Definition of "nation"

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It is not "The Truth", but a start to understand the word "nation" so we all can talk about the same ...

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A nation is a territory or country as political entity or a grouping of people who share real or imagined common history, culture, language or ethnic origin, often possessing or seeking its own government.

The development and conceptualization of a nation is closely related to the development of modern industrial states and nationalist movements in Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, although nationalists would trace nations into the past along uninterrupted lines of historical narrative.

Definition of Identity

This part is based on Wikipedia and opinion pages ...

It is not "The Truth", but a start to understand the word "nation" so we all can talk about the same ...

Please give your reaction as a comment ... so the dialogue can continue to start.

 

In philosophy, identity (also called sameness) is whatever makes an entity definable and recognizable, in terms of possessing a set of qualities or characteristics that distinguish it from entities of a different type. Identity is whatever makes something the same or different.

In social sciences, identity is an umbrella term used to describe an individual's comprehension of him or herself as a discrete, separate entity. 

Psychologists most commonly use the term "identity" to describe personal identity, or the idiosyncratic thing that make a person unique. Meanwhile, sociologists often use the term to describe social identity, or the collection of group memberships that define the individual. However, these uses are not proprietary, and each discipline may use either concept.

Cultural identity is the identity of a group or culture, or of an individual as far as one is influenced by one's belonging to a group or culture

 

There are modern questions of culture that are transferred into questions of identity. Various cultural studies and social theories investigate the question of cultural identity. In recent decades, a new form of identification has emerged. This new form of identification breaks down the understanding of the individual as a coherent whole subject to a collection of various cultural identifiers. These cultural identifiers examine the condition of the subject from a variety of aspects including: place, gender, race, history, nationality, language, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, ethnicity and aesthetics.

Culture, as a social practice, is not something that individuals possess. Rather, it is a social process in which individuals participate, in the context of changing historical conditions. As a "historical reservoir", culture is an important factor in shaping identity. Some critics of cultural identity argue that the preservation of cultural identity, being based upon difference, is a divisive force in society, and that cosmopolitanism gives individuals a greater sense of shared citizenship. That is not to always be divisive. When considering practical association in international society, states may share an inherent part of their 'make up' that gives common ground, and alternate means of identifying with each other. Examples can be taken from both old and contemporary world order. In the old world order European states shared a high level of cultural homogeneity, due to their common history of "frequently violent relationships, and Greco-Roman cultural origins" (Brown 2001). Brown also argues that the Western invention of the nation-state has proven to be an appealing and homogenising factor to many cultures

 

 

For our project, the term "national identity" can be somehow  important : the belief of belonging to a nation.

During the project,  there was a national questionnaire on the French national Identity going on in France. Half Europe found it necessary to give an opinion on this. Read further for some impressions and comments.

 

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Vlaanderen vlagt.pdf	2.47 MB
Identiteit belooft zekerheid.pdf	2.28 MB

Nationalism - a review on the book of Craig Calhoun.

Nationalism, by Craig Calhoun 

Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997.

Summary prepared by Tom Donahue, University of Chicago.

This thoughtful and often provocative introductory text provides a general account of nationalism as both an empirical phenomenon and a political and social concept. Craig Calhoun, a critical sociologist, argues that nationalism is primarily a discursive formation; he generally sides with Benedict Anderson in emphasizing the constructedness of national identity, while rejecting Eric Hobsbawm’s assertion that nationality is an invalid illusion. He also agrees with Ernest Gellner that modernity is a necessary condition for the creation of nations and nationalism. But this text is not a rehash of the classics—Calhoun goes on to draw valuable and (to my knowledge) original distinctions between nationality, ethnicity, and kinship that help clear up some of the confusions that have sterilized the primordialist-constructivist debates. He devotes a considerable amount of his discussion of empirical cases to extra-European nationalisms such as those of Eritrea and China—an emphasis that is particularly welcome.

