Rethinking Stateless Nations and National Identity in Wales and the Basque Country

Rethinking Stateless Nations and National Identity in Wales and the Basque Country

Author: Sophie Williams

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2018-08-10

Total Pages: 283

ISBN-13: 331991409X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book looks at the fundamental components of national identity as understood by ordinary nation members, and the way in which it is mobilised by political elites. Drawing on an original case comparison between Wales and the Basque Country, the author suggests there are many commonalities between these two nations, particularly around the fundamentals of their national identities. However, differences occur in terms of degree of intensity of feeling and around the politicisation of identity, with more entrenched and hostile political positioning in the Basque Country than Wales. Through a multi-level comparison, the book generates insights into national identity as a theoretical concept and in a ‘stateless nation’ context. It argues for national identity's intangible, yet polemical, nature, looking at the primordialist way it is understood, its permanence and importance, coupled with its lack of everyday salience and consequent obligations.


Revisiting Centres and Peripheries in Iberian Studies

Revisiting Centres and Peripheries in Iberian Studies

Author: Mark Gant

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2019-08-05

Total Pages: 420

ISBN-13: 1527537935

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Like its predecessor and companion volume New Journeys in Iberian Studies, this volume gathers fresh and emerging research in a range of sub-fields of Iberian studies from an international range of established academics and early career researchers. The book provides rich evidence of the breadth and depth of new research being carried out in the dynamic field of Iberian studies at present. As the title suggests, a strong thread running through the collection is concerned with investigating the multiple spaces of tension between the centre and periphery that comprise the Iberian cultural system. Topically, the current situation in Catalonia naturally comes to the fore in a number of chapters and from a range of perspectives. However, in the revisiting of a range of cultural products and historical processes undertaken by the contributors, it can be seen that transoceanic postcolonial relations are not neglected and concerns with history, memory and fiction also weave their way through their work.


Empire & Terror

Empire & Terror

Author: Begoña Aretxaga

Publisher: Center for Basque Studies Press

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"Contributors to this volume explore crucial issues regarding the articulation of politics at the beginning of the new millennium. What does sovereignty in the state mean in the contemporary world of neoliberal capitalism?" "The events of 9/11 have added dramatic urgency to these issues. Some of the contributors to this volume discuss questions associated with this new international context. But ultimately the volume's goal is to stimulate productive ways of thinking simultaneously about the dynamics articulating the concrete situation of identity politics or violence and the global rhetoric of international terrorism that has come to dominate the political discourse." --Book Jacket.


European Integration and the Nationalities Question

European Integration and the Nationalities Question

Author: John McGarry

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2006-09-27

Total Pages: 460

ISBN-13: 1134145497

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A highly topical examination of the effect of European integration on relations between states and minority nations. This new collection brings together the leading specialists in the field, and covers a wide range of cases, from Northern Ireland in the West, to Estonia and Latvia in the East, and Cyprus in the South-East. The contributors assess how European integration has affected the preparedness of states to accommodate minorities across a range of fundamental criteria, including: enhanced rights protection; autonomy; the provision of a voice for minorities in the European and international arena; and the promotion of cross-border cooperation among communities dissected by state frontiers. The comprehensive chapters stress the importance of the nationality question, and the fact that, contrary to the hopes and beliefs of many on the left and right, it is not going to go away. Beginning with an introductory essay that summarizes the impact of European integration on the nationalities question, this accessible book will be of strong interest to scholars and researchers of politics, nationalism, ethnic conflict and European studies.


Why Wales Never Was

Why Wales Never Was

Author: Simon Brooks

Publisher: University of Wales Press

Published: 2017-06-01

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 1786830132

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Written as an act of protest in a Welsh-speaking community in north-west Wales, Why Wales Never Was combines a devastating analysis of the historical failure of Welsh nationalism with an apocalyptic vision of a non-Welsh future. It is the ‘progressive’ nature of Welsh politics and the ‘empire of the civic’, which rejects both language and culture, that prevents the colonised from rising up against his colonial master. Wales will always be a subjugated nation until modes of thought, dominant since the nineteenth century, are overturned. Originally a comment on Welsh acquiescence to Britishness at the time of the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, the book’s emphasis on the importance of European culture is a parable for Brexit times. Both deeply rooted in Welsh culture and European in scope, Why Wales Never Was brings together history, philosophy and politics in a way never tried before in Wales. First published in Welsh in 2015, Why Wales Never Was affirms the author’s reputation as one of the most radical writers in Wales today.


Nationalism and Social Policy

Nationalism and Social Policy

Author: Daniel Béland

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2010-08-12

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 019161386X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Despite the recent proliferation of literature on nationalism and on social policy, relatively little has been written to analyse the possible interaction between the two. Scholars interested in social citizenship have indirectly dealt with the interaction between national identity and social programs such as the British NHS, but they have seldom examined this connection in reference to nationalism. Specialists of nationalism rarely mention social policy, focusing instead on language, culture, ethnicity, and religion. The main objective of this book is to explore the nature of the connection between nationalism and social policy from a comparative and historical perspective. At the theoretical level, this analysis will shed new light on a more general issue: the relationships between identity formation, territorial politics, and social policy. Although this book refers to the experience of many different countries, the main cases are three multinational states, that is, states featuring strong nationalist movements: Canada (Québec), the United Kingdom (Scotland), and Belgium (Flanders). The book looks at the interplay between nationalism and social policy at both the state and sub-state levels through a detailed comparison between these three cases. In its concluding chapter, the book brings in cases of mono-national states (i.e. France, Germany, Sweden, and the United States) to provide broader comparative insight on the meshing of nationalism and social policy. The original theoretical framework for this research is built using insight from selected scholarship on nationalism and on the welfare state.


Ethno-symbolism and Nationalism

Ethno-symbolism and Nationalism

Author: Anthony D. Smith

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2009-02-02

Total Pages: 193

ISBN-13: 1135999481

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Provides a concise explanation of an ethno-symbolic approach to the study of nations and nationalism and simultaneously embodies a general statement of Anthony D Smith’s contribution to this approach and its application to the central issues of nations and nationalism.


Reclaiming Basque

Reclaiming Basque

Author: Jacqueline Urla

Publisher: University of Nevada Press

Published: 2012-03-31

Total Pages: 414

ISBN-13: 0874178800

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Basque language, Euskara, is one of Europe’s most ancient tongues and a vital part of today’s lively Basque culture. Reclaiming Basque examines the ideology, methods, and discourse of the Basque-language revitalization movement over the course of the past century and the way this effort has unfolded alongside the simultaneous Basque nationalist struggle for autonomy. Jacqueline Urla employs extensive long-term fieldwork, interviews, and close examination of a vast range of documents in several media to uncover the strategies that have been used to preserve and revive Euskara and the various controversies that have arisen among Basque-language advocates.