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This study examines Nigeria’s situation under President Buhari’s administration from 2015 to 2023. During this period, Nigeria was convulsed by numerous socio-economic, political, and religious problems, leaving it in multidimensional severe crises threatening its corporate existence. Moreover, the chances of recovery by the conclusion of the tenure were drastically dimmed, severely affecting the nation’s socio-economic and political stability. This paper, therefore, examines the debacles of President Muhamadu Buhari’s administration, the causes and effects, and suggests the way out for the present administration if the country is not only to continue to exist in unity but also to heal its wounds and achieve realistic growth and development. The study adopted historical and analytical approaches to achieve its aim. It submits that the problems of Nigeria, particularly corruption and insecurity, are institutionalized with strong ethnoreligious foundations; hence, ethnoreligious primordialism has not only inhibited effective war against corruption and proper national integration, but it has also created a sense of rivalry, denial, alienation, and injustice, thereby shaking national unity to its foundation and jeopardizing the prospects of development and progress. It advocates that Nigeria must reorient itself and deconstruct the politics of ethnicity and religious particularism to survive its plethora of challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article demonstrates that precolonial Khmer ethnicity played an essential role in the Cambodian court's relations with those of Siam and Vietnam in the mid-19th century because Cambodia's ruling elite and religious leaders often adopted ethnic politics in relation to the Khmer to resist threats that the neighbouring courts imposed on them. Developed as 'ethnocentrism of victimhood', which integrates real or imagined depictions of external influence with anxieties about the extinction of an ethnic community, this primordial ethnic conception was transformed under French rule and became crucial in the rise of nationalism during the early 20th century. The colonial encounter superimposed on the precolonial conception of ethnic identity by inserting the notion of racial superiority into it, thus worsening Khmer–Vietnamese relations. Newly emerged components such as national borders and history, along with socio-political factors, were crucial in restructuring ethnicity under colonial conditions. The notion of being a victim of someone else's abuses had a long-term impact on forming and stimulating ethnic antagonism among ethnic Khmers. This analysis thus reveals the role played by primordialism and constructivism in reformulating modern ethnicity and nationality, and why ethnic antagonism toward the Vietnamese emerged among the Khmer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study seeks to examine how the Palestinian national ethos was formed based on both primordialism and territorial perceptions. It is based on primary sources—memoirs, public statements, and Palestinian media releases—dating back to the British Mandate for Palestine and examines the use of the basic elements of the ethos: victimhood, victory at all costs, and universal justice. The paper discerns two stages in the process of ethos formation: the first started in the 1910s and ended when the British Mandate was over. The second began after the civil war of 1947–1949 in Palestine. The loss of the Arab-Palestinian side and the consequences of the Nakba has not terminated yet. While the first stage focuses on injustice, the second phase includes all three features of the national ethos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current research on second-person relations has often overlooked that this is not a new topic. Addressed mostly under the heading of the "I–thou relation," second-person relations were discussed by central figures of the phenomenological tradition, including Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger, but also quite extensively by much lesser-known authors, such as Karl Löwith, Ludwig Binswanger, and Semyon L. Frank, whose work has been undeservedly neglected in current research. This paper starts off by arguing that, in spite of the rightly acknowledged differences between the Husserlian and the Heideggerian approaches to the investigation of the social world, both approaches converge in the claim that the I–thou relation is founded on more basic forms of sociality. In a second step, against the background of Frank's and Binswanger's challenges to that claim, I argue that Löwith's proposal that the I–thou relation is a primordial form of sociality can be vindicated by conceptualizing