In Chapter 1, "The Modernity and Diversity of Nationalisms," Calhoun argues that it is impossible to "define the commonalities of [the] diverse forms of nationalism by a single explanatory variable" (22). What is universal is simply (i) the constitutive ingredient of nationalist discourse, which can only arise in (ii) modernity.

In Chapter 2, "Kinship, Ethnicity and Categorical Identities," Calhoun makes two important distinctions in order to clearly conceptualize kinship, ethnicity, and nationalism as different forms of solidarity. The first distinction highlights the difference between, on the one hand, networks of social relationships and, on the other, categories of similar individuals. The second distinction points out the difference between reproduction of identity groups through interpersonal interactions and reproduction through standardized mediating agencies. Kinship, Calhoun argues, is characterized by networks of relationships that are reproduced through interpersonal interaction; nationality, by contrast, is a categorical identity that is reproduced through standardized mediating agencies. The question is largely one of scale, and ethnicity therefore falls somewhere between these two extremes.

Chapter 3, "Nationalist Claims to History," draws attention to the contradictions created by nationalist appropriations of history. On the one hand, nationalism gains its normative force from an appeal to primordial traditions, but on the other hand, in order to successfully build nations nationalism must emphasize the potential for change and progress that is latent in nation-building.

In Chapter 4, "State, Nation and Legitimacy," Calhoun examines how the rise and transformation of states has influenced nationalisms and has helped determine which nationalisms would be "successful" and which not.

Chapter 5, "Universalism and Parochialism," further problematizes the distinction between "Good civic" (and historically West European) nationalisms and "Bad ethnic" (Central and East European) nationalisms; it challenges the idea that some nationalisms are more "real" than others.

In Chapter 6, "Imperialism, Colonialism, and the World-System of Nation-States," Calhoun makes some very standard arguments about nationalism arising from (i) colonialists’ misrecognition of the colonized and (ii) the ensuing ressentiment of the colonized; but he also comes to the provocative conclusion that capitalism is in large part responsible for nationalism because it fosters the creation of large-scale categorical identities (e.g., classes of workers or abstract consumers). Nationality, thus, is a large-scale, solidaristic categorical identity that provides people with the feeling that they have some autonomy in the face of capitalism’s vast impersonal forces.

 

Rethinking Belgium ... a website with visions

 Belgium is an artificial creation of the mighty nations in the 19th century.

Nobody really expected that the Belgium adventure would last as long as it did and does ...

It once was a big experiment, and now again it is a political labo for experimenting with the elasticity of "nation" and it's institutions.

Take a look at www.rethinkingbelgium.eu and become a part of the labo.

 

The Australia Project

G'day luv! Crikey! 
She'll be right mate! 
Oi! Oi! Oi! 
Let's throw another shrimp on the barbie!

This is the world's impression of Australians today. But how many of us believe in these stereotypes? How many of us have asked the questions, Who are we? What are we doing here? Where are we going? Do we even belong here? For each of these questions there are potentially 22 million unique responses, answers and opinions.

 

The Project
The Australia Project is asking Australian creatives and the general public, to engage in a national debate regarding the current status of contemporary Australian culture.

We are seeking to explore and redefine clichéd national stereotypes in the hope of revealing unique and personal perspectives on Australia today.

 

Read more

Woodrow Wilson versus Lenin: Preliminary thoughts on plurality and nation

 The idea of the nation state had come to seem outdated, but we now find ourselves observing the growth of nationalism in both eastern and western Europe and so we are observing the return of a certain way of thinking, a set of categories, for explaining the world. But maybe this is only the resurgence of something that had been thought about too little in the recent past. Let us recall what was associated earlier with the idea of the "nation", namely the forces of political self-determination, social integration and cultural identity. 

