National Concept Research Articles

Interpreting Nationalism in the Indian Context

This article explores the issue of nationalism in the Indian context with a particular focus on the contemporary discourse. An effort has been made to explicate the ins and outs of the concept of nationalism and its types as identified by various scholars in the area. It is imperative to note that Indian nationalism as ingrained in the Constitution of India is essentially different from the nationalism adopted in the most monolithic countries of Europe and the Middle East. The contemporary nationalistic forces seem to invest efforts to consolidate the nationalistic identity of the country through discursive means. This article disambiguates the concept of nationalism and puts the contemporary nationalistic vision in proper perspective.

LEVELS OF NATIONALISM AND UNDERSTANDING THE NATIONAL IDENTITY AMONG PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS OF SAN PABLO COLLEGES

The study aimed to investigate the levels of nationalism and national identity among pre-service teachers at San Pablo Colleges. Employing a descriptive-quantitative research design with a correlational component, the research explored the relationships between these constructs. The participant pool consisted of 60 pre-service teachers from the College of Education at San Pablo Colleges. To assess nationalism levels, the researchers adopted a questionnaire. Both questionnaires underwent rigorous face and content validity checks to ensure their appropriateness for the context. Data analysis involved calculating averages or means to ascertain the pre-service teachers’ levels of nationalism and understanding of national identity. Additionally, Pearson Product-Moment Correlation was employed to explore potential correlations between the two constructs. The findings revealed that the pre-service teachers exhibited high levels of nationalism and a strong understanding of national identity. This suggests that they possess the capacity to effectively integrate concepts of nationalism and national identity into the teaching-learning process. In conclusion, this study sheds light on the levels of nationalism and national identity among pre-service teachers at San Pablo Colleges. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of how pre-service teachers perceive and engage with these crucial concepts, paving the way for more informed and culturally sensitive educational practices.

The Holy See and Fyodor Dostoevsky: Mutual Attraction and Repulsion

The article analyzes the attitude of Fyodor Dostoevsky toward the Roman Catholic Church. The author shows how Dostoevsky comes to the Slavophile idea of unity and the impossibility of salvation outside church communion, while speaking of the Church as an ecclesia, that is, an assembly of believers. At the same time, the reception of Dostoevsky from the side of the Vatican is presented. In the article, special attention is paid to the perception of Dostoevsky’s ideas by Pope Francis. The author notes that the point of attraction and repulsion between Dostoevsky and Catholic culture lies in the plane of his understanding of the concepts of nationality and universality. Dostoevsky’s Russian idea and his view on the essence of Christianity grows from the synthesis of these concepts. The author emphasizes that only in this perspective it is necessary to interpret Dostoevsky’s ideas.

Towards a Green Nationalism with Chinese Characteristics?

ABSTRACT This paper examines the concept of green nationalism in the authoritarian context of China, where the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has adopted the rhetoric of ecological civilization as a means of promoting environmental protection and securing global legitimacy. The authors argue that the CCP's performance legitimacy is closely linked to its ability to address environmental concerns in the context of climate change, and that the development of green nationalism is a rational choice for leaders seeking to maintain this legitimacy. However, the authors also highlight the role of actors such as social entrepreneurs, academics, and environmental NGOs in promoting green nationalism from the bottom-up. Using constructivist political theory, the paper explores how the intersection of different green narratives at various levels can be used to rethink the nation and make claims to legitimacy. Overall, the paper contributes to theory-building by providing a framework for understanding the complex relationship between environmental protection, nationalism, and authoritarian politics in China.

