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Benedict R. O'g. Anderson

Bio: Benedict R. O'g. Anderson is an academic researcher from Cornell University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Nationalism & Politics. The author has an hindex of 24, co-authored 53 publications receiving 28328 citations.


Papers
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Book
01 Jan 1983
TL;DR: In this paper, Anderson examines the creation and global spread of the 'imagined communities' of nationality and explores the processes that created these communities: the territorialisation of religious faiths, the decline of antique kingship, the interaction between capitalism and print, the development of vernacular languages-of-state, and changing conceptions of time.
Abstract: What makes people love and die for nations, as well as hate and kill in their name? While many studies have been written on nationalist political movements, the sense of nationality - the personal and cultural feeling of belonging to the nation - has not received proportionate attention. In this widely acclaimed work, Benedict Anderson examines the creation and global spread of the 'imagined communities' of nationality. Anderson explores the processes that created these communities: the territorialisation of religious faiths, the decline of antique kingship, the interaction between capitalism and print, the development of vernacular languages-of-state, and changing conceptions of time. He shows how an originary nationalism born in the Americas was modularly adopted by popular movements in Europe, by the imperialist powers, and by the anti-imperialist resistances in Asia and Africa. This revised edition includes two new chapters, one of which discusses the complex role of the colonialist state's mindset in the development of Third World nationalism, while the other analyses the processes by which all over the world, nations came to imagine themselves as old.

25,018 citations

Book
01 Jan 1998
TL;DR: In this paper, Anderson discusses how the Philippines is changed when it can no longer be seen through a comparison with European capitals, and how, more broadly, nationalism is produced by the process of increasing global connection.
Abstract: This collection of essays spans a range of subjects, including: Aquino's Philippines, where the horses on the haciendas ate better than the stable hands; and political assassinations in contemporary Thailand, where government posts have become so lucrative that to gain them candidates will kill their rivals. Politics, national imaginings, bureaucracy, modernization and its agents (particularly print culture) is covered. "The spectre of comparisons" was a phrase used by the celebrated Filipino nationalist and novelist Jose Rizal (1861-96), whose work and fate in the national imagination are discussed in the book. In his observations on South-East Asian societies, Anderson raises deep questions concerning this spectre, about how, for example, Manila is changed when it can no longer be seen through a comparison with European capitals, and how, more broadly, nationalism is produced by the process of increasing global connection. The book should be a resource for those interested in South-East Asia. But it also contains theoretical and historical considerations about nationalism, national literature and memory, modernization and the prospects for the Left in what Anderson dubs "The New World Disorder". Benedict Anderson is the author of "Java In a Time of Revolution", "Language and Power: Exploring Political Cultures in Indonesia" and "Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism".

630 citations

Book
11 Dec 1990
TL;DR: In this paper, Anderson explores the cultural and political contradictions that have arisen from two critical facts in Indonesian history-that while the Indonesian nation is young, the Indonesian state is ancient, originating in the early seventeenth-century Dutch conquests; and that contemporary politics are conducted in a new language, Bahasa Indonesia, by peoples (especially the Javanese) whose cultures are rooted in medieval times.
Abstract: In this lively book, Benedict R. O'G Anderson explores the cultural and political contradictions that have arisen from two critical facts in Indonesian history-that while the Indonesian nation is young, the Indonesian state is ancient, originating in the early seventeenth-century Dutch conquests; and that contemporary politics are conducted in a new language, Bahasa Indonesia, by peoples (especially the Javanese) whose cultures are rooted in medieval times. Analyzing a spectrum of examples from classical poetry to public monuments and cartoons, Anderson deepens our understanding of the interaction between modern and traditional notions of power, the meditation of power by language, and the development of national consciousness.This volume brings together eight of Anderson's most influential essays written over the past two decades. Most of the essays address aspects of Javanese political culture-from the early nineteenth century, when the Javanese did not yet have words for politics, colonialism, society, or class, through the early nationalism of the 1900s, to the era of independence after World War II, when deep internal tensions exploded into large-scale massacres. In the first group of essays Anderson considers how power was imagined in traditional Javanese society, and how these imaginings shaped Indonesia's modern politics. Other essays focus on the significance of the incongruences between the egalitarian, ironizing national language through which modern Indonesia has been imagined and the powerful influence of the hierarchical, authoritarian Javanese official culture. Finally, two essays on consciousness illuminate the crucial eras before and after the rise of Indonesia's nationalist movement. One reflects on Javanese intellectuals' phantasmagoric efforts to keep imagining "Java" as the island was overrun by colonial capitalism and absorbed into the huge, heterogeneous Netherlands East Indies; the second traces the transition from old culture to new nation through the autobiography of an eminent Javanese first-generation nationalist politician.

