Book•
Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism
01 Jan 1983-
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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01 Jan 2005TL;DR: Yoffee as discussed by the authors argues that early states were not uniformly constituted bureaucratic and regional entities, but had slaves and soldiers, priests and priestesses, peasants and prostitutes, merchants and craftsmen.
Abstract: In this ground-breaking work, Norman Yoffee shatters the prevailing myths underpinning our understanding of the evolution of early civilisations. He counters the emphasis in traditional scholarship on the rule of 'godly' and despotic male leaders and challenges the conventional view that early states were uniformly constituted bureaucratic and regional entities. Instead, by illuminating the role of slaves and soldiers, priests and priestesses, peasants and prostitutes, merchants and craftsmen, Yoffee depicts an evolutionary process centred on the concerns of everyday life. Drawing on evidence from ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, China and Mesoamerica, the author explores the variety of trajectories followed by ancient states, from birth to collapse, and explores the social processes that shape any account of the human past. This book offers a bold new interpretation of social evolutionary theory, and as such it is essential reading for any student or scholar with an interest in the emergence of complex society.
314 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a theoretical framework identifying which qualities of autonomy solutions increase the likelihood of conflict and discuss how autonomy relates to other factors conducive to conflict by studying minorities in the South Caucasus and examines the case of Georgia.
Abstract: The granting of autonomous status to minority populations has gained support among academics and practitioners alike as a way to solve, manage, and even preempt ethnic conflict. In spite of the enthusiasm for ethnofederalism, however, the provision of autonomy to minorities may actually increase rather than decrease the likelihood of conflict. Under certain political conditions, autonomy promotes the separate identity of the minority and increases its motivation and capacity to seek separation from the central state. This article presents a rudimentary theoretical framework identifying which qualities of autonomy solutions increase the likelihood of conflict. It discusses how autonomy relates to other factors conducive to conflict by studying minorities in the South Caucasus and examines the case of Georgia. In Georgia, there were five ethnic minority populations, two of whom—the Abkhaz and the South Ossetians—enjoyed autonomous status and were the only minorities to engage in armed conflict with the Georgian government. This article shows how autonomy, by empowering ethnic elites with control of statelike institutions and by enhancing factors such as leadership, economic viability, and external support, played a crucial role in the escalation of the conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Conversely, the absence of autonomy mitigated separatist and secessionist sentiments among two of Georgia's other minority groups—Javakheti's Armenian and Kvemo Kartli's Azeri populations.
311 citations
01 Jan 2007
TL;DR: The authors introduced the notion of imagined communities as a way to better understand the relationship between second language learning and identity, arguing that language learners' actual and desired memberships in imagined communities affect their learning trajectories, influencing their agency, motivation, investment, and resistance in the learning of English.
Abstract: This chapter introduces the notion of imagined communities as a way to better understand the relationship between second language learning and identity. It is argued that language learners’ actual and desired memberships in imagined communities affect their learning trajectories, influencing their agency, motivation, investment, and resistance in the learning of English. These influences are exemplified with regard to five identity clusters: postcolonial, global, ethnic, multilingual, and gendered identities. During the course of this discussion, we consider the relevance of imagined communities for classroom practice in English education.
309 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors challenge the widespread notion that civic nationalism is dominant in Western Europe and North America, whereas ethnic nationalists are dominant in Central and Eastern Europe, and refines the civic/ethnic dichotomy and deduces the state policies that flow from ethnic, cultural, and civic conceptions of national identity.
Abstract: This article challenges the widespread notion that civic nationalism is dominant in Western Europe and North America, whereas ethnic nationalism is dominant in Central and Eastern Europe. After laying out the civic-West/ethnic-East argument, it refines the civic/ethnic dichotomy and deduces the state policies that flow from ethnic, cultural, and civic conceptions of national identity. It then employs survey data from 15 countries to measure mass conceptions of national identity by analyzing attitudes on criteria for national membership and state policy toward assimilation and immigration. The article finds that the civic-West/ethnic-East stereotype, when true, is only weakly true, and according to several measures is false. Finally, several explanations for strong cultural national identities in the West and strong civic national identities in Eastern Europe are given.
309 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a politique qui entoure le discours identitaire a suivi l'histoire du concept d'identite is presented, in which les idees cles actuellement sont la personnalite, la collectivite et la lutte sociale.
Abstract: Les etudes sur les identites des migrants aux Etats-Unis ont d'abord developpe le modele bipolaire (migrant retournant chez eux, migrant s'installant definitivement) et le concept d'identite localisee avant de presenter les images alternatives des espaces sociaux transnationaux et des affiliations multi-locales. La politique qui entoure le discours identitaire a suivi l'histoire du concept d'identite dont les idees cles actuellement sont la personnalite, la collectivite et la lutte sociale. Des liens etroits existent entre la logique et le discours identitaire et les projets hegemoniques bourgeois. Or la dependance envers les concepts d'organisations risquent de renforcer l'influence et le controle bourgeois. A partir du cas des migrants d'Aguililla (Michoacan) venus s'installer a Redwood City, l'A. montre le rapport entre l'identite collective et l'identite personnelle et presente la politique d'identification au Mexique et aux Etats-Unis
309 citations