“Ruritania” and “Megalomania” as "ideal models" in Ernest Gellner’s concept of nationalism and the prospects for its application to analysis of Iranian history

The purpose of this study is to analyze the implentation possibilities of classical theories of nationalism to analysis of the Iranian nationalism history. The author analyzes the ideal models of Ruritania and Magalomania as imagining nationalizing and modernizing societies proposed by Ernest Gellner. The novelty of the study lies in the analysis of the features and contradictions of the development of the historical forms of Iranian nationalism in contexts of the ideal models proposed in modernist historiography. It is assumed that the nationalist modernization of the Qajars and Pahlavi in Iranian historiography is perceived through the prism of a constructivist approach. The article analyzes 1) the problems of the inability of nationalism to become the dominant and determining political force that constructs the main features of the development of society and the state in Iran, 2) the features of the development and transformation of the traditions of political and ethnic nationalism, 3) the role of the ruling Qajar and Pahlavi dynasties in implentation of various strategies of nationalist modernization. The article also shows the potential of a comparative analysis of various historical forms of Iranian nationalisms in contexts of a constructivist approach. The results of the study suggest that 1) the causes and forms of the crisis of the nationalist project in Iran can be described and analyzed adequately with use of Ruritania and Megalomania concepts as ideal types of nationalism development, formulated by Ernest Gellner in contexts of social and cultural histories as confrontations between the political principles of the nation and religious principles and ideals of the Ummah; 2) Iranian modern system emerged as an attempt to institutionalize a compromise between a civilized modernized Megalomania and traditional Shia Ruritania, which led to a combination of political nationalism with an internationally declared recognition of the primacy of Shiism.

Portraying Dr. Soetomo's Thoughts in The Frame of University Social Responsibility

Purpose - This research aims to understand and explain the concept of University Social Responsibility by Dr. Soetomo University Surabaya. Design/methodology/approach - In the context of research on University Social Responsibilities (USR), it is based on the concept of nationality and peoplehood initiated by Dr. Soetomo. Such a paradigm in the research context is called a constructivist-interpretive paradigm with a qualitative approach. A qualitative approach was chosen to obtain an in-depth picture of the research topic based on qualitative data. Findings - The findings in this study are as follows: First, the concept of University Social Responsibility implemented by Dr. Soetomo University Surabaya is understood as a forum for embodying values that have grown and developed within Dr. Soetomo University. Second, implementing University Social Responsibility based on a people's and national perspective at Dr Soetomo University Surabaya is a series of field practice agendas that students assisting residents measurably and simultaneously carry out. Third, the strategy carried out by Dr. Soetomo University Surabaya in implementing University Social Responsibility for the campus circle community is first to identify the fundamental problems that exist in the community, then consolidate empowerment together with the government, both the Surabaya City Government and the Surabaya city social service. The suggestions resulting from this study are: First, policies related to poverty alleviation, public education, equitable distribution of education, and education for all those driven by the city/district government and the House of Representatives should have synergy with universities or universities that also have similar views on efforts to alleviate poverty and equalize social access. Second, the Surabaya City Government and social services are advised to contribute financially and non-financially to the sustainability of the agenda related to equitable access in the context of fulfilling the fundamental rights of the need for human rights contained in Law Number 39 of 1999 concerning human rights.

Agency and Incentives of Diasporic Political Influencers on Facebook Malawi

This article examines the agency and incentives that drive the activism of diasporic political influencers on “Facebook Malawi,” an online imagined political community. In their seminal work on “social media dissidents” and “social media self-made activists” in the Global South, Matsilele and Sharra demonstrate that social media activists engage with different strategies to initiate movements, mobilize citizens, and create their brands in strong opposition to authoritarian regimes which repositions them as freedom fighters in the eyes of the masses and enemies of the state. Correspondingly, we frame diasporic political influencers as actors aided by digital technologies who engage in “long-distance nationalism” on Facebook against authoritarianism in the homeland. We deploy a qualitative mixed methods approach to analyze Facebook data of two diasporic political influencers, Onjezani Kenani and Manes Winnie Hale, who gave informed consent to use their Facebook data generated in 2018 and 2021, a period preceding and following the 2019 Malawi tripartite elections. A thematic analysis of 250 Facebook posts and interview data with the two influencers illustrates how they exercise their agency in their quest for a vision of a better Malawi while navigating a complex and ambivalent web of online and offline threats, incentives, and interests. Implicated in the political communication and mobilization of the two are different strategies that include verbal inventiveness, trolling, and exposing. The article also shows how the concept of long-distance nationalism needs to be adapted in studying diasporic political influencers.

