This text examines the implications of government policy for the curriculum, the professionalism of educational practitioners, and the training and career options of young people. It argues for a new educational agenda which recognizes the importance of intellectual investment and innovation in all areas of educational provision and which addresses the profound changes taking place in the relationship between national and global citizenship. The text also includes a critique of New Right policies.
In working to build a sense of nationhood, Ghana has focused on many social engineering projects, the most meaningful and fascinating of which has been the state's effort to create a national culture through its schools. As Cati Coe reveals in Dilemmas of Culture in African Schools, this effort has created an unusual paradox: while Ghana encourages its educators to teach about local cultural traditions, those traditions are transformed as they are taught in school classrooms. The state version of culture now taught by educators has become objectified and nationalized—vastly different from local traditions. Coe identifies the state's limitations in teaching cultural knowledge and discusses how Ghanaians negotiate the tensions raised by the competing visions of modernity that nationalism and Christianity have created. She reveals how cultural curricula affect authority relations in local social organizations—between teachers and students, between Christians and national elite, and between children and elders—and raises several questions about educational processes, state-society relations, the production of knowledge, and the making of Ghana's citizenry.
The question of nationalism centres around the political, social, and cultural ways by which the concept and practice of a nation is constructed, and what it means to its various bearers. This book examines the issue of Jewish-Israeli nationalism, combining a sociological study of national culture with a detailed analysis of Israeli national discourse. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the author explores the categories of thought that constitute the Jewish-Israeli "nation" as an historical entity, as a social reality and as a communal identity. Unravelling the ways in which Israeli nationhood, society and identity had been assumed as immutable, monolithic and closely bound objects by Zionist ideology and scholarship, he then explores how in modern times such approaches have become subject to an array of critical discourses, both in the academic disciplines of history, sociology and cultural studies, and also in the wider sphere of Israeli identity discourse. This unique study of the issue of Jewish-Israeli nationalism will be of great interest to students and scholars of Israeli Studies, Middle East Studies and Jewish History, as well as those working in the fields of Sociology, Political Science, History and Cultural Studies with an interest in nationalism, citizenship, social theory and historiography.
"Republics of Knowledge tells the story of how the circulation of knowledge shaped the formation of nation-states in Latin America, and particularly in Argentina, Peru and Chile, during the century after Iberian rule was defeated in the 1820s. Most immediately, the author has sought to provide a cross-disciplinary approach to the history of knowledge, combining the methods of global intellectual history with a new way of thinking about nations as experienced and enacted as well as how they are imagined, and in so doing offer a new interpretation of the history of independent Latin America to illustrate its wider significance in the making of the modern world. By bringing these lines of inquiry together within a transnational framework, Nicola Miller shows how evidence from the pioneering nations of Latin America can invite historians to rethink many of their general theories about how knowledge travels and how a sense of nationhood is created. The book is designed to stimulate debate about the significance of knowledge not only in Latin America but in all modern societies. As Miller explains, Latin America is usually regarded as an exception to general theories, notably of colonialism, nationalism and liberalism; and yet it was in that part of the world, not in Europe, that the Age of Revolution brought the founding of a second wave of modern republics, and it was in Latin America that pioneering attempts were made to apply liberal principles in societies with inherited caste divisions and corporate institutions. It was there that some of the richest debates about the vexed relationship between collective identities and individualism took place"--
A new perspective on how the nation-state emerged and proliferated across the globe, accompanied by a wave of wars. Andreas Wimmer explores these historical developments using social science techniques of analysis and datasets that cover the entire modern world.
