State boundaries have constituted a major topic in the tradition of political geography. Boundary analysis has focused on the international scale, since international boundaries provide perhaps the...

Fences and neighbours in the postmodern world: boundary narratives in political geography

The study of borders has undergone a renaissance during the past decade. This is reflected in an impressive list of conferences, workshops and scholarly publications. This renaissance has been partly due to the emergence of a counternarrative to the borderless and deterritorialized world discourse which has accompanied much of globalization theory. The study of borders has moved beyond the limited confines of the political geography discourse, crossing its own disciplinary boundaries, to include sociologists, political scientists, historians, international lawyers and scholars of international relations. But this meeting of disciplines has not yet been successful in creating a common language or glossary of terms which is relevant to all scholars of borders. Central to the contemporary study of borders are notions such as 'borders are institutions', the process of 'bordering' as a dynamic in its own right, and the border terminologies which focus on the binary distinctions between the 'us' and 'them', the 'included' and the 'excluded'. Borders should be studied not only from a top-down perspective, but also from the bottom up, with a focus on the individual border narratives and experiences, reflecting the ways in which borders impact upon the daily life practices of people living in and around the borderland and transboundary transition zones. In positing an agenda for the next generation of border-related research, borders should be seen for their potential to constitute bridges and points of contact, as much as they have traditionally constituted barriers to movement and communication.

The lines that continue to separate us: borders in our `borderless' world

Acknowledgements IntroductionI FOREIGN LANGUAGE EDUCATIONPurposes 1 Foreign language education in context 2 Purposes for foreign language education Possibilities 3 Is language learning possible at school? 4 The intercultural speaker - acting interculturally or being bicultural 5 Intercultural competence and foreign language learning in the primary school 6 Analysis and advocacy: researching the cultural dimensions of foreign language education Perspectives 7 Nationalism and Internationalism in Language Education 8 Language learning in Europe 9 Foreign language teaching as political action II INTERCULTURAL CITIZENSHIP EDUCATIOn 10 Language Education, Political Education and Intercultural Citizenship 11 Education for Intercultural Citizenship 12 Policies for intercultural citizenship education 13 Curricula for intercultural citizenship education 14 Assessment and/or evaluation of intercultural competence and intercultural citizenshipConclusionReferencesAppendix

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From foreign language education to education for intercultural citizenship : essays and reflections

Relocating Participation Within a Radical Politics of Development: Insights from Political Action and Practice

Drawing upon a series of studies that examines the information world of poor people, the author discovers four critical concepts that serve as the basis for defining an impoverished life-world. These concepts are risk-taking, secrecy, deception, and situational relevance. Moving back and forth among the worlds of janitors, single mothers, and an aging population, the author develops a conceptual framework that links the world of the information poor—the outsiders—with a world of insiders. Paradoxically, the author finds that the very existence of two worlds is in itself a hindrance to information seeking and sharing behaviors. Insiders, because of their status, reinforce information poverty by neglecting to accept sources of information not created by themselves. The author's findings thus indicate that the world of insiders is one in which outsiders are not sought for information and advice and is a world in which norms and mores define what is important and what is not. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

https://asistdl.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/%28SICI%291097-4571%28199603%2947%3A3%3C193%3A%3AAID-ASI3%3E3.0.CO%3B2-T