I–thou relations as close personal relationships (paradigmatically exemplified by companion friendships and romantic partnerships). After assessing how Löwith's approach to the I–thou relation stands vis-à-vis Heidegger's and Husserl's views, I conclude by suggesting how Löwith's approach can contribute to current research on second-person relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the relationships between nationalism and conspiracy theories during the COVID-19 pandemic. We focus on the two main issues: 1) the intensity and character of belief in the COVID-19 conspiracy theories across five European societies: Germany, England, Ireland, Serbia, and Sweden; and 2) how is the commitment to specific nationalist ideologies linked with the belief in conspiracy theories. The data indicates that those who described themselves as highly religious and politically right-wing are more prone to believe in the strong versions of conspiracy theories. Furthermore, primordialism and the nation-centric view of the world are positively correlated with the propensity towards stronger versions of conspiracy theories. The paper zooms in on the significant differences across the five countries: the Serbian respondents stand out in terms of their strong beliefs in conspiracy theories while the Irish and Serbian respondents who are prone to strong version of conspiratorial thinking also subscribe more to the primordialist understanding of nationhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the influence of ethnicity in political mobilization and resource distribution the case of 2013 presidential elections in Kenya. Politics of identity have long created incentives for political mobilization and resource distribution in ways that have direct and indirect correlation to economic development. The 2013 presidential elections in Kenya provide a useful platform to examine how identity politics continues to shape resource access and distribution with its attendant dynamics. The study uses both primary and secondary data to display the hypothesis that identity politics unfairly influences resource distribution in Kenya. A combination of Primordialism, Constructivism and Instrumentalism theory provide the lens of analysis. It concludes that ethnicity if not securitized, could eventually lead to inequality and weaken the fabric of economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is perceived by many as simply an adventuristic endeavor of Vladimir Putin and the result of his desire to maintain his personal power in Russia itself and extend his influence beyond its borders. Proponents of such views try to explain Vladimir Putin’s appeal to Russian chauvinism and its ideologues as purely situational and populist, and present the current regime in Russia as opportunistic and lacking a clear ideology and ideological goals. This paper however argues that Vladimir Putin’s policy towards Ukraine, including the war unleashed against it, stems from his doctrinal views, which have been unequivocally outlined by him over the years in various speeches and articles, but ignored by the world due to a flippant attitude towards them. These views have not only a historical dimension, but also an ethnological one, as they are based on a certain and very specific understanding of Russian and Ukrainian ethnicities, which is an arbitrary combination of primordialist and constructivist arguments. Along with the presentation of these views themselves, the article demonstrates the discrepancy between the propaganda myths resulting from them and the actual facts about Russian and Ukrainian political and ethnic history.

This study discusses the shift in ethnic identity politics during local elections in Indonesia, considering the prevalence of ethnicity and its several variants in the local political experience. The findings show that the changing power dynamics in Indonesia prompted the Dayak ethnic group to change their identity-based political features from sporadic, without a sovereign (primordialism) to structurally organized. The reason was to ensure its ethnic power (based on its values, existing ethnic polarization, and the predominance of Islam) is observed by other ethnic groups when making political decisions. Moreover, the development of Dayak customs to solve problems and fight for their interests has led to the survival of the Dayak identity and influenced Indonesian power dynamics. These are contrary to the opinions of several scholars and their supporters that Indonesia has a weak ethnic ideology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the concept of "Afropessimism," tracing its origins in African economic discussions and its later appropriation by a new generation of black academics in American departments.

