Identities, Nations and Politics after Communism

Identities, Nations and Politics after Communism PDF Author: Roger E. Kanet
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317968654
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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Book Description
This book focuses on questions of identity that have confronted the countries of Central and Eastern Europe after the collapse of the communist system that had previously provided them with an identity. This development both facilitated and necessitated a reassessment of the now independent nations’ history, orientation, symbols and identity. In some cases, new states were created without a clear national identity, while in others the nation was regaining statehood, but not always within borders that had an historical association with the nation concerned. The multiethnic character of the space of the former Soviet Union and its erstwhile "satellites," and the long historical legacy of complex relations, boundary changes, population migration, and economic and social changes presented different challenges to the various nations and states concerned. The essays in this volume attempt to elucidate and understand the issues of ethnic and national identity and their relationship to the emerging statehood in various regions of the post-communist world. This study makes clear that some nation-states were far better prepared to handle these issues than others, and that the longer-term impact of the communist experience has varied. This book was previously published as a special issue of Nationalities Papers

Identities, Nations and Politics after Communism

Identities, Nations and Politics after Communism PDF Author: Roger E. Kanet
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317968654
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 372

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book focuses on questions of identity that have confronted the countries of Central and Eastern Europe after the collapse of the communist system that had previously provided them with an identity. This development both facilitated and necessitated a reassessment of the now independent nations’ history, orientation, symbols and identity. In some cases, new states were created without a clear national identity, while in others the nation was regaining statehood, but not always within borders that had an historical association with the nation concerned. The multiethnic character of the space of the former Soviet Union and its erstwhile "satellites," and the long historical legacy of complex relations, boundary changes, population migration, and economic and social changes presented different challenges to the various nations and states concerned. The essays in this volume attempt to elucidate and understand the issues of ethnic and national identity and their relationship to the emerging statehood in various regions of the post-communist world. This study makes clear that some nation-states were far better prepared to handle these issues than others, and that the longer-term impact of the communist experience has varied. This book was previously published as a special issue of Nationalities Papers

Nature and National Identity After Communism

Nature and National Identity After Communism PDF Author: Katrina Z. S. Schwartz
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Pre
ISBN: 0822973146
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 309

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Book Description
In this groundbreaking book, Katrina Schwartz examines the intersection of environmental politics, globalization, and national identity in a small East European country: modern-day Latvia. Based on extensive ethnographic research and lively discourse analysis, it explores that country's post-Soviet responses to European assistance and political pressure in nature management, biodiversity conservation, and rural development. These responses were shaped by hotly contested notions of national identity articulated as contrasting visions of the "ideal" rural landscape.The players in this story include Latvian farmers and other traditional rural dwellers, environmental advocates, and professionals with divided attitudes toward new European approaches to sustainable development. An entrenched set of forestry and land management practices, with roots in the Soviet and pre-Soviet eras, confront growing international pressures on a small country to conform to current (Western) notions of environmental responsibility—notions often perceived by Latvians to be at odds with local interests. While the case is that of Latvia, the dynamics Schwartz explores have wide applicability and speak powerfully to broader theoretical discussions about sustainable development, social constructions of nature, the sources of nationalism, and the impacts of globalization and regional integration on the traditional nation-state.

Nations, Identity, Power

Nations, Identity, Power PDF Author: George Schöpflin
Publisher: C. Hurst & Co. Publishers
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 456

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Book Description
In particular George Schopflin questions why states in the West are able to live with the nation as the legitimate space for democratic institutions, wheras in the post-communist world, especially in Eastern Europe, ethnicity is pre-eminent. He argues that the nation is simultaneously ethnic, civic and structured by the state.

Changing Values and Identities in the Post-Communist World

Changing Values and Identities in the Post-Communist World PDF Author: Nadezhda Lebedeva
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319726161
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 424

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Book Description
This book offers a comparative analysis of value and identity changes in several post-Soviet countries. In light of the tremendous economic, social and political changes in former communist states, the authors compare the values, attitudes and identities of different generations and cultural groups. Based on extensive empirical data, using quantitative and qualitative methods to study complex social identities, this book examines how intergenerational value and identity changes are linked to socio-economic and political development. Topics include the rise of nationalist sentiments, identity formation of ethnic and religious groups and minorities, youth identity formation and intergenerational value conflicts.