283 citations


Cited by
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DOI
01 Jan 1996
TL;DR: The authors argue that the multiplicity of communications channels and increasing cultural and linguistic diversity in the world today call for a much broader view of literacy than portrayed by traditional language-based approaches.
Abstract: THE NEW LONDON GROUP 1 In this article, the New London Group presents a theoretical overoiew of the connec­ tions between the changing social environment facing students and teachers and a new approach to literacy pedagogy that they call "multiliteracies. " The authors argue that the multiplicity of communications channels and increasing cultural and lin­ guistic diversity in the world today call for a much broader view of literacy than portrayed by traditional language-based approaches. Multiliteracies, according to the authors, overcomes the limitations of traditional approaches by emphasizing how ne­ gotiating the multiple lingustic and cultural differences in our society is central to the pragmatics of the working, civic, and private lives of students. The authors maintain that the use of multiliteracies approaches to pedagogy will enable students to achieve the authors' twin goals for literacy learning: creating access to the evolving language of work, power, and community, and fostering the critical engagement necessary for them to design their social futures and achieve success through fulfilling employment. If it were possible to define generally the mission of education, one could say that its fundamental purpose is to ensure that all students benefit from learning in ways that allow them to participate fully in public, community, and economic life. Literacy pedagogy is expected to play a particularly important role in ful­ filling this mission. Pedagogy is a teaching and learning relationship that creates the potential for building learning conditions leading to full and equitable social participation. Literacy pedagogy has traditionally meant teaching and learning

4,915 citations

Book
18 Aug 2002
TL;DR: Discourse Analysis as Theory and Method as discussed by the authors is a systematic introduction to discourse analysis as a body of theories and methods for social research, which brings together three central approaches, Laclau and Mouffe's discourse theory, critical discourse analysis and discursive psychology, to establish a dialogue between different forms of discourse analysis often kept apart by disciplinary boundaries.
Abstract: Discourse Analysis as Theory and Method is a systematic introduction to discourse analysis as a body of theories and methods for social research. It brings together three central approaches, Laclau and Mouffe's discourse theory, critical discourse analysis and discursive psychology, in order to establish a dialogue between different forms of discourse analysis often kept apart by disciplinary boundaries. The book introduces the three approaches in a clear and easily comprehensible manner, explaining the distinctive philosophical premises and theoretical perspectives of each approach as well as the methodological guidelines and tools they provide for empirical discourse analysis. The authors also demonstrate the possibilities for combining different discourse analytical and non-discourse analytical approaches in empirical study. Finally, they contextualize discourse analysis within the social constructionist debate about critical social research, rejecting the view that a critical stance is incompatible with social constructionist premises and arguing that critique must be an inherent part of social research.

3,598 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This assumed isomorphism of space, place, and culture results in some significant problems. as mentioned in this paper argues that differences between cultures come about not from their isolation from each other, but because of their connections with each other.
Abstract: This assumed isomorphism of space, place, and culture results in some significant problems. First, there is the issue of those who inhabit the border, what Gloria Anzaldua calls the “narrow strip along steep edges” of national boundaries. The fiction ofconclusion that a focus on people who live in the borders between dominant societies or nations (and here borders is also a metaphor for people who identify, culturally, with more than one group) makes clear the fact that differences between cultures come about not because of their isolation from each other, but because of their connections with each other. Such a conclusion also suggests that along with difference comes the hierarchies of power. Culture is not only a concept that expresses difference between peoples, but also a concept that masks the uneven power relations between peoples, and these uneven power relations can only exist through connection, rather than isolation.

2,870 citations

Book
18 Aug 2005
TL;DR: The authors provides a coherent and accessible overview of the work of the New London Group, with well-known international contributors bringing together their varying national experiences and differences of theoretical and political emphasis, dealing with issues such as: * the fundamental premises of literacy pedagogy * the effects of technological change * multilingualism and cultual diversity * social futures and their implications on language teaching.
Abstract: Multiliteracies considers the future of literacy teaching in the context of the rapidly changing English language. Questions are raised about what constitutes appropriate literacy teaching in today's world: a world that is both a global village yet one which local diversity is increasingly important. This is a coherent and accessible overview of the work of the New London Group, with well-known international contributors bringing together their varying national experiences and differences of theoretical and political emphasis. The essays deal with issues such as: * the fundamental premises of literacy pedagogy * the effects of technological change * multilingualism and cultual diversity * social futures and their implications on language teaching. The book concludes with case studies of attempts to put the theories into practice and thereby provides a basis for dialogue with fellow educators around the world.

2,601 citations