Copyright of Historia i Polityka is the property of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Burton Mack's 1996 article "On Redescribing Christian Origins" was a classic of the discipline. In my view, one of its most enduring contributions is its recognition that the centrality of the New Testament's view of Christian Origins survives despite a growing recognition that, technically, it ought to be sidelined – that it is protected by a "ring of fire." Further, he argued that the perseverance of this centrality was a major factor inhibiting the influence of New Testament studies on other disciplines. In this essay, I argue that the centrality of the Hebrew Bible's vision of Israelite origins as a starting point for contemporary debates, even among those who regard it as a fiction, is characterized by a similar avoidance of certain necessary recognitions and is inhibiting to a similar degree. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Russia's aggression against Ukraine is perceived by many as simply an adventuristic endeavor of Vladimir Putin and the result of his desire to maintain his personal power in Russia itself and extend his influence beyond its borders. Proponents of such views try to explain Vladimir Putin's appeal to Russian chauvinism and its ideologues as purely situational and populist, and present the current regime in Russia as opportunistic and lacking a clear ideology and ideological goals. This paper however argues that Vladimir Putin's policy towards Ukraine, including the war unleashed against it, stems from his doctrinal views, which have been unequivocally outlined by him over the years in various speeches and articles, but ignored by the world due to a flippant attitude towards them. These views have not only a historical dimension, but also an ethnological one, as they are based on a certain and very specific understanding of Russian and Ukrainian ethnicities, which is an arbitrary combination of primordialist and constructivist arguments. Along with the presentation of these views themselves, the article demonstrates the discrepancy between the propaganda myths resulting from them and the actual facts about Russian and Ukrainian political and ethnic history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing accounts of Kurdish nationalism can be mapped onto the main theories of nationalism, that is, primordialism, ethnosymbolism and modernism. These theories, however, suffer, respectively, from essentialism, circularity and aporia, manifest in their common inability to digest the Janus‐like character of nations, that is, their display of simultaneous modernity and antiquity. This paper develops an alternative account through a critical application of the theory of 'uneven and combined development' (UCD) to the Republic of Kurdistan of 1946. The argument unfolds in three steps. First, we argue that the failure of mainstream theories of nationalism to explain the nation's historical ambiguity lies in their 'internalism'. Second, we show that UCD overcomes internalism through its plural social ontology and enables a retheorising of nations as interactive products of the geopolitical mediation of historical capitalism's expansion through societal multiplicity. Central to this process was the emergence of nationalism as a defensive and emulative ideology of geopolitical self‐preservation. This involved reversing the sociological and political moments of the originary formation of the British imperial nation. We argue that this historical reversal underpins the Janus‐like form of nations, including the Kurdish nation. Third, we substantiate the argument through a brief case study of the Republic of Kurdistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution focuses on the right of nations to self‐determination after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It suggests that sovereignty and territorial integrity are not as secure as once thought. A number of articles and statements issued by Vladimir Putin are analysed to identify nationalist themes which he uses to reject Ukraine's right to exist outside the Russian state. Key themes include a primordial account of national origins, the conflation of state and nation, and a refusal to recognise a right to self‐determination of territories that had once been part of Russia. Putin's nationalism draws on imperial nationalism, state nationalism, revanchism and majoritarianism to underwrite his claims. Such views are widespread among established states, contributing to the instability of the contemporary world. It is argued that a reconfiguration of the relationship between state and nation is long overdue, as is the inflexible nature of territorial integrity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While nationalism theorists have mostly rejected primordialism, politicians and the wider public typically have a primordialist and essentialist understanding of national history. On the eve of Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin invoked several primordialist tropes so as to justify military action, which is unsurprising in a politician. Yet Western scholars criticizing Putin's historical narratives in newspaper editorials or in scholarly talks posted to YouTube only rarely suggest modernist or social constructivist historical narratives. Several posit counter-primordialisms instead. Primordialism, then, enjoys more support than is widely realized, even among scholars who ought to be familiar with its problems. Meanwhile modernist theorists of nationalism, however popular among nationalism theorists, require more vigorous promotion in academic circles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In spite of the fact that the 'ontological turn' in anthropology has championed the cause of indigenous cosmologies in Amazonia and elsewhere, the selective use of ethnographic material to promote this cause has had the effect of