Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism

The measurement of meaning

Series Editor's Preface. Introduction by John Breuilly. Acknowledgements. 1. Definitions. State and nation. The nation. 2. Culture in Agrarian Society. Power and culture in the agro-literature society. The varieties of agrarian rulers. 3. Industrial Society. The society of perpetual growth. Social genetics. The age of universal high culture. 4. The Transition to an Age of Nationalism. A note on the weakness of nationalism. Wild and garden culture. 5. What is a Nation. The course of true nationalism never did run smooth. 6. Social Entropy and Equality in Industrial Society. Obstacles to entropy. Fissures and barriers. A diversity of focus. 7. A Typology of Nationalisms. The varieties of nationalist experience. Diaspora nationalism. 8. The Future of Nationalism. Industrial culture - one or many?. 9. Nationalism and Ideology. Who is for Nuremberg?. One nation, one state. 10. Conclusion. What is not being said. Summary. Select bibliography. Bilbliography of Ernest Gellner's writing: Ian Jarvie. Index

Nations and Nationalism

Ethnic Groups in Conflict

Anderson, Benedict. 1991. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso. Briggs, Asa and Peter Burke. 2005. A Social History of the Media from Gutenberg to the Internet. Cambridge: Polity Press. Chun, Wendy Hui Kyong. 2006. \"Introduction: Did Somebody Say New Media?\" In Wendy Hui Kyong Chun and Thomas Kennan eds., New Media/Old Media: A History and Theory Reader. New York: Routledge, pp. 1-11. Deibert, Ronald. 1997. Parchment, Printing and Hypermedia: Communication in World Order Transformation. New York: Columbia University Press. Elsaesser, Thomas. 2006. \"Early Film History and Multi-Media: An Archaeology of Possible Futures?\" In Wendy Hui Kyong Chun and Thomas Kennan eds., New Media/Old Media: A History and Theory Reader. New York: Routledge, pp. 13-26. Jenkins, Henry. 2006. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York University Press. Luhman, Niklas. 2000. The Reality of the Mass Media. Cambridge: Polity Press. Mirzoeff, Nicholas. 2006. \"Network Subjects or, The Ghost is the Message.\" In Wendy Hui Kyong Chun and Thomas Keenan eds., New Media/Old Media: A History and Theory Reader. New York: Routledge, pp. 335-345. Saenger, Paul. 1997. \"Introduction\" to Space Between Words: The Origins of Silent Reading. Stanford: Stanford University Press, pp. 1-17. Thorburn, David and Henry Jenkins eds. 2003. Rethinking Media Change: The Aesthetics of Transition. Boston: MIT Press.

Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (review)

As scholarly interest in the concept of identity continues to grow, social identities are proving to be crucially important for understanding contemporary life. Despite - or perhaps because of - the sprawl of different treatments of identity in the social sciences, the concept has remained too analytically loose to be as useful a tool as the literature's early promise had suggested. We propose to solve this longstanding problem by developing the analytical rigor and methodological imagination that will make identity a more useful variable for the social sciences. This article offers more precision by defining collective identity as a social category that varies along two dimensions - content and contestation. Content describes the meaning of a collective identity. The content of social identities may take the form of four non-mutually exclusive types: constitutive norms; social purposes; relational comparisons with other social categories; and cognitive models. Contestation refers to the degree of agreement within a group over the content of the shared category. Our conceptualization thus enables collective identities to be compared according to the agreement and disagreement about their meanings by the members of the group. The final section of the article looks at the methodology of identity scholarship. Addressing the wide array of methodological options on identity - including discourse analysis, surveys, and content analysis, as well as promising newer methods like experiments, agent-based modeling, and cognitive mapping - we hope to provide the kind of brush clearing that will enable the field to move forward methodologically as well.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID1100064_code339517.pdf?abstractid=1100064&mirid=1