Italian Orientalism: Nationhood, Cosmopolitanism and the Cultural Politics of Identity by Fabrizio De Donno

Reviewed by: Italian Orientalism: Nationhood, Cosmopolitanism and the Cultural Politics of Identity by Fabrizio De Donno Alessandro Pes Italian Orientalism: Nationhood, Cosmopolitanism and the Cultural Politics of Identity. By Fabrizio De Donno. (Italian Modernities Series) Oxford: Peter Lang. x+360 pp. €52.86. ISBN 978–1–78874–018–0. How did Italian culture, from the Risorgimento to Fascism, participate in the development of the category of Orientalism? What role did the renewed interest in Indology have in the development of this category? How did the Italian perspective dialogue with European and Western Orientalism? This volume by Fabrizio De Donno tries to answer these fundamental questions in order to understand both the construction of an orientalist discourse in Italy and the transnational dynamics that have forged Orientalism in the West. Italian Orientalism investigates the Italian case to exemplify the processes that have defined the affirmation of Indology among the Western sciences in parallel with the spread of a 'certain' perception of the East which was instrumental in colonial and imperial policies. The volume is divided into two parts: a first in which the author reconstructs the reception of the Orientalist revival in Italy during the Risorgimento, and a second which traces Orientalism and Aryanism from Italian unification up to the Fascist period. In the first part, De Donno opens the discussion by focusing on how in the Italy of the Risorgimento the concept of Europeanness is redefined through the debate that sees Classicism as opposed to Orientalism. This debate is well covered in the book by the analysis of some texts representing the conflicting positions: the Manifestos by Giovanni Berchet and Ludovico Di Breme, which reflect the influences of Orientalism on the Romantic Risorgimento, and the Discorso di un italiano intorno alla poesia romantica of Giacomo Leopardi, in which the poet from Recanati responds to Di Breme by emphasizing the classical roots of the Italian tradition; he contrasts this with a Romantic nationalism strongly influenced by Orientalism, considered foreign to Italian society. This is a position which is not crystallized but which, as De Donno points out, will be modified later with the publication of the Canto notturno di un pastore errante dell'Asia, in which De Donno sees a form of hybrid poem evolving from the Neoclassical-Orientalist form, which leads back to the negative anthropology to which Antonio Prete ascribed the works of Leopardi. The second part of the volume focuses on the post-Unification period and introduces the discussion by highlighting how Italian Orientalism develops in parallel with Indology. The author reconstructs the development of the professionalization of Indology in Italy, in particular through the emergence of Florence as a driving [End Page 263] force, with the foundation in that city of the Istituto di Studi Superiori Pratici e di Perfezionamento in 1860, and the emergence of Angelo De Gubernatis as a central figure for the development of the academic discipline. De Donno subsequently pays close attention to how the concepts of race, religion, and colonialism interact in Italian Orientalism and anthropology. This part of the volume recalls De Gubernatis's effort to carry out 'the first Italian attempt to reconstruct the divine history of Europe, and Italy within it, by replacing the Bible with the Vedas' (p. 179) and highlights the criticisms that the Catholic Church made both of De Gubernatis and of other Italian orientalists who expressed comparable views. Italian Orientalism closes with a focus on the role of Orientalism in Fascist propaganda and on how the categories of nation, race, and empire reconfigured themselves in this period through the influence of Orientalist thought. In this final part of the volume De Donno points out how traces of the idea of Aryanism can be seen in the evolution of the concepts of race and nation developed by the Fascist regime. In this regard, the author recalls, among others, the work of Francesco Lorenzo Pulle, who identified Italy as the prototype of the Aryan-Mediterranean nation. Building a fascinating and detailed literary, political, and historical path, De Donno's book provides a first organic analysis of Italian Orientalism, its origins and its developments; the opening of the analysis frames these dynamics not only...

