Search Results

Attempts to correct a common tendency to exaggerate the impact of economic factors upon ethno‐national conflict, which stems from a theory of ‘relative economic deprivation’ holding that ethno‐nationalism stems from essentially economic impulse. To be sure, relative economic deprivation exists wherever ethno‐nationalist conflict is found, but so does oxygen, and mere contiguity does not imply causation. The historical evidence suggests that while relative economic deprivation can be a powerful contributory factor, the sense of relative political deprivation offers a more satisfactory explanation.

The refusal of international law to recognize secession serves to push the reasons for, or the justification of, secession under the metaphorical carpet. But secession is not only about partitions, but also about the state that does or does not provide justice to its people. The subject is best approached from the vantage point of normative political theory. This enables us to respond in politically innovative ways to secession and reflect on how the flaws of a formally democratic, but an imperfectly just order, can be negotiated. In other words, if secession is a response to certain conditions that prevail in a given state, the challenge is to neutralize these conditions. In the final instance, the vital issue is not only the sanctity of territorial borders. The issue is whether these borders contain a political community that is organized on principles of democracy and justice.

The historical and political nature of Taiwanese neo-nationalist thought was shortened and complicated not only by its colonial relationship to Japanese colonial power, but also by that to semi-colonized mainland China. The issue that the author addresses in this chapter is the enclosed discursive space of Taiwanese political movements in a chaotic period which ironically enabled the proliferation of political and neo-nationalist identity formations and associations. The Taiwanese identity which emerged at that time was necessarily a relation on a plurality of identifications which do not necessarily form relationships with one another, with the exception of the liberal and Marxist opposition. The primacy given to ethno-nationalism in identifying the various beliefs of Taiwanese political movements serves to deny and obscure the fundamental and contradictory class antagonism within the development of capitalism in colonial Taiwan.

This chapter considers the tumultuous period of political turmoil following the 1905 Revolution. During this period, autocracy came under increasing pressure, and many conservatives either positively or grudgingly accepted the need for representative institutions or at least consultative ones. Anti-bureaucratic sentiment continued to grow and many conservatives pursued apparently paradoxical goals of strengthening autocracy while simultaneously limiting it. Meanwhile, the idea of the Russian nation remained very strongly associated with Orthodoxy, but a strand of conservatism that rested on ethno-nationalism, xenophobia, and anti-Semitism gained ground. Divisions among conservatives, furthermore, limited their political effectiveness. The defeat of the 1905 Revolution left liberalism and socialism in retreat. There was an opportunity for conservatives to take the lead and direct Russia along a new path, but they proved unable to unite around common projects.

This chapter surveys some studies of electrification and presents the novelty of the present study: first, attention to a colonial setting rather than a focus on a core industrialized country and, second, a theoretical shift from treating electrification as a politically-driven process to a consideration of how electrification enacts politics. Guided by principles of actor-network-theory, this chapter argues that it was not some ethno-political forces behind electrification that best account for its consequences. Against the background of studies that assume self-evidently coherent entities (Arabs and Jews) that developed along distinct and separate paths, this chapter outlines the proposition that group formation is a process ’in action’: the process of electrification accounts for the ways in which a seemingly technical process actively shapes and contributes to the assembly of such ethno-national formations.

This chapter examines the dynamics of the extreme fringe of Russian nationalism and the new challenges posed by the events in Ukraine. It presents the main ideological positions of the nationalists who flirt with totalitarianism and sheds light on the internal dynamics of the contemporary Russian nationalist scene, following the trajectory of activist Dmitrii Bobrov from his participation in Russian National Unity to the founding of his own organisations Shultz-88 and the National (People’s) Socialist Initiative (NSI). The latter worked in a network with the Movement against Illegal Migration (DPNI) and the Slavic Union. However, the war in Ukraine divided the nationalist movement into supporters and opponents of the Russian Spring/Novorossiia and of Vladimir Putin. NSI support for the Russian Spring contributed to the breakdown of the Russkie, the broadest ethno-nationalist coalition in Russia up to that point.

This chapter engages the discursive conditions that made ethno-nationalist ideologies and armed conflicts of the 1990s possible and probable. Indeed, the question of how to recall the late twentieth-century history of former Yugoslavia constitutes a central aspect of the Women in Black labour of memory. The dissolution of Yugoslavia, especially the normalization of nationalist military violence in the mid-1990s, has manifested gendered norms as constitutive of nationalist discourses. Drawing on the ways in which the movement performatively brings forth an alternative public to embody the potentiality of displaced memory, this chapter argues in favor of breaking through the universalist, moralist, and humanist scripts of mourning. It seeks to make sense of the politically enabling ways in which these activists stage mourning as a site of agonistic resignification in order to interrogate the injustices and foreclosures which sustain dominant regimes of grievability, in Judith Butler’s terms.

This chapter explores ethno-territoriality and erasure in relation to the linguistic marginalization of Spanish-language media (SLM) though media deregulation and technological convergence. It provides examples of political, legal, and media practices that resulted in the exclusion of Latino political goals, media, and political value. For instance, the removal of Spanish-language television as part of ethno nationalism marks the omission of Spanish in the United States' systems of legal and cultural definitions of American citizenship. The move naturalized English as the state language, while supporting the claim that white ethnicity and the U.S. state are synonymous.

