Forging Ukrainian national identity through remembrance of World War II

ABSTRACT

This paper explores how the collective remembrance of a specific historical event shapes the national identity that underpins a state’s foreign policy objectives. By drawing on multidisciplinary insights, the paper explains how political actors frame past events in order to promote a certain conceptualization of a national community. Taking Ukraine as a case study, the paper demonstrates how Russia’s intervention in Ukraine in 2014–2015 prompted Ukrainian policy-makers to re-define Ukraine’s relations with the EU and Russia by re-evaluating the experience of Ukrainians in WWII.     

Indigenous identity construction: enacted upon us,or within us

ABSTRACT

This commentary essay questions, theorizes, explores and grapples with the phenomenon of the creation of racial, social and cultural identity: in childhood as Native American identity is negotiated from others; and in adulthood as Native identity is constructed from within. ‘Indigenous Identity Construction: Enacted upon Us, or Within Us?’ is a commentary piece focused around Native American identity and how it is formed both through childhood and into adulthood. I analyze and interpret my experiences and understanding of my identity formation as an indigenous person- which usually is left out of the socio-political notions of modernity. Conceptualizations from ‘othering’ racial identities are discussed along with indigenous ontologies constructed within land and water. Through metaphorically revisiting past racializing incidents this piece continues working through the idea of othering and induction into whiteness in childhood, but also focuses on how indigenous identities might be constructed and sustained in adulthood. Efforts to model the indigenous assertion of self-determination and decolonizing the mind was used to re-present thoughts on the construction of Native American identity     

Japan.com

Contemporary Japan is in the midst of an identity crisis grounded in conditions of economic, political and social confusion and a lost sense of national direction and purpose. This paper explores the bases of Japan's evolving national political identity. It notes the construction of a sense of Japanese homogeneity and the role of official discourses in the formation of Japan's national identity. The paper argues that internationalisation, cybernetic contacts and community insecurities are undermining the received idea of what it means to be Japanese and posing fundamental challenges to the legitimacy of the contemporary Japanese state.     

Skiing and divergent ethnic identities in the multiethnic Northern Norway

This article examines first whether the skiing as the Norwegian national sport was used by the state in its assimilation strategy towards the indigenous Sámi people. One would think that skiing's central role in building a Norwegian national identity would mean that it would have a vital place in government policy towards its indigenous population. Second, the article explores how skiing became integral in the creation of a modern Sámi identity from the 1970s. The article explores how the Sámi over the last 30 years have tried to incorporate skiing and sport in the ongoing revitalizing of a Sámi identity.     

Are we all constructivists now? Exploring the impact of nationalism studies among Slovakia’s secondary-school teachers

ABSTRACT

This paper focuses on the impact of current nationalism studies on national narratives disseminated through secondary education. The paper draws on interviews and focus group discussions with 31 teachers in Slovakia as a case study and asks to what extent these teachers’ understandings of national identity reflect primordialism, constructivism or ethno-symbolism. It also explores the teachers’ awareness of these mainstream paradigms. The findings defy the straightforward categorisation of the teachers’ views into these paradigms and suggest that nationalism studies have a limited impact, as the teachers’ understandings remain unchallenged. The paper concludes with the implications for educational research and practice.     

Problematizing philanthropy: how a historical study of the General Education Board in the US west puts the “social” in race and region as social constructs

Abstract

This article explores how an examination of the philanthropic funding from the General Education Board (GEB) provided to the public schools in the western region of the US, particularly that impacting schools serving the historically marginalized cultures of the Latina/o, indigenous, and African American peoples, demonstrates just how fluid are the constructs of race and regionality. The article explores whether philanthropic funding followed the same racist and pecuniary patterns in the west/southwest as in the southeast and how actively researching that question reinforced the intersectionalities of race and region in defining the west as a social construct not conforming to geographic boundaries. Examining GEB funding should impact current thought regarding blindly accepting philanthropic influence in the public schools of the US.     

