The Power of Ethnic Nationalism: Foucault's Bio-power and the Development of Ethnic Nationalism in Eastern Europe

Although the ‘civic’ and ‘ethnic’ brands of nationalism are frequently contrasted, the origins of the civic/ethnic dichotomy remain under-theorised. By building upon Michel Foucault's The History of Sexuality, Volume 1, this article argues that, during the eighteenth century, the articulation of power shifted across the board from a pre-modern control over the ending of life, to a modern expression of power as control over the production of life (dubbed ‘bio-power’ by Foucault). Given the Foucauldian claim that power is built upwards from ‘its most infinitesimal mechanisms’, it is suggested that expressions of bio-power were first enacted in that social structure most amenable to biological manipulation—the family—and then expanded upwards towards the widest understanding of a kin collective—the ethnic group. As the shift to bio-power took hold, so too did visions of the political nation-state begin to take shape in Eastern Europe. A fusion of doctrines of self-determinism with the expression of power as ‘control over the production of life’, then saw the ethnic nation-state gain credence as a social and political construct in Central and Eastern Europe. This article takes Romania as a case study through which the mechanisms of this exploratory argument can be illustrated.     

Moral or civic ties? Deservingness and engagement among undocumented Latinas in non-profit organisations

As alternatives to mainstream institutions, local non-profit organisations (NPOs) are important sites for immigrant civic engagement; yet, there is little research on how immigrants negotiate the benefits of NPOs. We use ethnographic fieldwork and multiple in-depth interviews with 39 NPO staff and Latina immigrants in San Francisco, California. We offer new insights about how undocumented, low-income, Latina mothers – a group constrained by multiple barriers – negotiate direct assistance and civic engagement in NPOs. Although NPOs provide both direct services and civic engagement opportunities, we find that moral judgments within the broader anti-immigrant and anti-welfare climate impact how Latinas feel the need to ‘give back’ or ‘ration’ services in NPOs. Additionally, the expectation that direct services are an entrée for civic engagement has consequences for how Latinas negotiate deservingness and work to preserve their self-worth. For some, these expectations depress further engagement or drive intergroup divisions.     

Racial contestation and the emergence of populist nationalism in the United States

Much of the discussion surrounding nationalism still revolves around the ethnic versus civic nation divide. For purposes of this paper it is more useful to view the United States from the tri-modal perspective offered by Anderson, in which the United States is a creole (or settler) nation. All of Anderson's types can be seen as variants of ethnic nationalism. Kaufmann argues that the US evolved from ethnic to civic nationalism by the 1960s. This argument overlooks the importance of phenotype-based racism in the evolution of creole, or white settler colonial nationalism. We want to argue that US nationalism evolved from ethnic, to white racial nationalism in the interwar years. Since the 1920s, the political establishment has opted for civic nationalism that is based upon ‘white assimilationism’. This civic nationalism has been challenged by multiculturalism since the 1960s. In the context of a democratic political culture, the content of American nationalism has become ‘populist’ in the sense that it has come under popular contestation from the assimilationist right and the multiculturalist left. This populist nationalism includes aspects of ethnic and civic nationalism. Racial formation theory will be used to show that national identity may remain under ‘relatively permanent political contestation’ with racial cleavage as a major fault line in that contest. The issues of immigration and the treatment of Muslims since 9/11 will be addressed in order to make the case.     

International migration and the rise of the ‘civil’ nation

Scholars largely agree that immigration policies in Western Europe have switched to a liberal, civic model. Labelled as ‘civic turn’, ‘civic integration’ or ‘liberal convergence’, this model is not identically applied across countries, since national institutions, traditions and identifications still matter. Even so, the main focus is on processes which allow or prevent migrants to be incorporated into nations usually taken for granted in their meanings. Moving from policies to discourses, this article aims to interrogate what kind of nation is behind these policies as a way to further scrutinise the ‘civic turn’. Exploring how the term ‘civility’ and its adjectivisations are discursively deployed in Italian parliamentary debates on immigration and integration issues, the article points to two opposite narratives of nation. While one mobilises civility in order to rewrite the nation in terms of a common, inclusive, civic ‘we’, the other uses civility to reaffirm the conflation between national identity and the identity of the ethno-cultural majority. These findings suggest the importance of exploring the ‘civic turn’ not only across countries, but also across political parties within the same country to capture the ways in which a liberal, civic convergence in political discourses might hide divergent national boundary mechanisms.     