Identity as a Variable

As scholarly interest in the concept of identity continues to grow, social identities are proving to be crucially important for understanding contemporary life. Despite—or perhaps because of—the sprawl of different treatments of identity in the social sciences, the concept has remained too analytically loose to be as useful a tool as the literature’s early promise had suggested. We propose to solve this longstanding problem by developing the analytical rigor and methodological imagination that will make identity a more useful variable for the social sciences. This article offers more precision by defining collective identity as a social category that varies along two dimensions—content and contestation. Content describes the meaning of a collective identity. The content of social identities may take the form of four non-mutually-exclusive types: constitutive norms; social purposes; relational comparisons with other social categories; and cognitive models. Contestation refers to the degree of agreement within a group over the content of the shared category. Our conceptualization thus enables collective identities to be compared according to the agreement and disagreement about their meanings by the members of the group. The final section of the article looks at the methodology of identity scholarship. Addressing the wide array of methodological options on identity—including discourse analysis, surveys, and content analysis, as well as promising newer methods like experiments, agent-based modeling, and cognitive mapping—we hope to provide the kind of brush clearing that will enable the field to move forward methodologically as well.

/pdf/identity-as-a-variable-1coh9lv2tx.pdf

Part I. Definition, Conceptualization, and Measurement Alternatives: 1. Identity as a variable Rawi Abdelal, Yoshiko M. Herrera, Alastair Iain Johnston, and Rose McDermott 2. Conceptualizing and measuring ethnic identity Henry E. Brady and Cynthia S. Kaplan 3. Tradeoffs in measuring identities: a comparison of five approaches Donald A. Sylvan and Amanda K. Metskas Part II. Survey Methods: 4. Between social theory and social science practice: towards a new approach to the survey measurement of 'race' Taeku Lee 5. Balancing national and ethnic identities: the psychology of e pluribus unum Jack Citrin and David O. Sears 6. Black and blue: black identity and black solidarity in an era of conservative triumph Michael Dawson Part III. Content Analysis and Cognitive Mapping: 7. Quantitative content analysis and the measurement of collective identity Kimberly Neuendorf and Paul D. Skalski 8. The content and intersection of identity in Iraq Robalyn Stone and Michael Young 9. A constructivist dataset on ethnicity and institutions Kanchan Chandra Part IV. Discourse Analysis and Ethnography: 10. Identity relations and the Sino-Soviet split Ted Hopf 11. Techniques for measuring identity in ethnographic research Laura Adams Part V. Experiments: 12. Psychological approaches to identity: experimentation and application Rose McDermott.

/pdf/measuring-identity-a-guide-for-social-scientists-4jo9rhdumt.pdf

Measuring identity : a guide for social scientists

List of tables List of figures and maps List of acronyms Note on transliteration Acknowledgements Introduction 1. Regionalism in the Russian Federation: theories and evidence 2. Imagined economies: constructivist political economy and nationalism 3. Breaking the Soviet doxa: perestroika, rasstroika, and the evolution of regionalism 4. To each his own: the development of heterogeneous regional understandings and interests in Russia 5. Imagined economies in Samara and Sverdlovsk: differences in regional understandings of the economy 6. Regional understandings of the economy and sovereignty: the economic basis of the movement for a Urals Republic 7. Regional understandings, institutional context, and the development of the movement for a Urals Republic Conclusion Appendix tables Index.

Imagined Economies: The Sources of Russian Regionalism

This paper examines the construction and use of data sets in political science. We focus on three interrelated questions: How might we assess data quality? What factors shape data quality? and How can these factors be addressed to improve data quality? We first outline some problems with existing data set quality, including issues of validity, coverage, and accuracy, and we discuss some ways of identifying problems as well as some consequen ces of data quality problems. The core of the paper addresses the second question by analyzing the incentives and capabilities facing four key actors in a data supply chain: respondents, data collection agencies (including state bureaucracies and private organiza tions), international organizations, and finally, academic scholars. We conclude by making some suggestions for improving the use and construction of data sets.

/pdf/improving-data-quality-actors-incentives-and-capabilities-1rznlbsmre.pdf

Yoshiko M. Herrera

Papers

Identity as a Variable

Identity as a Variable

Measuring identity : a guide for social scientists

Imagined Economies: The Sources of Russian Regionalism

Improving Data Quality: Actors, Incentives, and Capabilities