Showing papers in "Berkeley journal of sociology: a critical review in 2003"

Persisting identities: Locating the self and theorizing the Nation

Abstract: This article theorizes and problematizes the concepts of self and nation as exemplified in stories of return migration to subjects' ancestral homeland (Greece). The personal project of return migration to parents' homeland is densely interconnected with processes of identification perceived by the returnees themselves as the dynamic context wherein the cultural self intersects with the ethnic self in both private and public national constructions. Such interactive processes direct the returnees towards a re-evaluation of notions of home and belonging and allow for the redefinition of otherwise static notions of being and becoming. These processes are central in the returnees' narratives and clearly reflect: (1) the continuous interplay between the returnee as active agent and the national construction of homeland as structure, (2) that incomplete, disjointed and ambivalent identities are realized through the process of return, which challenges previous images and imaginings of the homeland and what home means, and (3) the diasporic journey of return becomes the spatial context of appraisal of nation as a means to realize the self as contextualized through emotional and rational processes of incorporation. The article suggests that return migration is an essential component of global socio-cultural processes and a significant phase of the migration phenomenon that no longer can be underestimated by the social sciences. Furthermore, it argues that the empirical study of such phenomena will contribute to an understanding of new ways in which nationalisms are interrelated to identifications, and how they are produced reproduced, reinforced and challenged. Narratives of return and belonging were gathered through in-depth interviewing with second-generation Greek-American return migrants who made a conscious decision to relocate from their country of birth and origin (USA) to their country of parental extraction, heritage and descent (Greece) throughout the last decade.

The Elusive Cosmopolitan Ideal

Abstract: The discourse of globalization is gloomier early in the first decade of the 21st century than it was in the 1990s. Markets are stagnant. The world's one superpower has announced a doctrine of pre-emptive invasion of those it sees as threatening. Awareness of the global vitality of religion is growing, but intolerant fundamentalists seem to thrive disproportionately. A host of humanitarian emergencies and local or regional conflicts kill by the tens of thousands. And the dark side of globalization includes diseases that kill by the millions, trafficking in women, drugs and guns. Why didn't we see it coming?

Modernization and the Social Constructoin of National Identity:: The Case of Taiwanese Identity

Abstract: Modern social life has seen a rapid increase in the number of ethnic groups demanding sovereignty over their own territory. Until recently, many of these demands were framed in response to foreign or outside colonizers, but many of the newer nationalistic movements are aimed at what have been termed "internal colonizers. " Taiwan is one such society that has recently seen the development of such demands. Increasingly, more and more people both in and from Taiwan are rejecting the term "Chinese, " choosing instead to call themselves "Taiwanese, " claiming that theirs is a unique and separate culture. In this paper, I argue that Taiwanese identity-like all ethnic and national identities-is a social construction. I also develop a model to understand the formation of Taiwanese national identity, arguing that Taiwanese identity is a consequence both of Taiwan's unique modernization process and the forces that modernization typically produces.

Debating the Embargo:: Transnational Plitical Activity in the Cuban-American Community, 1959-1997

Abstract: Drawing from research on social movements, transnational political activism, and foreign policy decision-making, this paper examines the political struggle between moderates and hardliners in the Cuban-American community.Crucial to understanding the outcomes of these struggles is a conceptualization of how political opportunities, group resources, and group identity come together to shape activists' strategies. The case study reveals that three factors were centrally important in these outcomes: the federal government's efforts to utilize the exile to advance its own foreign policy interests; the existence of members of the exile community with the political skills to broker these exchanges with the federal government; and the active creation of a charged political atmosphere that made community discourse a winner-take-all proposition.