Muslims in Great Britain: the impact of mosque attendance on political behaviour and civic engagement

Is mosque attendance associated with withdrawal from civic and political life and the endorsement of politically motivated violence (PMV)? We draw from a large multi-ethnic survey in the U.K. to answer this research question. Our analysis is unique in that we compare Muslims to Christians to show that mosques, just like churches, can enhance the civic and political participation of their adherents. Drawing from scholarship on religious institutions, social capital, and social identity, we claim and empirically show that mosque attendance is associated with increased electoral and non-electoral political participation, higher levels of civic engagement, and the rejection of PMV. Our findings not only advance the current scholarly understanding of the attitudes and behaviours of Muslims in the West, but also have important policy implications in that they help dispel stereotypical and sensationalist accounts of Mosques and their adherents in the post-Brexit U.K.     

Making a difference in Mogadishu? Experiences of multi-sited embeddedness among diaspora youth

ABSTRACT

Civic participation today is increasingly multi-sited, operating in, between and across specific locations. Growing numbers of people experience multi-sited embeddedness, which I understand both in the sense of belonging to and engaging in multiple communities. In this article, I focus on those who left Somalia as young children or were born to Somali parents in exile, and ask what motivates these young people to return or turn to the Somali region. What experiences shape their civic engagement and where do they engage? How does their hybrid, multi-sited or embedded sense of identity impact their engagement in several locations? And how does that engagement affect their sense of identity? The article is based on 80 in-depth interviews and four focus group discussions in Garowe, Hargeisa, Mogadishu, Oslo and the Twin Cities. Informants stayed for shorter or longer durations in the Somali region but lived for the larger part of their lives in Norway or the United States. I illustrate how young people’s civic engagement impact feelings of belonging as much as their sense of belonging influences their civic actions. In this article, I argue for non-binary ways of studying multi-sited embeddedness that do justice to diaspora youth’s everyday negotiations.     

Concepts of national identity and the readiness for conflict behaviour

This article examines the process of national identity formation among ethnic minorities in the Crimea – specifically, the moderation effects of concepts of national identity on interrelations between conflict indicators and readiness for conflict or compromise for two ethnic minorities in Crimea. Based on a survey in the Crimea, results show that concepts of national identity moderate the effects of ethnic identity, ethnocentrism and economic deprivation on individual conflict behaviour. Research show that civic concept of national identity significantly reduces readiness for conflict among ethnic minorities. The position of a minority within the nation regulates impact of ethnic and multicultural concepts on readiness to fight with other groups.     

Suspect community or suspect category? The impact of counter-terrorism as ‘policed multiculturalism’

How to think about the impact of counter-terrorism and counter-radicalisation on ethnic and religious accommodation? Much of the literature draws on the concept of ‘suspect community’, suggesting it has primarily alienated the Muslim community, favouring an assimilationist model of ‘muscular liberalism’. In this article, while I consider the merits of the ‘suspect community’ hypothesis, I argue that it only partially accounts for the effects of counter-terrorism and counter-radicalisation on multicultural societies. I contend that much of the literature has focused too narrowly on the discriminatory effects of counter-terrorist policies and has been unable to grasp the more insidious political effects of counter-terrorism policies based on the active participation and involvement of Muslims in their own policing. The main hypothesis of this paper is that rather than promoting ‘assimilation’, as the government would expect, or alienation, as the advocates of the ‘suspect community’ hypothesis would contend, counter-terrorist policies produce and reinforce a government of society in discrete and divided ethno-religious groups. Such ‘policed multiculturalism’—understood as the recognition and the management of diversity through a security perspective—has an important consequence in that it removes fundamental questions about pluralism from political debate, casting them instead in a depoliticised language of security.     

The uses and abuses of history: understanding contemporary U.S. immigration*

This article focuses on history, specifically on how history affects our understanding of contemporary immigration. The spotlight is on the United States and the two massive immigrations of the last one hundred and forty years as well as on the integration of immigrants and their children. History is what the present chooses to remember about the past, and to that extent it inevitably distorts. This distortion is what is meant when I use the phrase abuses of history. Myths about the past, selective retellings, cherry-picked examples – they all shape how the story of immigration in the United States is perceived today. History, however, can be an extremely effective and illuminating tool. In examining the uses of history, the article pays special attention to the way that earlier immigrants and their children had an impact on cultural, social, and political institutions and patterns, which, in turn, helped shape the context for present-day arrivals. History, in fact, can deepen and expand our understanding of the contemporary immigrant and second generation; it can also provide some useful hints about the future.     

Who do migrant associations represent? The role of ‘ethnic deservingness’ and legal capital in migrants’ rights claims in Turkey

Considering that established migrant associations often play an active role in migrants’ rights advocacy, the relationship between them and the growing numbers of irregular migrants needs careful scrutiny. Looking at the encounters between irregular Bulgarian Turkish migrants and associations established by their co-ethnics who hold Turkish citizenship in Turkey, our ethnographic evidence shows that co-ethnic migrant associations mobilise the legal frame of ‘ethnic deservingness’ with the intention of welcoming co-ethnics to the Turkish homeland. In the absence of other formal organisations for rights advocacy, associations’ appeals to this frame emerge as a civic resource for the irregular newcomers in their permanent residency claims. At the same time, the same frame hides unequal power relations within co-ethnic communities, that is, newcomers’ peripheral positions within associations and the economic costs of filing claims via associations. This situation creates a representational gap in the associational context between its active members with higher legal capital and irregular newcomers with lower legal capital. Tackling the problem of representation determined by the legal hierarchy, this study questions whether migrant associations should still be considered important political actors when undocumented/irregular migrants outnumber regulars—especially with regard to the immediate political/legal actions they require.     