Corporate social responsibility and multinational enterprise identity: insights from a mining company's attempt to localise in Ghana

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates how a US gold mining multinational enterprise (MNE) – one of the world's largest – operates its subsidiaries in various parts of the world by creating a unique ‘glocal identity’. The US parent company has experienced several significant challenges across its network of subsidiaries. These challenges were mostly linked to the enforcement of the MNE's identity and culture in its host environment. We contribute by describing, in detail, the attempts made by this company to localise its corporate social responsibility practices in Ghana as it sought to gain legitimacy and create an identity that would overcome the issues relating to the liability of foreignness. Our data come from a combination of sources, including questionnaires and detailed semi-structured interviews conducted with the key management employees of the mining company, members and opinion leaders of the company's host communities, and secondary sources. Our main finding is that the construction of a ‘host-friendly’ identity was centred around the mining company's involvement with the Newmont Ahafo Development Foundation.     

‘I am studying in the US but’: observations and insights from Caribbean college students

This paper examines the experiences and views of 12 Caribbean students studying at four Liberal Arts colleges and one large university in the Northeast, USA. The purpose of the study was to ascertain how young educated potential immigrants to the US today are thinking about race, identity, and homeland. The data were gathered through a 12-item open-ended questionnaire electronically administered through Google Forms. Among other issues, the researcher wanted to learn about participants’: decision to study in the US, experiences with race, identity and attitudinal shifts, feelings about being assigned racial labels, and current thinking about returning to their home countries. The findings highlight the acceptance of racial labels except for ‘African American’, a dogged adherence to national identity, the challenge of adjusting to the US racialized space, the view of the US as an education and economic transitional point for migrants on their return journey to their home countries, the formulation of new understandings and attitudes regarding mixed ancestry, and the defining role of sexual orientation in the attitude towards home country versus the US.     

National Identity between Tradition and Reflexive Modernisation: The Contradictions of Central Asia

Central Asia, one of the most understudied areas in the world, is currently going through the upheavals of modernisation and nation formation. Arguing against the one-dimensional modernist conclusion that this process was arrested during the Soviet period, the article sets out to explore the complex weave of historical continuity and discontinuity in the formation of national identity in the new states. It argues against the notion that national identity involves the necessary dissolution of traditional ties. Moreover, the article substantially qualifies the contemporary theoretical trend to treat continuing elements of tradition as merely dead images of the past, given life by instrumental elites. Instead of nationality being posited as a one-dimensional form of identity, the article sets up an approach that emphasises the contradictory layering of identity.     

Early Mexican Federalism and the Multiple Origins of Nationhood

Abstract

After independence from Spain in 1821, the provinces of Mexico sought self-government through the creation of a federal republic. The first federal republic, 1824–1835, constituted the creation of a nation. All regions participated in establishing a national identity that was a mosaic of regional identities. A strong centralist-conservative movement, however, opposed federalism because it threatened the traditional hegemony of central elites in Mexico City. Mexican federalism was based on a concept of dual sovereignty, in which both the states and the nation were sovereign. It included universal male suffrage and room for participation by the masses, something which came to trouble political elites of all ideological persuasions. Though overthrown in 1835, Mexican federalism was later resurgent, but the principle that the states had created the nation was gradually lost.     

To see ourselves as others see us: identity and attitudes towards immigration amongst civic nationalists

ABSTRACT

This article examines how different conceptions of national identity can be linked to attitudes towards cultural pluralism. The tensions between more culturally pluralistic societies and sustained support for nationalism represent an important political issue in modern western European politics. Such tensions are of particular relevance for stateless nationalist and regionalist parties (SNRPs) for whom national/regional identity is a major political driver. This article empirically tests the relationship between different conceptions of national identity and attitudes towards cultural pluralism in two SNRPs—the Scottish National Party and the Frisian National Party. The article draws upon evidence from two unique full party membership studies and is supported with evidence from documentary analysis. A key finding is that the manner in which members conceptualise national identity has significant implications for their attitudes towards cultural pluralism, which has the potential of becoming a source of tension within SNRPs. A key implication of the article is that there is evidence that attitudes of general members and officially stated party positions and narratives diverge on issues relating to cultural pluralism and national identity. These tensions could potentially be harmful for the party's overall civic image.     