Nationalism After Communism

Nationalism After Communism PDF Author: Alina Mungiu
Publisher: Central European University Press
ISBN: 9789639241763
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
Drawing on lessons from post-communist Europe, this book provides a summary of the practical wisdom learned in the management of ethnic conflicts from the Balkans to Chechnya. Grounded in empirical - mostly comparative - research, the essays go beyond theoretical postulates and normative ideals and acknowledge the considerable experience that exists within the post-communist world on ethnic conflict, nation and state building. What does the post-communist experience have in common with other nationalisms and nation-related conflicts, and what, if anything, is unique about it? This book, written by academics with experience as policy advisors, is strongly policy-oriented. The primordial type hypotheses of ethnic social capital and ancient hatreds are tested on the basis of public opinion surveys on nationalism and ethnic cohabitation in various countries in east-central Europe. Power-sharing arrangements in the Balkans, the small separatist Republics of the post-Soviet world as well as ethno-federalism from the former Yugoslavia to the former Soviet Empire are discussed in the respective chapters.

National Identity and Foreign Policy

National Identity and Foreign Policy PDF Author: Ilya Prizel
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521576970
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 464

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Book Description
This book is based on the premise that the foreign policy of any country is heavily influenced by a society's evolving notions of itself. Applying his analysis to Russia, Poland, and Ukraine, the author argues that national identity is an ever-changing concept, influenced by internal and external events, and by the manipulation of a polity's collective memory. The interaction of the narrative of a society and its foreign policy is therefore paramount. This is especially the case in East-Central Europe, where political institutions are weak, and social coherence remains subject to the vagaries of the concept of nationhood. Ilya Prizel's study will be of interest to students of nationalism, as well as of foreign policy and politics in East-Central Europe.

Branding Post-Communist Nations

Branding Post-Communist Nations PDF Author: Nadia Kaneva
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136657991
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
Nation branding--a set of ideas rooted in Western marketing--gained popularity in the post-communist world by promising a quick fix for the identity malaise of "transitional" societies. Since 1989, almost every country in Central and Eastern Europe has engaged in nation branding initiatives of varying scope and sophistication. For the first time, this volume collects in one place studies that examine the practices and discourses of the nation branding undertaken in these countries. In addition to documenting various rebranding initiatives, these studies raise important questions about their political and cultural implications.

Informal Nationalism After Communism

Informal Nationalism After Communism PDF Author: Abel Polese
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1838608745
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, nation building and identity construction in the post-socialist region have been the subject of extensive academic research. The majority of these studies have taken a 'top-down' approach - focusing on the variety of ways in which governments have sought to define the nascent nation states - and in the process have often oversimplified the complex and overlapping processes at play across the region. Drawing on research on the Balkans, Central Asia, the Caucasus and Eastern Europe, this book focuses instead on the role of non-traditional, non-politicised and non-elite actors in the construction of identity. Across topics as diverse as school textbooks, turbofolk and home decoration, contributors - each an academic with extensive on-the-ground experience - identify and analyse the ways that individuals living across the post-socialist region redefine identity on a daily basis, often by manipulating and adapting state policy.In the process, Nation Building in the Post-Socialist Region demonstrates the necessity of holistic, trans-national and inter-disciplinary approaches to national identity construction rather than studies limited to a single-state territory. This is important reading for all scholars and policymakers working on the post-socialist region.

Nation and Identity in Contemporary Europe

Nation and Identity in Contemporary Europe PDF Author: Brian Jenkins
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134805802
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 534

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Book Description
The resilience of nationalism in contemporary Europe may seem paradoxical at a time when the nation state is widely seen as being 'in decline'. The contributors of this book see the resurgence of nationalism as symptomatic of the quest for identity and meaning in the complex modern world. Challenged from above by the supranational imperatives of globalism and from below by the complex pluralism of modern societies, the nation state, in the absence of alternatives to market consumerism, remains a focus for social identity. Nation and Identity in Contemporary Europe takes a fully interdisciplinary and comparative approach to the 'national question'. Individual chapters consider the specifics of national identity in France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Iberia, Russia, the former Yugoslavla and Poland, while looking also at external forces such as economic globalisation, European supranationalism, and the end of the Cold War. Setting current issues and conflicts in their broad historical context, the book reaffirms that 'nations' are not 'natural' phenomena but 'constructed' forms of social identity whose future will be determined in the social arena.

Britons

Britons PDF Author: Linda Colley
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300107593
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 452

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Book Description
"Controversial, entertaining and alarmingly topical ... a delight to read."Philip Ziegler, Daily Telegraph