共生理论视阈下中华民族共同体建构的五维向度

中华民族共同体建构的基本逻辑是一个从"求同存异"到"聚同化异"的过程,旨在构建一个多民族休戚与共、血脉相连的共生关系与共生状态。中华民族共同体的有效建构必须赋予"共生"的理念,以责任、族际、文化、利益、命运为共生单元的建构逻辑,进而推动中华民族政治共同体、文化共同体、价值共同体、利益共同体、命运共同体的全面建构。     

The imagined ‘other’ and its shifts: politics and identifications in Turkish Cyprus

This article addresses the puzzling case of shifting identity constructions in northern Cyprus, from ethnic to civic–territorial in 2003 and back to ethnic in 2009. It is argued that these shifts occurred when external factors (EU and Turkey) opened/closed windows of opportunity for internal elites’ reconfigurations. It then explains societal responsiveness to these nation-building changes sustaining that, over time, a process transforming the perception of the ‘other’ took place from below and a civic–territorial identity layer (Cypriotness) developed along the ethnic-Turkish layer. These coexist and fluctuate depending on the given context of choice.     

Minorities to the left: ethno-linguistic identification and vote in Europe

This paper aims at analysing the influence of ethnic and linguistic identities on voting preferences in the left–right ideological scale. Its innovative contribution relays on studying minorities’ voting preferences across 23 European nations, using as dependent variable a novel measurement which combines past voting declaration and experts’ numerical definition on political parties (Chapel Hill Experts Survey). By applying multilevel regression techniques, individual and contextual determinants of voting behaviour are identified, focusing on minorities’ leftist preferences. The results show how ethnic and linguistic identities affect voters’ behaviour, although this impact varies depending on how the left–right dimension is defined (economy or social values) and on some minorities’ characteristics. In addition, the use of hierarchical analysis shows how country-level fractionalisation (ethnic and linguistic) affects individual preferences beyond personal ethno-linguistic identifications.     

Beyond the Ballot: Immigrant Integration Through Civic Engagement and Advocacy

This conceptual article outlines the current literature on immigrant integration, immigrant civic engagement practices, opportunities to include other civic engagement activities into existing concepts of immigrant integration, and suggestions for future research and practice. The authors support a framework of civic and political integration of immigrants that goes beyond voting, and purposefully delineates categories that are commonly used to distinguish immigrants based on their eligibility for citizenship and participation in elections. Civic community organizing activities for all immigrants, regardless of citizenship status, can help build individual and community identity and empowerment as well as help mitigate stressors associated with immigrant feelings of social isolation. Implications for theory and practice on the role noncitizen immigrants play in the policy-making process and how they are received (or systematically left out) of this civic engagement process are also discussed.     

四川藏区宣传教育与社会稳定研究

四川藏区在以往的宣传教育工作中取得了一些显著的成绩,为维护本地区的稳定起到了积极的作用。目前,四川藏区存在着许多影响社会稳定的破坏或消极因素,在宣传教育中也存在着许多问题。为此,本文探讨了如何在反分裂反渗透、维护祖国统一、加强民族团结、提高公民意识、树立公平正义观念、增强法制观念、弘扬优秀传统文化、提升思想道德、树立正确的宗教意识和政治意识等方面加大宣传教育的力度,有针对性地提出了解决问题的对策措施。     

Support and setback: how religion and religious organisations shape the incorporation of unaccompanied indigenous youth

Churches are recognised as pillars of solidarity and support within immigrant communities but rarely in regard to youths’ social incorporation. Drawing on 24 months of participant observation of two Catholic churches and in-depth interviews with unaccompanied Guatemalan Maya youth church members in a Los Angeles, California community, this study examines the role of the church and religion in youth’s incorporation trajectories. I find that the church and its religious practices provide unaccompanied youth with spaces and resources of incorporation support. Over time, youth also experience financial and socioemotional setback as they become involved in church subunits that are organised by an ethnoracial hierarchy that disparages indigenous Latinos, require financial contributions, and teach reliance on God to change one’s circumstances. This study shows that immigrant-serving organisations can unwittingly reproduce inequality when they offer individualised solutions to structural marginalisation. Findings also demonstrate that incorporation is as much a socio-economic process as a socioemotional one, as immigrant youths’ mental and emotional health instability can impinge on their social participation.     