Ethnic identity and the nation state: The political sociology of multi‐cultural societies

Abstract

The question of ethnic and national identity is one which is addressed in two separate theoretical discourses. One is that of contemporary general sociological theory where it seems to be central to debates about Late Modernism, Post‐Modernism and Globalization. The other is in a much more empirically orientated branch of political sociology which is concerned with forms of solidarity and division in the nation state. This paper will be primarily located within the second type of discourse, but its aim is to suggest that its formulation of concepts is highly relevant to the clarification of issues in general sociological theory.     

‘Really really different different’: rurality,regional schools and refugees

Abstract

This article explores the dynamics of difference-making in a regional Australian town. Despite Australia’s high levels of cultural diversity, many rural and regional areas remain predominantly ‘white’ spaces, presided over by people of Anglo-Celtic ancestry but with small populations of indigenous Australians. Over the past decade, however, a growing number of regional centres have become home to refugees from a range of African, Middle Eastern and South-East Asian countries. This study draws on interview, observational and documentary data to shed light on the experiences of people in one such town, focusing on schools as sites of everyday social contact and significant mediators of identity formation and settlement outcomes. A key aim of the article is to illuminate the ways in which constructions of rurality and of difference intersect with local histories and resources to shape relations between the original, ‘old’ and newest settlers.     

Images of 1812: Ivan Terebenev and the Russian Wartime Lubok

This article explores the articulation of national identity in Russia during the Napoleonic Wars. It examines this expression by focusing on the work of Ivan Terebenev, who produced 48 popular prints known as ‘lubki’ between 1812 and 1815. These images represented one of the first attempts by a Russian artist to redefine Russian national identity in the wake of Napoleon's invasion. By mocking the French emperor and emphasising the strengths of the Russian peasants, Cossacks and the Russian spirit in his images, Terebenev established themes that would continue to appear in prints in future Russian wars. Moreover, this article focuses on the reception of these images in Russia as a means of exploring how Russians who encountered them thought about their Russianness. Terebenev's images of 1812, as this article concludes, left a lasting impression on Russian visual culture and national identity.     

美国少数族群的双重认同轨迹及其影响

族群认同问题是民族问题中的核心问题。对于国际社会中处于多数的多民族国家而言,如何有效构建统一的国家认同和社会认同将是关乎国家团结统一的关键性问题。我们是谁?我们属于谁?随着族群生存环境和社会环境的变化,族群的认同总是会发生某种程度上的波动性变化,进行自我身份的再认知和认同的自我调整,这种情况在移民国家更为明显。在美国身份认同政治氛围高涨的情况下,本文通过对美国少数族群双重认同的形成、互动轨迹、影响因素及配合因素等进行综合分析,解析双重认同存在的根源,以为多民族国家加强对少数族群认同的认识和国家认同的建构提供借鉴。     

The identity of memory and the memory of identity in the age of commodification and democratization

Abstract

This article explores the relationship between secularization and commodification of culture on one hand, and national identity always represented as Christian mystery on the other. Focusing on three case studies, Poland, Quebec and Zaire, the author analyses the place of an ordinary object (commodity) as a vehicle of representation of people's affirmation of belonging to a ‘nation’. He stresses the disposable nature of such an affirmation of belonging which allows everyone to alter or cast off the symbols of belonging while changing their social or political contexts.     

Rhetorics of the State: The Public Negotiation of Political Character in Germany,Russia, and Quebec

National identity construction is a fundamentally rhetorical phenomenon maintained and transformed through public discourse. Through the analysis of dramatically rejected state speeches related to national identity and public responses to them, critics can compare competing articulations of national identity against the chronological historical record to identify various instances of strategic memory. By isolating dominant strategies of remembrance, the political character of emergent national identities can be outlined. In this essay, I explicate a critical rhetorical approach to controversial speech called limit work, providing examples of the public negotiation of national identity in 1988 West Germany, 1993 Russia, and 1995 Quebec that illustrate its utility.