obscuring some of the most remarkable qualities of these intellectual systems. It will be shown here that the widely divergent interpretations of the Ge myth of the bird-nester, as presented by Eduardo Viveiros de Castro and Terence Turner respectively (the latter as part of his critique of the ontological turn), as well as the well-known earlier treatment of the same myth by Claude Lévi-Strauss as the key myth in his Mythologiques, arise from the fact that they are focusing on different aspects of the cosmological thought expressed by this myth—aspects that appear to directly contradict each other. This is because indigenous thought based on concepts of the differentiation of primordial wholeness accommodates these apparent contradictions in complex and sophisticated ways that have largely eluded these commentators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to Heidegger (1889-1976), the most primordial unity of a people is founded upon poetry. He claims Hölderlin (1770-1843) to be the greatest poet for the Germans. For the Chinese, it is Li Bai 李白 (701-762) who enjoys this status. This paper aims to show that Li’s poems signify a “harmonious response” to dao 道. They can hence be characterized as the poetry of dao. More specifically, such poetry can concretely exemplify Heidegger’s thesis that “Language is the house of Being” in Chinese. Structurally, this paper starts with a clarification of Heidegger’s Hölderlin interpretation and then, by means of comparison, will work out the essential characteristics of Li’s poetry of dao. Finally, as Heidegger sees Hölderlin’s poetry as being constitutive of “German-ness,” we argue that Li’s poetry of dao is representative of “Chinese-ness.” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Motif Academy Journal of Folklore is the property of Motif Yayincilik and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Beyond the mainstream conflict in former Yugoslavia, an incomplete research ‎exists on the micro-military ethnic alliances and micro-conflicts on the local‎ and regional levels particularly in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The article attempts ‎to fill this knowledge gap through the examination of the theoretical frameworks, ‎instrumentalism and primordialism as the two most frequently used ‎frameworks in explaining the Yugoslav disintegration. In terms of instrumentalism, ‎the article expands on the overreaching assumptions on the account of ‎elitist capacity to instrumentilize ethnic violence in multiethnic societies. Article ‎adds to the existing literature that instrumentalism can and often does ‎inadvertently neglect identifying instances where the elitist’s instrumentalisation ‎of the masses did not materialize. Conversely, primordialism an approach ‎that fell out of favor and an unfit framework in regards to Yugoslav dissolution,‎ was substantially and eagerly applied as an explanans, particularly in the first ‎stages of the war. In principle, the primordialism erroneously characterized the‎Yugoslav dissolution as the ancient ethnic grievances coming to the surface in ‎the absence of strong central government and the primordialist never bothered‎ to further that analysis. Hence, this article will go beyond the basic primordialist‎assumption, it confirms that primordialism, the genetically based‎ argument, cannot adequately tackle conflicts in multiethnic societies as seen ‎in Yugoslavia however, and omitted from the literature, the article posits that ‎the approach has an inexplicably staunch and protracting capacity to linger and ‎spread through the pores of society as a mechanism often utilized by nationalists ‎elites to manipulate and sustain their radical views. This capacity in principle‎ effectively protracts hostilities as attested in all former Yugoslav republics.‎

o explain ethnicity, scholars have come to an endless discussion providing a wide spectrum of ethnicity throughout the world. Various perspectives have been suggested to comprehend the notion of ethnicity. To this point, there are three most well-known perspectives to explain this term, namely primordialism, instrumentalism, and constructivism approach. Most scholars commonly apply one approach to dissect a case study related to ethnicity. Few have ombined two approaches, for each approach seems to contradict one another. However, this paper suggests that those three approaches can be simultaneously applied if critically used to discern certain case studies related to ethnicity in Southeast Asia. This argument will be elaborated into the analysis of ethnic identity for the minority and majority groups in Indonesia and Thailand.

This article addresses the evolution of Syrian nationalism, showing how the early pan‐Arabist ideals of the Baathist founders morphed into a cult of personality focused narrowly on emotional attachments to the regime. Current Syrian state nationalism is a "constructed primordialism" consisting of vague and sentimental concepts of the Syrian people and their history, despite the fact that the Syrian state in its current territorial identity has only existed for a few decades and incorporates a diverse mosaic of ethnic, cultural, religious and national backgrounds. In the absence of a cohesive pre‐existing community to form the basis of Syrian national identity, the regime tempered its nominal commitment to Arabism with heavily Romanticized rhetoric emphasizing familial bonds of love and devotion between the people and the leader. This primordialist construct has thwarted the emergence of a civic‐oriented national identity in Syria and contributed to tensions underlying the current civil war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of religion in state nationalism is harder to specify. Nationalist clashes bring a wide spectrum of beliefs and factions together. With unrivalled intensity and resonance, nationalism is a significant marker of a contemporary democratic