中国民族间发展的多重差异格局与差别化、协同性政策开发研究——论中国民族关系的新形态与民族政策的新体系

After 60 years of implementation, the ethnic regional autonomous policy has provided basic political support for promoting the common development and prosperity of all ethnic groups. Especially since the period of “Reform and Open-ing Up” began, the national preferential policies and support for ethnic minority areas gradually in-creased, and economic and social development in the ethnic minority areas clearly speeded up. Ac-cording to official statistics, after more than 30 years of “Reform and Opening Up”, the economic growth rate of China’s ethnic minority areas is high-er than the national average. However, at the same time , the economic and social development gap be-tween different ethnic groups has become more and more pronounced. The development of the ethnic groups has created a structure of multiple dispari-ties, which fundamentally restricts ethnic unity, as well as political and social stability in ethnic areas of China. This structure of multiple disparities re-flects the imbalances mainly in four aspects: 1 ) the ongoing large gap between the ethnic minority areas and Han Chinese regions remains; 2 ) the unequal economic and social development among the various ethnic minority people has expanded;3 ) the economic gap within the same ethnic minor-ity autonomous region has gradually become more pronounced;and, 4 ) the differences in develop-ment within the same ethnic group who live in vari-ous regions of China are also very obvious. The multiple inequalities of the economic and social development of China’s ethnic groups add more complexity to the ethnic problems of China. The disparity in economic and social development between different ethnic groups is not only an eco-nomic problem, but is also a significant political issue. Hence, promoting a balanced economic and social development among the various ethnic groups has a very obvious practical significance for main-taining ethnic unity, promoting national integra-tion, and maintaining national stability . Based on the discussion above, this article mainly explores which kind of ethnic policy can ef-fectively resolve the multiple disparities found with-in ethnic development and is beneficial for promo-ting the integration of the various ethnic groups in China? On the basis of summarizing and reviewing approaches found in earlier research, the author puts forward the following core ideas:1 ) The economic and social development differences of various ethnic groups have formed a pattern of multiple disparities in China, and it is no longer simply a gap between the Han and ethnic minorities. Since the implementation of the “Re-form and Opening Up” policy, the differentiation or disparity between China’s ethnic minorities has become more and more pronounced—this phenom-enon constitutes a new challenge to China’s ethnic unity and national unification. Therefore, we must adjust ethnic policy in order to solve the “true problem” or “new problem” concerning China’s ethnic problem. 2 ) The multi-faceted disparities found in the economic and social development among China’s ethnic minorities result from many factors, inclu-ding institutional, policy, historical, geographical, cultural, and psychological. Therefore, we must realize a diversity of ethnic policy, and build a comprehensive ethnic policy system. 3 ) For the purpose of realizing the integration and state construction of the ethnic groups, in ad-dition to implementing the current policy of differ-entiation, we must also ensure a “four balanced and coordinated development”. This includes a balance between the Han areas and ethnic minority areas, a balance among the various ethnic minori-ties themselves, a balance within the same ethnic minority areas, and a balance within the same eth-nic group who live in different areas. This requires the central government to strengthen a double dif-ferentiation and collaborative orientation of ethnic policies concerning the market, labor, resources, technology, and capital.     

Pools,Piety, and Participation: A Muslim Women's Sports Club and Urban Citizenship in Germany

Abstract

This paper introduces the Muslim Women's Sports Club (MWSC) in Stuttgart, Germany and analyzes this club's role and contribution in the construction of urban citizenship. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, I illustrate that this club is a vibrant space of civic participation. I argue that associations like this sports club are crucial sites of Muslim civic engagement where individuals configure forms of religiously circumscribed citizenship. The club plays a vital, but largely overlooked, role in the urban civic sphere, as it articulates and strengthens the bonding and civic participation of pious Muslim women and creates cross-ethnic relationships and networks. Some members are initiated into the landscape of civic associations, as they learn about their rights, duties, and potentials, through cooperation with other associations or institutions. I argue that an association such as the MWSC, regardless of its rather invisible activities, is a full-fledged part of the urban public sphere in Germany. Theoretically I engage questions of urban citizenship and civic participation in the context of a faith and/or identity-based association.     

少数民族山村村民自治的民间基础分析--对湖北省长阳土家族自治县龙舟坪镇8个村庄问卷调查结果的解读和阐释

本文通过对 2 0 0 2年在湖北省长阳土家族自治县龙舟坪镇 8个村庄进行的问卷调查结果的分析和解读 ,认为村民自治作为国家的一项制度安排 ,在少数民族山村普通村民心中已经得到了一定程度的认同 ;村民选举村干部的行为较理性 ,符合现代政治的理念 ;实行村民自治后 ,共产党组织在村庄政治方向和村务管理方面发挥着不可替代的作用。但少数民族山村村民对村民自治还具有高认识度与低参与度共存的现象