Let us begin with the first, the emancipatory aspect. In the French Revolution the ideals of freedom, equality, fraternity (or else, solidarity) were held to hold for all, that is for all citizens of a nation, and were set against the predominance of the social caste of the nobility.  This introduced to the world the idea of the sovereignty of the people, and in the subsequent 19^th and 20^th centuries this sovereignty was appealed to by all who were prevented from having their say in politics and public affairs. This was reflected in the gradual introduction of universal suffrage, with its extension to men without landed property and eventually to women. 

 

On the international scene the right to self-determination found its expression in the idea of the nation. In the new dispensation at the end of the First World War, with the demise of the Russian, Ottoman and Habsburg empires, new states were created, such as the Czechoslovak Republic. This break in European history deserves more attention than it is generally accorded, for when the continent was given its new political order, the new borders were far from being "natural". The Paris Peace Treaties of 1919/20 were the outcome of specific political strategies. If the historian Eric Hobsbawm is to be believed, parts of the Fourteen Point Plan of US President Wilson had the purpose of frustrating Lenin's international appeal to the socially suppressed classes of all countries by playing the national card. The intention was that the nationalist movements with their anti-Bolshevik tendencies would form a barrier, organised in national states, against the spread of the socialist revolution.  (Hobsbawm, Age of Extremes. The Short Twentieth Century 1914-1991).

 

Hence the political programme of achieving a settlement between the poor and the rich was not left to history, but was to be dispensed in the context of the national states. These states offered not only the framework for the democratisation of societies, but also for the social foundations of democracy. This was literally necessary for many, but the gradual formation of national states took place as modern western industrial societies were emerging, whose social cohesion was soon to be shattered. Of course, these processes took place in the individual countries differently and on varying time-scales. But in Germany, France, the United Kingdom and elsewhere, the workers' and women's' movements struggled not only for political involvement, but also for social rights such as protection against the vicissitudes of unemployment, ill-health and old age. These struggles resulted, after the Second World War, in the emergence of the social market economy in many western European countries.  

 

The complexity of the political and social dimensions of the concept of nation have not yet been adequately explored. Part of the appeal of the concept of "Nation" is its cultural aspect and the answers proffered with respect to identity, belonging, history and social rules. To cover these associations, the concept of a Kulturnation was created in nineteenth and twentieth century Germany and in some countries of central and eastern Europe. This reflects an experience which is still with us today: Anyone who has spent some time living outside their native country, or indeed has moved abroad permanently, will feel the need to work out where they stand with respect to such matters. The questions they give rise to can prompt such people to find their own footing in the face of a sense of foreignness – and this may apply also to people who stay put, but find themselves surrounded by migrants.  

 

There is another aspect that comes into play, namely, that when "nation" is understood as a cultural entity, the understanding of society that is communicated comes close to that of "community". Consequently, the idea of nation comes to be identified with a sense of belonging, manageable points of reference and a feeling of being "safe". And indeed – is this not something that, in the face of fragmentation, economic insecurity and the absence of people who can be blamed easily – represents an attractive vision?  Is it not a consolation to belong, if only in a somewhat abstract sense, to a group, especially in a cold, indifferent and confusingly diverse world? 

 

However, the borders with nationalism are fluid – and so the borders of making oneself absolute and so disqualifying others, and minorities in particular. Nationalism possesses the features of a "black utopia"; resentment and discontent are discharged in the apparently safe reference to authorities and "fixed" norms; this relieves people of the need to be their own man or woman and to resist. The repressive nature of "nation" is displayed in the anger at "others", these being those who are weaker, be they "backward" Muslims, the socially excluded, lesbians and gays, or simply people with a different opinion. It seems easier to despise Roma than to demonstrate before banks. Certainly, this is what makes out the otherness of the Other. 