society as well as the arena of politics. In the following article author has attempted to reveal the connection between Islamism and state nationalism with a case of Pakistan. The focal ideas that have magniloquently been evaluated are; Nationalism as an Ideology of state, Islamism as a concept, state nationalism and the role of Islamization. The concepts have been discussed with a categorization of different critics and analysts: modernist, primordialists and perennialist. Three criteria have been established to assess Islam's effect on state nationalism: Islam is included in broad sections of the Constitution that identify the nation state; there are Islam-inspired national slogans, symbols, anthems, and flags that associate Islam with the nation; and the state uses Islamic motifs on national currencies, which are the most common everyday emblems of the nation that citizens touch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examines the existence of the Ethnolinguistic vitality of the Saraiki language in the perspective of the Primordial theory of ethnicity and observes the attitude of the Saraiki speakers towards their ethnic language. The concept of Primordialism emphasizes the emotional attachment of the people to their group of association and the cultural traits including language. A narrative approach is employed to capture the lived experiences of the respondents that help the reader, a better insight into the targeted phenomenon. Data were drawn from an interview with 20 native speakers of the Saraiki language of district Bahawalpur. The responses of the respondents were analyzed through Thematic Analysis to develop various themes related to the study. The emergent themes from the data include, Ethnic Pride, the prestige of language, ethnolinguistic vitality and intergenerational transmission, the sphere of language use, and language skills. The findings of the study indicated that Saraiki speakers of this area were very loyal towards their language. They are emotionally attached to their culture, ethnic identity, community ties, and language. They are proud of their ethnic language and want to maintain it at any cost. They strongly aspired that, for the maintenance of the Saraiki language, its transmission from the older to the younger generation is indispensable. They want to learn English and Urdu for their successful future as well, but simultaneously they want that their language should not to be ignored. It was also their wish that their ethnic language should be employed as a compulsory or at least optional subject in educational institutes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper begins by outlining the key elements of the primordial approach to nations and nationalism central to which is the belief that national attachments and relations can be attributed to criteria that are perceived to be objective – language, ethnicity, geography – and which are likely to predate the emergence of the modern nation state and of nationalism as a modern political ideology. Although the approach is widely regarded with suspicion, evoking as it does the Nazi ideals of blood and soil, it nevertheless represents a valuable analytical tool for understanding the emotional attachment which many nationalists have to their natural landscape, whether real and imagined. Following a preliminary discussion of primordial theories of the nation, the paper then explains the two slightly different methodological approaches that have been used to examine two case studies which we argue demonstrate the value of a certain type of primordial perspective. Drawing upon autobiographies and biographies of former rugby union players from the Scottish border region, the first of these case studies examines the relationship between landscape, rugby union and culture in a unique part of the nation, not only in relation to its landscape, its most popular sport and the relationship between the two but also in terms of what it means to be Scottish. The second case study examines the relationship between sport, place and national identity in the industrial towns and cities of the English Midlands, drawing upon contemporary literature which discusses these concepts as defined by primordial ties to the land. Novels examined include Anthony Cartwright's Heartland and Iron Towns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the theoretical and methodological status of the concept of religion in the essentialist interpretation of ethnic community by analyzing the material of foreign researches. The key effort is to reveal whether the essentialist views on ethnic communities are compatible with the constructivist paradigm of religion. The essentialist approach to the notion of an ethnic community now develops in the frame of primordialism, which can be divided into two main directions: cultural and socio-biological. Proponents of the former concentrate on a detailed description of cultural differences between ethnic communities, with cultural diversity being accepted only to describe the essence of a particular ethnic community. Sociobiological primordialists deny cultural features’ status at the face of biological evolution. The common theoretical assumption of primordialisms turns out to be the essentialist vision: an ethnic community is endowed with the essence defined by a number of attributes, including religion. The constructivist approach, however, suggests that religion has no referent in reality and its notion is defined conventionally and empirically. Accepting this approach would deprive religion of its essence. Rendering the essence of religion relative, therefore, means blurring the boundaries defining the essence of an ethnic community. This consequence clearly contradicts the essentialist approach to an ethnic community. Thus, embracing an essentialist approach to ethnic community leads to the need to adopt the essentialist interpretation of religion.