Central Peripheries explores post-Soviet Central Asia through the prism of nation-building. Although relative latecomers on the international scene, the Central Asian states see themselves as globalized, and yet in spite of – or perhaps precisely because of – this, they hold a very classical vision of the nation-state, rejecting the abolition of boundaries and the theory of the ‘death of the nation’. Their unabashed celebration of very classical nationhoods built on post-modern premises challenges the Western view of nationalism as a dying ideology that ought to have been transcended by post-national cosmopolitanism. Marlene Laruelle looks at how states in the region have been navigating the construction of a nation in a post-imperial context where Russia remains the dominant power and cultural reference. She takes into consideration the ways in which the Soviet past has influenced the construction of national storylines, as well as the diversity of each state’s narratives and use of symbolic politics. Exploring state discourses, academic narratives and different forms of popular nationalist storytelling allows Laruelle to depict the complex construction of the national pantheon in the three decades since independence. The second half of the book focuses on Kazakhstan as the most hybrid national construction and a unique case study of nationhood in Eurasia. Based on the principle that only multidisciplinarity can help us to untangle the puzzle of nationhood, Central Peripheries uses mixed methods, combining political science, intellectual history, sociology and cultural anthropology. It is inspired by two decades of fieldwork in the region and a deep knowledge of the region’s academia and political environment. Praise for Central Peripheries ‘Marlene Laruelle paves the way to the more focused and necessary outlook on Central Asia, a region that is not a periphery but a central space for emerging conceptual debates and complexities. Above all, the book is a product of Laruelle's trademark excellence in balancing empirical depth with vigorous theoretical advancements.’ – Diana T. Kudaibergenova, University of Cambridge ‘Using the concept of hybridity, Laruelle explores the multitude of historical, political and geopolitical factors that predetermine different ways of looking at nations and various configurations of nation-building in post-Soviet Central Asia. Those manifold contexts present a general picture of the transformation that the former southern periphery of the USSR has been going through in the past decades.’ – Sergey Abashin, European University at St Petersburg
Charged with fresh material and new perspectives, this updated edition of the groundbreaking biography Brotherhood to Nationhood brings George Manuel and his fighting tradition into the present. George Manuel (1920–1989) was the strategist and visionary behind the modern Indigenous movement in Canada. A three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee, he laid the groundwork for what would become the Assembly of First Nations and was the founding president of the World Council of Indigenous Peoples. Authors Peter McFarlane and Doreen Manuel follow him on a riveting journey from his childhood on a Shuswap reserve through three decades of fierce and dedicated activism. In these pages, an all-new foreword by celebrated Mi'kmaq Lawyer and activist Pam Palmater is joined by an afterword from Manuel’s granddaughter, land defender Kanahus Manuel. This edition features new photos and previously untold stories of the pivotal roles that the women of the Manuel family played – and continue to play – in the battle for Indigenous rights.
This Handbook sets a new agenda for theoretical and practical explorations of citizenship, analysing the main challenges and prospects informing today's world of increased migration and globalization. It will also explore new forms of membership and democratic participation beyond borders, and the rise of European and multilevel citizenship.
Self and Nation is a lively and accessible exploration of the issues related to nationhood, nationalism and national identity. The authors challenge common assumptions of what ‘national identity’ means by addressing key concepts of identity, national character, national history and nationalist psychology. How do constructions of national identity affect the way people act, are mobilized, transform societies, create nations and reshape nations where they already exist? This book shows how the central notion of national identity is used by politicians and activists in support of attempts to create different types of nations. Self and Nation will be essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as researchers in social psychology, politics, sociology and social anthropology.
′With its list of distinguished contributors and its wide range of topics, the handbook is surely destined to become an invaluable resource for all serious students of nationalism′ - Michael Billig, Professor of Social Sciences at Loughborough University and author of ′Banal Nationalism′ (SAGE 1995) ′The persistence - some would say: revival - of nationalism across the recent history of modernity, in particular the past two decades, has taken many scholars in the social sciences by surprise. In response, interest in the analysis of nationalism has increased and given rise to a great variety of new angles under which to study the phenomenon. What was missing in the cacophony of voices addressing nationalism was a volume that brought them together and confronted them with each other. This handbook does just that. It deserves particular praise for the wide range of approaches and topic included and for the systematic attempt at studying nationalism as a phenomenon of our time, not a remnant from the past′ - Peter Wagner, Professor of Social and Political Theory, European University Institute; and Professor of Sociology, University of Warwick ′For students concerned with the contemporary study of nationalism this will be an invaluable publication. The three-fold division into approaches, themes and cases is a very solid and sensible one. The editors have commissioned essays from leading scholars in the field [and]this handbook provides the best single-volume overview of contemporary nationalism′ - John Breuilly, Professor of Nationalism and Ethnicity, London School of Economics Nationalism has long excited debate in political, social and cultural theory and remains a key field of enquiry among historians, anthropologists, sociologists as well as political scientists. It is also one of the critical media issues of our time. There are, however, surprisingly few volumes that bring together the best of this intellectual diversity into one collection. This Handbook gives readers a critical survey of the latest theories and debates and provides a glimpse of the issues that will shape their future. Its three sections guide the reader through the theoretical approaches to this field of study, its major themes - from modernity to memory, migration and genocide - and the diversity of nationalisms found around the globe. The overall aim of this Handbook is to relate theories and debates within and across a range of disciplines, illuminate themes and issues of central importance in both historical and contemporary contexts, and show how nationalism has impacted upon and interacted with other political and social forms and forces. This book provides a much-needed resource for scholars in international relations, political science, social theory and sociology.