 

We cannot avoid seeing the notion of nation as it interpenetrates aspects of plurality. It is not only the fact that the concept has been and continues to be interpreted very differently in the various countries: it is also the fact that the creation of "uniform" nations has often been accompanied by the violent flattening of national or cultural differences. France, that is considered the best example of a homogenous nation, was a multicultural patchwork until well into the 18^th century, and indeed in some parts, in the 20^th century, too. It is said that at the time of the French Revolution, only 30% of the population at most actually spoke French! The wars in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s bore brutal witness of how the unity of nations is manufactured politically – and be these nations ever so small. 

 

The astonishingly obstinate habit of thinking in terms of the nation state is challenged daily in present-day societies by the colourful reality of different languages, cultures and life styles.   The predominance of the nation state is moreover being diminished by the transfer of decision-making powers to supra-national bodies such as the European Union and international organisations such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. It is time to fill the three key aspects of the notion of the nation, namely political self-determination, social integration and cultural identification, with new life to fit the changed circumstances. The European Union and above all the international organisations are in urgent need of democratisation. Their power reaches far into societies and they determine, albeit indirectly, the life of individuals, but the possibilities of the citizenry to have a say are the more diminutive the more international the organisations are. The more influential the latter are, the greater the absence of democratic influence. 

 

The example of German history shows that the establishment of the nation state was associated with the ambition to merge the sphere of action of economic players with the realm of politics. In a situation where there are finance and production chains that operate extremely transnationally, the task is to reassert the primacy of the politics and to subject the power in particular of major corporations in the financial and real economy to democratic controls. It is of little help here merely to internationalise the hegemony of nations.    The trick is, rather, to pave the way for democratic rights, a fair world economy, cultural plurality and social balance.  As with the national and social movements of the 19^th and 20^th centuries, the power of all citizens is needed for this; they – we – are the people who shape society, whether we do this actively, or by failing to act. 

 

If we want to rise to the challenge of increasing nationalism in Europe and find answers that go beyond a simple rejection of nation and nationalism, the difficulties with cultural and "national" differences should be understood as social questions, rather than as a (meanwhile fragile) social solidarity being culturally charged. Social questions are not suited for cultural struggle. The implementation of uncertainty through the marketing of almost all areas of life, the loss of faith in the future, the growing gap between rich and poor, and much else besides, require more subtle analyses and action strategies than can be developed in discussions among the converted on integration – to the extent that integration is culturally encoded.  Nonetheless, cultural differences must be taken seriously, understanding and empathy are needed to build bridges between people whose values, experiences, historical reference points and etiquette are very different.  Cultural differences can be riveting, and they can also be exasperating – but there is no good reason to mystify them.  It is possible to deconstruct – i.e. see how they emerged, and see what lies behind them – by comparing education systems, looking at the historical strata, and contrasting conceptions of democracy and cooperation, different discussion cultures and ways of handling conflicts. Seen this way, culture is rather political. 

 

Berlin, September 2010                                                                    Sophia Bickhardt

 

Translated by Paul Gregory 

Some books

I like to read. I can't imagine life without books. I have been reading ever since elementary school and I still remember some of the first books I borrowed from the local library.

Nowadays I seldom visit the library, I buy most of my books. That way they are always available, ready when I need them, to browse randomly, to look something up or occasionally reread some of them.

Here are some books I recommend, because I think they can add to your understanding of life, the world, mankind.

• 'Collapse' and 'Guns, Germs and Steel' by Jarred Diamond
• 'After the Ice', 'The Singing Neanderthals' and 'The Prehistory of the Mind' by Steven Mithen
• 'How the Mind works' and of course 'The Blank Slate' by Steven Pinker
• 'The Ancestor's Tale' by Richard Dawkins
• 'On the Origin of Species' by Charles Darwin
• 'The Malay Archipelago' by Alfred Russel Wallace
• 'Out of Eden' by Stephen Oppenheimer
• 'The Incredible Human Journey' by Alice Roberts
• 'Evolution' by Donald Prothero

There you go. You might want to start reading these books and stop bickering about websites.

Probably I will think of more books later, so come back to check this list from time to time.