"Ireland's new traditionalists: Fianna Fáil republicanism and gender, 1926–1938" by Kenneth Shonk is a book that focuses on the early years of Fianna Fáil, the party that emerged from the anti-Treaty movement in Ireland. The author analyzes and contextualizes the party's nationalist aesthetic and its efforts to redefine and retrench Irish republicanism. The book explores themes such as the party's republican aesthetic, its feminine ideal, its portrayal of a masculine ideal, and its construction of "republican heteronormativity." The analysis is nuanced and contributes to the study of post-independence politics and its relationship with gender, primordialism, and modernity. [Extracted from the article]

The article analyzes how the concept of Lebensraum is visualized in German animation of the Nazi era. Closely reading the animated film Der Störenfried (Bavaria Filmkunst, dir. Hans Held, 1940), the article argues that Lebensraum is represented in German animation through the construction of a composite landscape embedded into the primordial landscape of the forest and populated by animalistic characters visually marked as German. The article demonstrates that animation, with its ability to seamlessly connect various visual fragments through camera movement, color, and mise-en-scène techniques, becomes an ideal medium for representing the politics and ideology of the Nazi cultural imaginary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An extended and precociously brilliant exercise in “parodic intertextuality,” Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida (1602) mangles its two main sources, George Chapman’s translation of the Iliad and Chaucer’s courtly romance, Troilus and Criseyde (ca. 1385). The play ruthlessly debunks rose-tinted representations of the Trojan war by dramatizing it as beset by gossip, venality and hypocrisy. It not only suggests that the fall of Troy was just the first awful misfortune in the endless series of atrocities that constitute history, but it also undermines the authority of Tudor histories that commonly held Britain was founded by a Trojan, Brut. Shakespeare thereby implies that the idea of a unitary British identity stretching back to the noble days of yore – a form of primordialism that has resurfaced in recent years – is built on nothing other than a “notable foundation of hearsay.” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Ictimaiyat is the property of Ictimaiyat and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Christian doctrine of original sin—a corollary of the initial Adamic transgression—is the linchpin of the soteriological and eschatological significance of Christ. Construction of a binary opposition between the fall through Adam and redemption through Christ seems pleasing in its symmetry, yet the question of children who die in infancy poses a problem. This article considers the historical positions on this issue and compares them with the Islamic conception of original grace—a state of innate innocence due to the primordial covenant in which all souls attest to the lordship of God before birth. It then uses this concept to shed light on the fate of infants who die before reaching maturity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Danielewicz Jerzy, A Repeated Allusion to Pindar and the Eleusinian Mysteries in Anaxilas' Comic Fragments? (Powtarzająca się aluzja do Pindara i misteriów eleuzyńskich we fragmentach komedii Anaksilasa?) Anaxilas in fragments 25 and 30 K.-A. deliberately alluded to Pindar's fragment 137 S.-M. and the mystery references it contains, but at the same time completely redesigned the sense of the Pindaric phrase for a strong comic effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Writing from Britain in the month of May 2020, this essay draws the multiple and conflicting alignments of the Covid-19 moment into conjunctural relief. It seeks to understand how prominent trends of welfarism, collectivism and capitalism are being reorganised across a Left–Right spectrum and to specifically situate nationalism in this general political flux. Focusing on Britain, the essay will explore how an otherwise unsettled ruling Right is reviving a nationalist political imagination through a pandemic consciousness – with an emphasis on the politics of bordering, the spectre of China, reheated civic patriotism, a poetics of survival and melancholic whiteness. The essay will however also speculate about the limits to nationalism amid the imperatives of global pandemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nationalism is back with a renewed force. Hungary is a virulent example of the new nationalist ascendancy. As the country was a former liberal star pupil, Hungary's neo-nationalist turn has been puzzling researchers for years. This study goes beyond the entrenched polarisations in the literature by highlighting the dynamic interplay between culture, structure and identity. It proposes to conceptualise Hungary's neo-nationalist turn as a Polanyian countermovement against commodification, globalisation and deindustrialisation. The article presents the results of a thematic analysis of 82 interviews with workers in four towns in Hungary's rustbelt and highlights how the multiscalar lived experience of commodifying reforms violated an implicit social contract and changed workers' narrative identities. In the absence of a class-based shared narrative and lacking a viable political tool to control their fate, working-class neo-nationalism emerged as a new narrative identity to express workers' anger and outrage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article critically reviews three of the most significant debates in the sociology of nations and nationalism over