The impoverished life-world of outsiders

The Indian Constitution is committed to the equality of citizens and the responsibility of the State to preserve, protect and assure the rights of minorities in matters of language, religion and culture. That is why our national leaders while framing the Constitution, emphasized the doctrine of unity in diversity. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National, Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities says that the promotion and protection of the rights of persons belonging to such minorities contribute to the political and social stability of the countries in which they live. Meeting their aspirations and ensuring their rights acknowledges the dignity and equality of all individuals and furthers participatory development. This in turn contributes to the lessening of tensions among groups and individuals. These factors are major determinants for stability and peace. All developed countries and most developing ones give appropriate emphasis to looking after the interests of minorities. Thus, in any country, the faith and confidence of the minorities in the functioning of the State in an impartial manner is an acid test of its being a just State. As the processes of economic development unfold, pressures are likely to build up and intensify when there is unequal development and some groups or minorities lag behind in the development process. Ideally, development processes should remove or reduce economic and social obstacles to cooperation and mutual respect among all groups in the country. If development processes are misdirected, they may have the opposite effect. It is this aspect which is important and needs to be addressed so as to give confidence to minorities. Since Independence, India has achieved significant growth and development. It as also been successful in reducing poverty and improving crucial human development indicators such as levels of literacy, education and health. There are indications, however, that not all religious communities and social groups (henceforth socio-religious communities SRCs) have shared equally the benefits of the growth process. Among these, the Muslims, the largest minority community in the country, constituting 13.4 per cent of the population, are seriously lagging behind in terms of most of the human development indicators. While the perception of deprivation is widespread among Muslims, there has been no systematic effort since Independence to analyze the condition of religious minorities in the country. Despite the need to analyze the socio-economic and educational conditions of different SRCs, until recently appropriate data for such an analysis was not generated by Government agencies. There have been welcome change in the scope of data collection with respect to SRCs in the 1990s, which, in turn, has made this report possible. The current effort is the first of its kind to undertake a data-based research on the Muslims in India.

Social, Economic and Educational Status of the Muslim Community of India

Citizenship, nationality, and ethnicity

Part I: The Conceptual Kit: The Search for Clarity: . 1. Introducing the Argument. 2. Rethinking Citizenship, Nationality and Ethnicity. 3. Avoiding Conflations and Subsumptions. 4. Race and Religion: Untenable Factors in Nation Formation. Part II: The Empirical Process: The Trajectory of Ethnification: . 5. Colonialism and European Expansion. 6. Proletarian Internationalism and the Socialist State. 7. The Nation--State and Project Homogenization. 8. Immigration and the Chauvinism of Prosperity. Part III: Towards a Rapproachment: Concepts and Reality: . 9. Reconceptualizing Nation and Nationality: The Cruciality of Territory and Language. 10. Class, Nation, Ethnie and Race: Interlinkages. 11. Reconciling Nationality and Ethnicity: The Role of Citizenship. Notes. References. Index.

Citizenship, Nationality and Ethnicity: Reconciling Competing Identities

Introduction - T K Oommen Conceptualizing the Linkage Between Citizenship and National Identity Citizenship and National Identity - Alfonso Alfonsi The Emerging Stirrings in Western Europe Nationhood and the National Question in the Soviet Union and Post-Soviet Eurasia - Rogers Brubaker An Institutionalist Account Immigration and the Re-definition of 'Citizenship' in Japan - Takashi Miyajima 'One People One Nation' in Question Citizenship and National Identity in India - T K Oommen Towards a Feasible Linkage Colonialism, Citizenship and Fractured National Identity - Olasope O Oyelaran and Michael Olu Adediran The African Case Religious Fundamentalism, Ethnicity and the Nation-State in the Middle East - Bassam Tibi Citizenship without Moorings - James N Rosenau American Responses to a Turbulent World Nationalism and Citizenship - Elisa P Reis The Crisis of Authority and Solidarity in Latin America (Brazil) Citizenship and National Identity in Latin America - Azril Bacal The Persisting Salience of Race and Ethnicity

Citizenship and national identity : from colonialism to globalism

The rise and fall, construction and deconstruction of different types of boundaries - biological, psychological, geographical, cultural, social, political, economic - make up the very story of human civilisation and of contemporary social transformation. Drawing from a wide variety of contexts, this paper shows how new boundaries do not replace the old ones but rather they tend to co-exist. This co-existence is sometimes harmonious but often tension-prone. Life in a society without boundaries will be nasty, brutish and short. On the other hand, societies with a proclivity to maintain boundaries that ignore the pulse of the times will be condemned to stagnation and decay. Thus, boundaries are constantly contested and hence the real challenge is to abolish obsolete boundaries and build desirable new ones which is the essence of pluralism.

T. K. Oommen

Papers

Social, Economic and Educational Status of the Muslim Community of India

Citizenship, nationality, and ethnicity

Citizenship, Nationality and Ethnicity: Reconciling Competing Identities

Citizenship and national identity : from colonialism to globalism

Contested boundaries and emerging pluralism