; ett politiskt, ett kulturellt samt ett ekonomi- och arbetslivsriktat. Genom dessa har rådande medborgarskapsdiskurser tagit form, ur vilka de utbildningspolitiska förståelserna av medborgarskap gestaltas och diskuteras.

A Better Place to Be: Republicanism as an Alternative to the Authoritarianism-Democracy Dichotomy

ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: A BETTER PLACE TO BE: REPUBLICANISM AS AN ALTENATIVE TO THE AUTHORITARIANISM-DEMOCRACY DICHOTOMY Christopher Ronald Binetti, Doctor of Philosophy, and 2016 Dissertation directed by: Dr. Charled Frederick Alford, Department of Government and Politics In this dissertation, I argue that in modern or ancient regimes, the simple dichotomy between democracies and autocracies/dictatorships is both factually wrong and problematic for policy purposes. It is factually wrong because regimes between the two opposite regime types exist and it is problematic because the either/or dichotomy leads to extreme thinking in terms of nation-building in places like Afghanistan. In planning for Afghanistan, the argument is that either we can quickly nation-build it into a liberal democracy or else we must leave it in the hands of a despotic dictator. This is a false choice created by both a faulty categorization of regime types and most importantly, a failure to understand history. History shows us that the republic is a regime type that defies the authoritarian-democracy dichotomy. A republic by my definition is a non-dominating regime, characterized by a (relative) lack of domination by any one interest group or actor, mostly non-violent competition for power among various interest groups/factions, the ability of factions/interest groups/individual actors to continue to legitimately play the political game even after electoral or issue-area defeat and some measure of effectiveness. Thus, a republic is a system of government that has institutions, laws, norms, attitudes, and beliefs that minimize the violation of the rule of law and monopolization of power by one individual or group as much as possible. These norms, laws, attitudes, and beliefs ae essential to the republican system in that they make those institutions that check and balance power work. My four cases are Assyria, Persia, Venice and Florence. Assyria and Persia are ancient regimes, the first was a republic and then became the frightening opposite of a republic, while the latter was a good republic for a long time, but had effectiveness issues towards the end. Venice is a classical example of a medieval or early modern republic, which was very inspirational to Madison and others in building republican America. Florence is the example of a medieval republic that fell to despotism, as immortalized by Machiavelli’s writings. In all of these examples, I test certain alternative hypotheses as well as my own.

The national community and the university

In the current environment of globalisation, competition and engagement in the global knowledge economy, universities are increasingly expected to perform against global expectations. What can sometimes seem eclipsed in the current rush to perform against these global expectations is the mission of a university to engage and support the common good within a framework of nation building. Building a sense of shared national purpose and commitment to the common good by universities requires a serious look at how contemporary globalisation and the spread and ascendency of individualistic values is diminishing our sense of shared duty and genuine community engagement.

Heritage in times of rapid transformation: a tale of two cities - Yangon and Hanoi

Myanmar is opening up to the world after fifty years of military rule and heading into times of rapid economic, social, and political transformation. There is some indication that the changes taking place in Myanmar will parallel those faced in Vietnam twenty-five years ago when it, too, emerged from a period of isolation and opened up to global investment, tourism, and intellectual influences. One of the similarities is likely to be in the growing awareness and use of cultural heritage as a political, economic, and social asset. In all states, capital cities are pivotal in the transformative processes and governments make use of heritage as part of nation-building strategies. This chapter opens up consideration of the role of heritage in times of rapid transformation in Yangon and Hanoi – respectively the colonial and post-colonial capitals of Myanmar (until November 2005) and Vietnam. Important cultural and political differences between the two national contexts are noted and questions asked about what Yangon might learn from the Vietnamese transformation experience.

Democracy, governance and political parties in India: an introduction

The party political domain of India is replete with a large number of parties representing the tapestry of Indian society. Many of them are based in specific regions and states, built around social and linguistic identities. While this enhanced the representative character of the parties, it also contributed to varied patterns of political competition and unstable governments. The two major national parties – the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party – becoming coalitionable heralded an era of coalition governments both at the Centre and states, enabling parties to increase their power and their pay-offs. Parties across the political spectrum have tended to converge on macro-economic policy, but continue to diverge on social policies and larger issues that confront India, such as nation building and secularism. Chronic lack of internal democracy coupled with the rise of political corruption and clientelist practices are matters of serious concern. A broader view of governance, resisting temptations to concentrate power and pursue personal enrichment, would enable parties to deliver policies for a better, more just society.