the past 50 years: (1) the problem of methodological nationalism on the main features of nation-states; (2) the tension between primordialism and modernism in understanding the historicity of nations; and (3) the politics of nationalism between universalism and particularism. These three debates help us clarify some key theses in our long-term understanding of nations and nationalism: processes of nation and nation-state formation are not opposed to but compatible with the rise of globalisation and non-state forms of governance; the question 'when is a nation?' combines modern and pre-modern dimensions; the politics of nationalism is neither unfailingly democratic nor exclusively regressive. A key paradox that unfolds is that all nations invest heavily in the production and reproduction of their own exceptionalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At a time when nationalist sentiment is on the rise, this special issue takes stock of how sociology can contribute to understanding the past, present and future of nationalism. In contrast to declarations of 'the end of history', which was also meant to herald increasing integration due to a lowering of cultural and national barriers, nationalism never went away. The articles in this collection engage with the question of nationalism at a theoretical and empirical level and in different regional contexts, assessing how national boundaries are drawn and policed, how national identities are formed and the myriad political and everyday consequences of nationalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise of different nationalisms in an increasingly unequal and neoliberal world makes predictions about the dawn of a post-national, global society seem both incongruous and fraught with Eurocentric occlusions. In response, we present a postcolonial analysis of research into Muslim youth narratives of nation in Northern Nigeria. This highlights the continued significance of nation for youth as well as the historical fractures – both internal and external – that infused their identity narratives. We further show the entanglement of nation and religion in youth imaginaries, and their anti-colonial ambivalences, notably with respect to gender reforms. Our analysis calls for a sociology of nation that goes beyond a modern framing and instead attends to the agonistic affective relations through which national imaginaries are constructed; the historical sutures that were intrinsic to the creation of postcolonial nations and their enduring persistence as points of fracture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For those studying national belonging, elite athletes competing in international mega events offer particularly compelling case studies as they represent the nation during periods of sustained media attention and heightened emotional registers. But when compared with other types of representatives – such as heads of state, ambassadors, political leaders – they have received much less scholarly attention. This article analyses reporting of the 'Plastic Brits' debate, where elite athletes brought in to represent Britain at the Olympics were subject to ongoing scrutiny and critique. Developing an analytical framework that uses insights from Elias, Goffman and Hage, we focus on three key issues. First, how a taken-for-granted 'logic of nationalism' underlies discussions about which athletes should (not) represent Britain. Second, how the nation's boundaries are discursively marked with reference to a range of everyday features. Third, the use of different 'destigmatisation strategies' by athletes caught up in the 'Plastic Brits' debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indigenous peoples have found the nationalist language of peoples' inherent right to self-determination helpful in articulating their political demands. Gerald Taiaiake Alfred's model of indigenous nationalism explains the emergence of this form of indigenous self-assertion as a reaction to settler-colonial incursions. However, it cannot account for the timing of its recent successes in unsettling the status quo of indigenous–settler-state relations. This article addresses this limitation by incorporating Michael Keating's concept of post-sovereignty, which highlights the supranational plane constraining states' freedom of action, while providing indigenous peoples with laws and norms above state level to appeal to. Additionally, Keating's concept of plurinationalism is drawn upon to capture the emerging reconfiguration of indigenous–settler-state relations. This combined conceptual framework is used to illuminate the Sámi people's relations to the Nordic states as expressive of emergent indigenous nationalism, formed in reaction to settler-colonialism and enabled by international norms, laws and global indigenous peoples' networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2014 Scottish independence referendum provided a sociologically opportune moment to study how nationalist narratives are constructed, expressed and experienced from below – or how nationalism is lived on the ground – as 'the Scottish nation' was widely discussed and debated. Drawing on 24 qualitative interviews, this article considers how ethnic and racialised minorities experienced and made sense of the nation on an everyday level around the time of the referendum. Consequently, this article argues that experiencing the everyday as routine, mundane or unremarkable is often a privilege; that focusing on those whose national belonging is not 'beyond question' is a revealing angle to take; and that during such hyper-nationalist contexts the nation merely becomes louder for ethnic and racialised minorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]