BETWEEN HOME AND THE WORLD: (BANAL) NATIONALISM AND REPRESENTATIONS OF A NATION IN SLOVENIAN FOLK-POP MUSIC

This paper examines the concept of banal nationalism as often unconscious, routine processes that nations reproduce on a daily basis. Banal nationalism is recognisable in the use of national symbols but also in language and culture. The purpose of this paper is to determine whether Slovenian folk-pop music is one of these processes, and in which ways and strategies we can detect its reproductive role in banal nationalism that on a daily basis reminds its listeners of their national identities. Methodologically, the article is based on the content and a textual analysis of compositions by three of the most often listened to folk-pop ensembles, demonstrating that the national narrative can be identified in a smaller proportion of all analysed compositions in three sections: the idea of nation as an imaginary community or home(land), national (auto)stereotypes, and patriotic feelings.

A THEORETICAL ANALYSIS OF THE NATIONAL IDENTITY CONCEPT ON THE EUROPENIZATION PROCESS OF WESTERN BALKANS: AN EXAMPLE OF SERBIA

With the end of the bipolar structure, states wanted to guarantee their places in the system through European Union in the Balkans. Serbia is one of the important states in the Western Balkans that hardly adapted to the changes in the system because of the Serbian nationalism. This article will discuss the reasons for the delay in Europeanization process of Serbia referring to the concept of nationalism, which had the greatest influence on Serbia’s EU process. This study will explain why Serbia’s path towards European integration has been so much difficult. After analyzing the dissolution process of countries from Yugoslavia, it will focus on the two important theories which are identity convergence and identity divergence mechanisms in order to better analyze the European integration of Serbia. This article will reveal Serbia’s reluctance to accept European nationalism by exploring the role of the national identity concept on the Europeanization process. This article concludes that, the transformation of domestic policies that are linked with the EU were failed in Serbia, identity divergence mechanism became a driven force in delaying rapid EU enlargement and political leaders’ strategies became unsuccessful to pursue EU norms and standards. In this research paper, a qualitative study was conducted using methodological pluralism and historical comparative research methods.

The Nation, Nationalism and Ethno-nationalism: A Theoretical Discourse

People or masses that are united by their common culture, language, history, descent and distinct ideas in a specific country or territory known as a nation. Moreover, nationalism is an idea or a movement where a nation fits in the state. As a nation, it tends to promote the interest of a group of people. The word 'nationality' has been in mutual use in third-world countries to designate ethnolinguistic communities. The term ethno nationalism is a form of nationalism and basic understanding in the regard to ethnic ties and ethnicity as a core component of experiences and conception of nations. Exclusivist ethnonationalism denotes the compartmentalization among various entities while living in a similar territory. The current study explores the origin, evolution and growth of nation, nationalism and ethnonationalism. How these three ideologies are different from each other. The study also reveals the major stakes of the theorist on these three philosophies.

Challenges for occupational medicine during the pandemic of a new coronavirus infectious disease (COVID-19)

The article describes the current issues in occupational medicine and the ways to resolve them in the context of the spread of a new coronavirus infection COVID-19. The risks of COVID-19 infection in medical and non-medical workers are considered. Modern approaches to establishment of COVID-19 causal relationship with occupation and medical examinations in patients with COVID-19 are presented. The main provisions of the National concept of healthcare-associated infections relevant in the context of COVID-19 pandemic are presented. Problems in public health care related to restructuring of work of medical organizations in conditions of COVID-19 spread are shown. Attention is paid to mental health disorders in medical workers providing medical care to patients with COVID-19. The prospects of development and implementation of measures for prevention of COVID-19, its complications and adverse outcomes taking into account complex assessment of working environment and professional health of workers are considered from the position of occupational medicine.

