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Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism

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.
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TL;DR: In this paper, the normative principles for managing ethnocultural diversity in a liberal democracy are discussed, and whether they have any applicability to ethnic conflict in Eastern and Central Europe.
Abstract: Until quite recently, the area of ethnocultural relations has been surprisingly neglected by Western political theorists. For most of this century, ethnicity was viewed by political theorists as a marginal phenomenon that would gradually disappear with modernisation, and hence was not an important topic for forward-looking political theorists. As a result, even into the mid-1980s, there were very few political philosophers working in the area. The question of the rights of ethnocultural groups, however, has moved to the forefront of Western political theory in the last few years. The aim in this article is to describe this emerging literature on the normative principles for managing ethnocultural diversity in a liberal democracy, and to consider whether it has any applicability to ethnic conflict in Eastern and Central Europe. The goal is not to propose the unrealistic transplanting of institutions and policies from the West to the East, but rather to outline some of the interesting recent work done by We...

107 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the relationship between commensuration and affect in various contexts of education policy and explore the impact of data on the mobility of policy ideas, which spread via meetings that enable affective proximity.
Abstract: This article explores the relationship between commensuration and affect in various contexts of education policy. Commensuration is the process through which disparate qualities are transformed into a common metric and is central to the production of performance data. The rise of governance through numbers in education has resulted in a proliferation of performance data, comparisons and rankings that influence political debate and policymaking. The efficacy of data as a governance mechanism depends on their usage to shift perceptions of performance, and this involves both conscious interpretation and affective sense-making of data and their representation in multiple forms. For example, performance data used within accountability systems in education are linked to sanctions and rewards, and their effects are partially due to the feelings that are provoked. The relationship between affect and data is also important in the mobility of policy ideas, which spread via meetings that enable affective proximity b...

107 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Wright et al. as discussed by the authors introduced the concept of Third Space, a non-political online space where political talk emerges, which is heavily influenced by, but ultimately grounded in a critique of, Oldenburg's (1999) concept of the third place.
Abstract: This article takes forward a “new” agenda for online deliberation (Wright 2012), by setting out in detail the concept of third space: non-political online spaces where political talk emerges. The concept of third space is heavily influenced by, but ultimately grounded in a critique of, Oldenburg’s (1999) concept of the third place. Rather than thinking about what virtual equivalents of a third place might look like, this article reconsiders the concept in the context of the Internet and thus differs in several of its conclusions. First, the article sets out the case for studying informal political talk in third spaces. It is argued that this necessitates broad definitions of the political and inclusive definitions of deliberation. Second, each of Oldenburg’s core characteristics of third place are presented, critiqued, and, where necessary, reformulated for the online context. In so doing, the article provides a theoretically informed framework that can be used to study third spaces while also con...

107 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article explored the influence of Bollywood movies in the Indian diaspora's identity construction and notions of home and tourism behavior to India and found that the Indian imagination of India is strongly informed by Bollywood films.
Abstract: In today's global world of movement our personal identities are changing. So, ‘where is my “home”?’ and ‘what is my “identity”?’ have become essential questions in one's life. In recent times, more and more diasporic communities visit their homelands, perhaps to reroot their identities. This study explored the influence of Bollywood movies in the Indian diaspora's identity construction and notions of home and tourism behaviour to India. Findings revealed that the Indian diaspora's imagination of India is strongly informed by Bollywood movies. Yet, different generations of the Indian diaspora have different reasons for travelling to India. The first generation's nostalgia arises from watching Bollywood movies, and as a result, creates a motivation to travel to India. The second generation's main to travel behaviour to India is to experience the new ‘modern’ country, portrayed in the affluent surroundings of contemporary Bollywood movies. And, for those first generations, who have never seen India before, B...

107 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors examines cultural and political dynamics that result when migrants from indigenous communities in Oaxaca, Mexico, migrate to the United States, where they create and live within a third sociocultural and political space popularly referred to as Oaxacalifornia.
Abstract: This paper examines cultural and political dynamics that result when migrants from indigenous communities in Oaxaca, Mexico, migrate to the United States. Forced from their homeland because of economic conditions and prevented from complete settlement and incorporation in the United States due to their “illegal” status and economic and social barriers, the migrants create and live within a third sociocultural and political space popularly referred to as Oaxacalifornia, The cultural politics of this third space are shaped by tensions between the indigenous communities and various instances of the Mexican state that attempt to retain political hegemony over the indigenous communities within Mexico and abroad. Central to the transnational projects of the transnational indigenous organizations is the construction of pan‐Mixtec, pan‐Zapotec, and pan‐Oaxacan indigenous identities, which is a strategy with some contradictions, but one that appears to be effective for advancing the objectives of the organizations...

107 citations