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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TL;DR: The authors explored some of the main features of the controversies about knowledge by turning first to certain assumptions that guided social theory at least since the 19th century, such as human action and agents as purpose or explanation of theory, conceptualization of space and time, and the introduction of change as a problem of the administration of time (the control of process and development), and the inscription of political and social doctrines.
Abstract: In the past decade, important struggles about the production of knowledge have taken place in history, the social sciences, and education. These struggles involve more than the “knowledge interests” that Habermas pointed to in the 1970s; instead, they point to important epistemological ruptures in the doctrines of “reason” that have dominated social and political debates since the late 19th century. This questioning reaches into the presuppositions of progress and power underlying intellectual work.This article explores some of the main features of the controversies about knowledge by turning first to certain assumptions that guided social theory at least since the 19th century. The assumptions relate, for example, to the focus on human action (and agents) as purpose or explanation of theory, to the conceptualization of space and time, to the introduction of change as a problem of the administration of time (the control of process and development), and to the inscription of political and social doctrines ...
158 citations
Book•
15 May 2013
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe a climate of interventionist global neoliberal imperialism which increasingly manifests its violent character through the military invasion of Iraq, bombardment of Libya, imposition of sanctions on Zimbabwe and military involvement in the invasion of Afghanistan.
Abstract: This book has been written at a crucial time in global history in general and
African history in particular. On the one hand, the history is dominated by
a climate of interventionist global neoliberal imperialism which increasingly
manifests its violent character through the military invasion of Iraq,
bombardment of Libya, imposition of sanctions on Zimbabwe and military
invasion of Afghanistan. Violent invasions of weaker countries by the United
States of America (USA) and its North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
partners, are often justified as humanitarian interventions to introduce
democracy and human rights, dethrone dictators, eradicate terrorism and
restore order within those states characterized by United States as outposts
of tyranny and part of ‘the axis of evil’. But the military interventions,
rhetorically premised on the noble ‘right to protect’, seem to be selective and
guided by the West’s permanent strategic interests rather than genuine global
humanitarian concerns.
On the other hand, there was the unexpected outbreak of popular uprisings
in North Africa that have resulted in the collapse of dictatorial regimes in
Tunisia and Egypt, and the aerial bombardment of Libya by NATO-led forces
in support of an onslaught by disparate opposition groups that culminated in
the overthrow of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s 42-year iron rule and his death.
These new developments in global history have provoked animated debates
with some scholars like David Harvey (2003, 2007) and Ellen Meiksin Wood
(2003) raising issues of the spectre of ‘new imperialism’ that is involving
new players from East and South-East Asia. Some left-leaning scholars have
concluded that we are living in a new world of ‘universal capitalism in which
capitalist imperatives are universal instruments of capitalist domination’. They
see this development as a very recent phenomenon (Wood 2003: 127).
158 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, an argument is made for the need to conceptualize cultural memory, not as merely derivative of individual psychology, but in terms of a "working memory" (Assmann) that is constructed and reconstructed in public acts of remembrance and evolves according to distinctly cultural mechanisms.
Abstract: An argument is made for the need to conceptualize cultural memory, not as merely derivative of individual psychology, but in terms of a ‘working memory’ (Assmann) that is constructed and reconstructed in public acts of remembrance and evolves according to distinctly cultural mechanisms. Foucault’s ‘scarcity principle’ is used to show the role of media in generating shared memories through processes of selection, convergence, recursivity and transfer. This media-based approach, emphasizing the way memories are communicated, circulated and exchanged, allows us to see how collective identities may be (re)defined through memorial practices, and not merely reflected in them.
158 citations
TL;DR: The authors analyzes the effects of globalization in the book market from the standpoint of linguistic diversity, as assessed by the number of books translated from and into different languages, using Bourdieu's theory of the field of publishing.
157 citations
TL;DR: A normative assessment of discussion spaces in two prominent web platforms is conducted using the norms of communitarianism, liberal individualism, and deliberation, finding the platforms’ distinct design features and users’ left/right issue stances emerge as significant predictors of normative differences.
Abstract: Studies of political discussions online have been dominated by approaches that focus exclusively on deliberation, ignoring other equally relevant communication norms. This study conducts a normative assessment of discussion spaces in two prominent web platforms—Twitter hashtags and newspaper comment sections devoted to particular political issues—applying the norms of communitarianism, liberal individualism, and deliberation. The platforms’ distinct design features and users’ left/right issue stances emerge as significant predictors of normative differences.
157 citations