The impact of cultural dimensions on project management performance

PurposeDiverse cultures may make people behave differently and this, in turn, can impact project management. While the relationship between culture and project success has been widely explored, there is a need of addressing the gap in the relationship between culture and project management performance outcomes, that is, the performance in implementing project management processes and practices. The purpose of this paper is to investigate this gap by studying the role of cultural dimensions on project management performance.Design/methodology/approachAn explorative survey including 200 observations relating to the experiences of project managers with a big experience on projects involving many different national cultures has been conducted to collect primary data on the relationship between the nationality observed and the project management performance outcomes shown. Nationality has been used as a proxy to link individual cultural dimensions and project management performance.FindingsThe results of this paper show that individualism impacts project dynamics and project control positively. Moreover, masculinity impacts project dynamics positively, and uncertainty avoidance impacts project control negatively. When recognized, different cultural dimensions can drive project management performance outcomes. The increasing awareness on this topic can be a valid instrument to control the cultural effect and take advantage of it to enhance project success.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the theory of project management by recognizing linkages between cultural dimensions and project management performance. Moreover, this study overcomes the concept of nationality, focusing on individuals and their unique set of cultural dimensions.

The Freedman in Soyinka's "The Man Died"

The Nigerian Civil War fought from 1966 to 1970 has evoked emotions and enthroned writers that have either recaptured their experiences or told imaginative tales based on other’s experiences. But amidst the different structures, the horrific images captured in these works unify these texts as sharing a common interest and resonating a nation’s narrative. In The Man Died, Soyinka, while being held as a prisoner, revivifies his experiences of the war where the bestial acts meted out on man leave him in a silenced state that literally discerns the death of man. This causes the emergence of the freed man, the mind. The mind’s freedom to roam within time in a static body establishes the temporalities between the imprisoned and freed men. This paper adopts Currie’s perception of consciousness and Bhabha’s concept of nation’s narration to show how the mind discerns a chaotic nation, distinguishing the writer as an archival resource. It foregrounds the present as infiltrated with past events, thereby questioning its duration through a nation’s narration.

The marginal house as the imaginary space/nation

The concept of nation is indispensable for every individual and people. It is what creates a sense of belonging and cultural and national identity. In hernovel The house on Mango Street, Chicana writer Sandra Cisneros explores the construction of this space through the metaphor of the house. In this text, the protagonist Esperanza Cordero transforms the space of her marginal home into the equivalent of her nation, thus building a kind of imaginary country where she can take root and grow.

‘Normans’ vs. ‘Saxons’: Cinematic Imaginaries of Race and Nation in Angevin England, 1938–1964

Building on Benedict Anderson’s idea about the nation being a fictive construct—an imagined community of people who see themselves as sovereign, exclusive, and one with a shared history—this article examines how the race-based opposition between ‘Saxons’ and ‘Normans’ in histories about the Angevin period was popularized in the 19th century, and how this idea was integrated into the stories of three popular films in the following century: The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Ivanhoe (1952), and Becket (1964). To better understand this phenomenon, this article uses the term ‘cinematic imaginary’ to convey how the shared institutions, values, and histories that constituted ‘medieval’ nationhood were depicted in film. This article argues that, much like how historians and novelists of the 19th century imagined how people of certain races in medieval England—particularly during the period of the Angevin Empire (c. 1154–1216)—operated according to set of values and embodied certain attributes, so too did filmmakers in midcentury Hollywood bend the categories of ‘Saxon’ and ‘Norman’ to align with their conceptions of race, nation, and class conflict in the 20th century. Through an examination of these imaginaries in popular cinema, this article illuminates how 20th-century interpretations of history were presented to audiences to convey a set of ideas about a medieval past in light of modern class struggle, imperialism, racism, and nationalism.Banner image taken from The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). Copyright Warner Bros, all rights reserved. Image source: www.intofilm.org/films/3539/.

