Showing papers by "Larry Ray published in 1999"
01 Jun 1999
42 citations
TL;DR: The authors examines the conditions for violent nationalism, with particular reference to the Kosovo conflict, and argues that the necessary conditions for potentially genocidal nationalism lie in the apparently routine rituals through which 'nations' are remembered and constructed.
Abstract: Nationalism poses several analytical problems for sociology, since it stands at the intersection of familiar binary conceptual contrasts. It further has the capacity to appear alternatively democratic and violent. This paper examines the conditions for violent nationalism, with particular reference to the Kosovo conflict. It argues that the conditions for potentially genocidal nationalism lie in the apparently routine rituals through which 'nations' are remembered and constructed. Violent nationalism may appear where the transmission of collective identities is infused with mourning and traumatic memory. However, the presence of such forms of memory is not sufficient in themselves to provoke violent nationalism. These are unleashed in the context of state crisis where former loyalties are replaced with highly affective commitment to rectification of imagined historical wrongs.
9 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, an interpretaion of Islamic fundamentalism, especially the Iranian Revolution, in the context of sociological debates about "modernity" is presented. But the problematic nature of both these terms is acknowledge.
Abstract: This paper offers an interpretaion of 'Islamic fundamentalism', especially the Iranian Revolution, in the context of sociological debates about 'modernity'. The problematic nature of both these terms is acknowledge. It criticizes explanations of 'fundamentalism' that begin from the assumption of a dichotomy between fundamentalism and modernity, arguing instead for a more nuanced understanding of both Islamic revivalism and the modern. The paper begins by offering a model of modernity as a set of bi-modal tensions within which Islamic 'fundamentalism' could be understood as a form of modernist revolutionary populism. This argument is then developed through a comparison betwen the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the Jacobin phase of the French Revolution. It argues that there are parallels between the idea of Islamic revolution and the Jacobin revolutionary imagination, which demonstrate with some observations on Islam, and the closure of the Jacobin revolutionary project.
5 citations
TL;DR: This paper investigated racist violence in Greater Manchester and found that the response of the police and other agencies to racist attacks and harassment to racist harassment was also a major issue in the Macpherson Report.
Abstract: These comments arising from the Macpherson Report are made in the light of our research on racist violence in Greater Manchester. This study, funded by the ESRC as part of the Violence Research Programme, is still in progress and our findings at this stage are tentative. The focus of the study is mainly on the perpetrators of racist violence, but we have also obtained material on the response of the police and other agencies to racist attacks and harassment.
3 citations