The problems of the Spanish nation‐building process around 1900

Most historians acknowledge that the Spanish nation‐building process started late and was neither very profound nor successful. In general, they point to the slow modernisation process or the unwillingness of the elite to explain the weakness of Spanish nationalism in the decades around 1900. However, there are a number of factors that hampered the nation‐building process in Spain that have not received the attention they deserve. In the first instance, the effects of the loss of the last remnants of the Spanish colonial empire in 1898 have generally been underestimated. Another item is the political clientelism that seriously hindered nation‐building activities. A last observation concerns the role of ideology. Nationalism is not a uniform body of thought. In fact, both the right and the left had their own nationalising strategies, resulting in increasing polarisation.     

The influence of the elites’ discourse in political attitudes: evidence from the Basque Country

Do parties’ position shifts matter for public opinion? In this paper, we would like to compare the discourses of the Basque elites with the Basque public opinion regarding the reinforcement of the Autonomy. So, combining content analysis methodology and survey data we aim to test if a mainstream political party (specifically, the Basque Nationalist Party [Partido Nacionalista Vasco]) cause the public view to shift on one of the most important policy issues in the Basque Country, that is, the territorial dimension. This study validates the top-down model and concludes that elite political discourses actually affect popular opinion.     

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.     

Whitewashing the nation: racist jokes and the construction of the African ‘other’ in Greek popular cinema

This article explores representations of race in three Greek popular films of the 1970s and 1980s. The portrayal of African characters in these films is antagonistically positioned in relation to the dominant, ‘whitewashed’ Greek national narrative which relies on the nineteenth century idea that Greece is the progenitor of European civilization. Often masquerading itself as ‘just a joke’, the discourse of these films narrates the African Other as lacking in terms of culture, intelligence and beauty – the three central categories upon which the idea of the ‘white supremacy’, according to Cornell West, is historically constructed in modernity. Tightly woven with this idea (largely introduced in Greece by the leading European powers), these films enunciate explicitly colonial viewpoints in a country that was neither a colonial power nor at the geopolitical center of the European project. The article argues that the racialized representations of these films are an effect of appropriating the Eurocentric idea of historicism, where the ‘progress’ and ‘backwardness’ of groups and nations are measured according to how effectively they perform the values of modernity.     

The interplay of spatial diffusion and marital assimilation of Mexicans in the United States, 1980–2011

Recent trends suggest a decline in the rate of intermarriage between Mexicans and non-Hispanic whites. In this paper, we argue that interpretations of this trend as a decline in preferences for intermarriage are misleading because of the lack of adequate data that captures both spatial and temporal variation in the level of intergroup contact. Using data from the Decennial Census (1980–2000) and the American Community Survey (2008–2011), we employ a novel methodological approach to disentangle the impact of spatial diffusion, ethnic replenishment, and shifts in preferences for homophily on Mexican ethnic intermarriage patterns across 543 Consistent Public Use Microdata Areas (c-PUMA). Once changes in the demographic composition of c-PUMAs are accounted for, multilevel models for repeated cross-sectional data provide no evidence of a change in the marital preferences of Mexicans over time. Trends in intermarriage rates are predominantly explained by compositional and structural changes.     

Living in a nation,a state or a place? The Protestant gentry of County Cork

The communal narrative of the Irish state defined the criteria for membership of the nation in opposition to the characteristics of the Irish gentry class, whether in their Protestantism, Anglicised lifestyles or external focus on Britain and its empire. The result ensured that while all Protestants engaged with the institutions of state, their inclusion in the nation proved much more difficult to negotiate, and for those with a gentry background, it would appear an impossibility. This article argues, in contrast, that the remnants of the Protestant gentry class successfully insert themselves into an alternative conception of the Irish nation that draws directly upon the longevity of their family association with specific localities in the Irish landscape.     

The state of the nation: the Norwegian King’s annual addresses – a window on a shifting nationhood

ABSTRACT

This article supplements the limited research on the monarchy by highlighting the symbolic and cultural value of Norway’s Royal House in nation-building. To maintain his unifying and non-partisan role, the king must balance between conflicting perspectives on national identity. Our analysis of royal New Year’s speeches 1960–2014 examines the concepts of ‘Norwegianness’ conveyed, noting the increasing focus on diversity and a multicultural society.     