New Haitian social movements: Alternative modernities, (trans)local nationalisms, and solidarity economies

My dissertation is the first project on the Haitian Platform for Advocacy for an Alternative Development- PAPDA, a nation-building coalition founded by activists from varying sectors to coordinate one comprehensive nationalist movement against what they are calling an Occupation. My work not only provides information on this under-theorized popular movement but also situates it within the broader literature on the postcolonial nation-state as well as Latin American and Caribbean social movements. The dissertation analyzes the contentious relationship between local and global discourses and practices of citizenship. Furthermore, the research draws on transnational feminist theory to underline the scattered hegemonies that intersect to produce varied spaces and practices of sovereignty within the Haitian postcolonial nation-state. The dissertation highlights how race and class, gender and sexuality, education and language, and religion have been imagined and co-constituted by Haitian social movements in constructing ‘new’ collective identities that collapse the private and the public, the rural and the urban, the traditional and the modern. My project complements the scholarship on social movements and the postcolonial nation-state and pushes it forward by emphasizing its spatial dimensions. Moreover, the dissertation de-centers the state to underline the movement of capital, goods, resources, and populations that shape the postcolonial experience. I re-define the postcolonial nation-state as a network of local, regional, international, and transnational arrangements between different political agents, including social movement actors. To conduct this interdisciplinary research project, I employed ethnographic methods, discourse and textual analysis, as well as basic mapping and statistical descriptions in order to present a historically-rooted interpretation of individual and organizational negotiations for community-based autonomy and regional development. ^

Film policy under globalization: the case of Mexico

The changing economic and technological conditions often referred to as ‘globalization’ have had a deep impact on the very nature of the state, and thus on the aims, objectives and implementation of cultural policy, including film policy. In this paper, I discuss the main changes in film policy there have been in Mexico, comparing the time when the welfare state regarded cinema as crucial to the national identity, and actively supported the national cinema at the production, distribution and exhibition levels (about 1920-1980), and the recent onset of neoliberal policies, during which the industry was privatized and globalized. I argue the result has been a transformation of the film production, from the properly ‘national’ cinema it was during the welfare state—that is, having a role in nation building, democratization processes and being an important part of the public sphere—into a kind of genre, catering for a very small niche audience both domestically and internationally. However, exhibition and digital distribution have been strengthened, perhaps pointing towards a more meaningful post-national cinema.

La cooperación internacional para el desarrollo como mecanismo de posicionamiento regional. Estudio de caso: cooperación sur-sur Turquía a los Balcanes durante el gobierno del akp (2003-2014)

El interés del presente Estudio de Caso es analizar la Cooperación Internacional Turca en un marco de Cooperación Sur – Sur con la Región de los Balcanes, específicamente con: Albania y Bosnia y Herzegovina. Entendiendo las dinámicas históricas que tiene la región con el Imperio Turco Otomano; las reformas internas realizadas por el partido AKP de Turquía y la fortaleza en política Exterior de éste evidenciada a través del Poder Blando de los Proyectos de Cooperación Internacional, se busca entender si la Cooperación sirvió como un mecanismo de posicionamiento como líder de Turquía en la región, ayudándole a autoproclamarse como tal utilizando mecanismos de exposición de habilidades, capacidades y recursos entre los años 2003 y 2014.

Nacionalismo y performance: la celebración del primer Centenario del nacimiento de Simón Bolívar en Bogotá, 1883.

El presente trabajo son analizan las representaciones nacionalistas elaboradas por la sociedad bogotana en el marco de la celebración del Centenario de Simón Bolívar en 1883. La celebración es tomada como una puesta en escena, en la medida en que es un evento en donde los ámbitos de producción y recepción se entrelazan en un solo momento. En este sentido, se parte desde las concepciones nacionalistas impulsadas por los políticos de la Regeneración, la cual consintió en la modernización de Colombia a través de la tradición, para luego evidenciar cómo estas ideas y conflictos en torno a diversos ideales de nación se entablaron en el ámbito del Centenario. En el Centenario se pregona un cese a las hostilidades internas, una unidad nacional y una identificación del país bajo la figura de Simón Bolívar como padre y caudillo de la patria en la búsqueda hacia ‘la civilización’ y el ‘progreso’ de la nación. Así, el presente trabajo aporta a los estudios históricos en clave cultural de las celebraciones centenarias en Colombia y su incidencia en la construcción de la nación durante el siglo XIX.