Flawed public diplomacy: when Croatia Instagram Riviera narrative destination branding ignores dark tourism amateurs

PurposeThis article tackles Croatian public diplomacy, destination and nation branding vis-à-vis an emerging Instagram trend to publish dark tourism related pictures sometimes using the official hashtag CroatiaFullOfLife; hence, poking Croatia tourism development accounts, which promote the country as merely a Riviera destination, and deletes the memories of Yugoslavian and Second Independence wars. Such a monolithic, shortsighted and amnesic destination branding strategy neglects alternative public tourism and public diplomacy opportunities.Design/methodology/approachThe article may improve the understanding of the links between the concepts of Public Diplomacy, nation and destination branding through an exploratory study of dark tourism amateurs experiences in Croatia, documented by pictures published on Instagram, the key digital social media for destination branding. It also outlines the history of Croatian tourism and government's efforts in promoting the overwhelming image of a sunny sea destination since the launching of the “Croatia Full Of Life” destination branding campaign in 2015. The study compares what and how dark tourism amateurs and Croatian main social media influencers publish contents destined to foreign publics.FindingsCroatia's official PR strategies and Instagram accounts ignore the increasing interest of foreign tourists, local younger generations and artists in abandoned places and Yugoslavian and Homeland War heritage monuments. These “light dark chiaroscuro” places are nowhere to be seen on Croatia's official Instagram account. Croatian government fails to embrace some aspects of the nation identity and to take advantage of Instagram trends and niche dark tourism influencers to boost and enrich its public diplomacy and the memorialization process of the darkest aspects of its past.Originality/valueThis research suggests that international Instagram influencers as well as local photographers, artists and history amateurs promote many shades of light–dark chiaroscuro tourism approaches. Their posts tell new narratives about the past and its memorialization, far from the silence and denial promoted by Croatian official Instagram accounts. Mainstream IG Croatian lifestyle marketing influencers and institutional accounts consistently shows beaches, blue waters and bikinis strictly respecting a monolithic, shortsighted and amnesic destination branding strategy. This study shows that some destination and nation-branding strategies could hinder rather than enhance public diplomacy.

Trad nationalist a/effects

Trad nationalist a/effects

МОНУМЕНТАЛЬНАЯ КОММЕМОРАЦИЯ И РОССИЙСКАЯ ИДЕНТИЧНОСТЬ НА СЕВЕРНОМ КАВКАЗЕ: МОЖЕТ ЛИ НЕПРИНЯТИЕ РЕШЕНИЙ БЫТЬ РАЦИОНАЛЬНОЙ ПОЛИТИЧЕСКОЙ СТРАТЕГИЕЙ?

The article is devoted to the phenomenon of the "monument war" in the North Caucasus in the context of Russian nation-building. The authors analyze the historical dynamics of the commemoration in the North Caucasus, depending on its historical stages and political actors. Further, the article examines the causes of the actual 'war of monuments' in the North Caucasus and formulates its essence. At the same time, the question is raised about the assessment of the position of the authorities regarding this "war" in terms of the policy of "non-decision-making" (according to P. Bachrach and M. S. Baratz). In conclusion, the authors interpret the memorial conflicts in the North Caucasus as a request for a modern (in the spirit of E. Renan) concept of the Russian nation.

The Role of Women as Agents and Beneficiaries in the Hungarian Family Planning System (1914–1944)

The article outlines the developments in the national concept of family planning with particular reference to the female agents of healthcare and social policy measures from the turn of the century up to 1944. After the lost war and the shattering Treaty of Trianon in 1920, Hungary found itself in a deepening demographic crisis. High infant mortality and criminal abortion rates, the deficiency of graduate midwives, and the one-child system in the south-western part of the country concerned both politicians and intellectuals. The paper aims at connecting the medical, political, and social discourses based on archival and press sources on family planning by analyzing the role and agency of different women's organizations. I argue that state social policy measures and aid actions of the church and civic organizations and associations principally assigned two types of roles to women. On the one hand, they were active participants and agents, on the other hand, they were passive subjects and beneficiaries of social assistance activities. Furthermore, the article highlights the role of medical professionals (doctors, midwives, nurses) intersecting with the role of women as active agents in the execution of social policy measures. By integrating documents on family planning such as journal articles, political speeches and criminal abortion data into the national and political discourses, the article claims that women have often played contradictory roles in the process of family planning. Midwives and nurses who served as gatekeepers either helped women by providing access to birth control and abortion or complied with the regulations of the pro-natalist state, depriving women of choice.