Exchanging Knowledge,Enhancing Capacities,Developing Mechanisms: IOM's Role in the Implementation of the EU–Russia Readmission Agreement

Research on European Union (EU)–Russia cooperation in migration issues often neglects important actors involved in these seemingly bilateral arrangements. This paper questions the role that the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has been playing in the EU–Russia cooperation in migration management. The analysis is situated in the theoretical framework describing international organisations (IOs) as bureaucracies and within the discussions about international migration governance and migration management. The paper describes the context of the EU–Russia migration management cooperation and identifies the major activities of IOM in Russia. Treating IOs as bureaucracies that pursue their own interests, the paper argues that, far from being a mere implementing body, IOM is an actor that, to a significant extent, has shaped the outcome of EU–Russia migration dialogue. At the same time, it is the context of this bilateral cooperation that has allowed IOM to strengthen its position vis-à-vis both Russia and the EU and to be successful in the competition with other IOs.     

‘Autograph of a Nation’: The Daughters of the American Revolution and the National Old Trails Road, 1910–1927

In 1912, a group of women within the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) undertook to become architects of the first continuous transcontinental automobile route, to be called the ‘National Old Trails Road’ highway. Consistent with many of the private road improvement initiatives during the heyday of America's good roads movement, ‘Daughters’ in many states were involved in mapping the route and posing a variety of marking schemes that would etch upon the landscape the DAR's sponsorship of the route. In doing so, the Daughters staked an explicit claim for the DAR and for American women in the project of nation‐building, by promoting their National Old Trails Road as a culmination of Manifest Destiny. This episode highlights the interrelationship of gender and the nation. This article argues that while women function passively in nationalist rhetoric to symbolise the nation, one must also acknowledge the agency of conservative women's groups in constructing and perpetuating nationalist narratives in ways that were often surprisingly complex and not simply imitative of men.     

Center–periphery relations,local governance and conflicts in Ethiopia: the experience of Metekel province

In Ethiopia, the study and issue of center–periphery relations is not an easy task. It has remained complex and dynamics as it has been dictated and shaped by ever changing socio-economic relations, state ideology and structure. A case in point is Metekel region, which had been characterized by under development, lowland, hot climate and traditional way of life. Until post-1991developments, Metekel was peripheral in relation to the central state. It was an area of confrontation and conflict. Owing to the structural weakness of the centre, successive rulers of the area did not command effective control over it. Focusing on Gumuz, a Nilo-Saharan family, on one hand, and highlanders and new settlers, on the other, this essay examined the main features and dynamics of center–periphery relations, governance and conflicts in Metekel area. The sources, both primary and secondary, have been carefully examined based on the objectives of the study.     

From barbarian other to chosen people: the etymology,ideology and evolution of ‘nation’ at the shifting edge of medieval Western Christendom

Medieval scholars have demonstrated that the term gens (plural gentes), largely identical in usage to the modern term nation, was in use by the end of the first millennium. This article seeks to explain how and when nation came to replace gens in medieval Europe. The emergence of the concept of nationhood in Central and Eastern Europe must also be understood as a process of othering and resistance to othering, whereby emerging states seek to affirm their status as civilized Christian states, the political, social and cultural equals of the older states that had risen out of the Roman Empire.     

The rise of the second generation: aspirations,motivations and academic success of Chinese immigrants’ children in Hong Kong

The second-generation immigrants’ advantage in education has been observed in many destination countries, and often explained in terms of their family values and practices embedded with certain culture and positive selection on psychological factors. However, the roles of culture and selectivity have been hardly disentangled from each other. In this article, we examine the self-selection hypothesis in the context of Hong Kong, as its unique setting enables us to largely control for the effect of cultural factors and focus on the positive selection effect. We identify four psychological traits that could contribute to immigrants’ outstanding performance, and employ mediation analysis to investigate how much of the effect of immigrant status on academic achievement is mediated through these factors. Analysis of data from the Programme for International Student Assessment in Hong Kong reveals that, having strong motivations to find a better life and high aspirations for upward mobility can largely explain Chinese immigrant children’s academic success in Hong Kong, with educational aspiration playing a particularly important role. In addition, the net academic advantage of second-generation immigrants is larger among low socio-economic status (SES) families, and low SES immigrant parents have exceptionally high expectation and great dedication to their children’s education.