Autonomous belonging

Abstract

Territorial autonomies, far from being the excrescences of history, are key to understanding the complex modern world. There is no singular dimension along which ‘autonomous territories’ are to be defined and measured. There are historic states, understated nations, microstates, disputed territories, tax havens and offshore islands, and many other forms of autonomous territories. There are more such communities than ever, reflecting the crisis of the state in the modern world. Studying autonomous territories helps undercut orthodoxies: that existing states are ‘natural’ and have premier authority; and that ‘cultural identities’ are fixed and immutable. We need to understand processes of nation-building, and state-making, and set within that how territorial autonomies fit into that process. Such territories are not inadequately incorporated places which history forgot, or cultural residues which a benign state is able to accommodate without challenging its legitimacy. They are reflections of the complexity of the modern world.