This chapter adopts what might be termed a periodic approach towards analysing Israel’s foreign policy, using the concepts of state, ethno-nationalism, and globalisation, as its analytical tools. It argues that Israeli foreign policy encompasses three major periods: statist, ethno-nationalist and statist, and globalisation, ethno-nationalism, and declining statism. These concepts can be considered ideal types that capture the salient trends in Israel’s foreign policy in relation to three issues: the composition of the domestic arena, the social make-up of the foreign policy elite, and the conflicting approaches that shape the conduct of Israel’s foreign affairs. This chapter also attempts to account for change in the inner formulation of Israeli foreign policy, and draws from the work of Stephen Krasner and others.

Many citizens depend on the state for work and survival. Ethno-nationalism is on the rise, with massive Moscow demonstrations 2010, and 2014. Future leaders trust Slavs most and are distrustful of North Caucasus ethnic groups. Aleksei Navalny has gone from right-wing extremist, to liberal democrat to anti-immigrant activist and Slavic unity. In focus groups they no longer see America as an example, but look to a Scandinavian model, where gross inequality is not welcome and civil rights are protected. These future leaders will work mainly in Russia, in economic or political or diplomatic bureaucracies. Some will be quietly splintered as they conform. They want to live nowhere else.

Another indicator of instability was rise of inter-ethnic tensions. They originated from a rapidly increased influx of non-Slavic migrants and the lack of state policies to manage ethnic diversity. In response, the state articulated the idea of Russia as a state-civilization that combines ethnic and non-ethnic principles of nation-building.

Building on Hannah Arendt’s theorizing about citizenship and rights, this chapter shows some of the outcomes of the transformation of the Jewish Question for “the people” who must be produced and maintained as sovereign citizens in their own state. The chapter includes a number of ethnographic vignettes describing situations that arise when Israelis struggle over Jewishness in order to make a living, sell their produce, or immigrate to the country. This chapter lays the foundation for the broader argument about how ethno-national models of political liberation produce their “people,” arguing that although such production causes the most harm to those it excludes, the processes of producing inclusion also threaten human liberation. This chapter is framed by Kafka’s “Little Fable,” which serves as a metaphor for the myriad ways Jews struggle to be Jewish in Israel, which seems like a narrowing maze with no exit.

This chapter examines the underpinnings and limits of ethno-nationalism in the politically pivotal state of Pennsylvania by tracking the career of Lou Barletta, US congressman and former mayor of Hazleton in the declining rustbelt area of Luzerne County. Often known as Donald Trump’s political godfather, Barletta rose to political fame by attacking Hispanic immigrants as criminals and sponsoring severe restrictions on their rights. He went on to win a seat in the US House and become one of the first members of Congress to endorse Trump’s 2016 candidacy. The president then recruited Barletta to run for the Senate in 2018 and strongly backed his campaign based on highlighting threats from immigrants. But Barletta lost, illuminating the limits of anti-immigrant appeals in statewide and national politics.

The chapter on Bosnia and Herzegovina focuses on the country’s small film industry that still struggles with the recent history of violent conflict, but whose cinematic output has garnered international attention and widespread critical acclaim. Prominent themes discussed include the ongoing efforts to come to terms with the wounds of war trauma, and the ever-growing economic precarity. The chapter also examines the role of film festivals in the circulation of Bosnian and regional cinema, and the ongoing regional collaborations between the national film industries of the former Yugoslav countries - a transnational network of cinematic output.

This chapter looks at the narratives of immigrants who have lived in Japan for a substantial period of time before leaving. Hundreds of thousands of people arrive in Japan every year on visas that grant them the opportunity to stay for durations ranging from six months to three years. Yet only three million in total have remained. Some of them left the country because they chose to; others had to leave because they lost the means to stay on. Indeed, the prospect of leaving Japan, either to go to a third country or to return to their home country, is an idea lurking in the back of the minds of most immigrants who are currently staying in Japan. Japan is not considered an immigrant destination, and many aspects of the country remain uncompromisingly ethno-nationalistic. As a result, at least initially, migrating to Japan means a temporary sojourn. Leaving seems to be a distinct future possibility, if not an imminent decision to make. For some, it is a crutch to lean on when they feel frustrated with aspects of life in Japan or are nostalgic or restless.

This concluding chapter summarizes the central issues that characterize immigrant experiences in Japan, and reflects on their implications both for migration studies broadly and for Japan's own migration policies in particular. These immigrant experiences illustrate the potential as well as the challenges of Japan as an immigrant country. Some of the challenges are particular to Japan, or ethno-nationalist societies like Japan. However, Japan's transition to an immigrant society also takes place in a global context where policy as well as public opinion regarding immigration is hostile. Anti-immigration becomes the main platform of populist party politics in many major destinations of immigration. In other words, more countries are embracing ethno-nationalism. These developments, however alarming to many observers, are also potentially creating opportunities for Japan because they are shaping a new geography of global migrations and are likely also to redefine the image of an immigrant society as well as the map of attractive destinations of immigration.