National Concept Research Articles

Nationality and the Right to Enter: Assessing the Impact of Refusal of Entry for the Purpose of Statelessness Determination

This article considers the legal situation of migrants, including rejected asylum seekers, who are unable to enter what was, until then, regarded as their country of nationality. This is because that country, without explicitly disputing their nationality, either prohibits their entry or de facto prevents them from entering its territory by failing to issue travel documents or respond to requests for consular assistance for organising return. By examining the conceptualisation of nationality in international law on the one hand, and the international legal definition of a stateless person on the other hand, the article argues that the right to enter the territory of one’s state is so essential to the concept of nationality that refusal of entry and denial of consular assistance for arranging return should be regarded as evidence that the state does not consider a person as its national. Based on this argument, the article further assesses the suitability of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ guidance on statelessness determination in cases of direct or indirect denial of entry. Ultimately, this contribution aims to clarify the scope of the international legal definition of a stateless person by strongly grounding its interpretation in the conceptualisation of nationality in international law.

O Estado brasileiro e as relações étnico-raciais no pensamento de Oliveira Vianna

The article investigates the thoughts of Francisco José de Oliveira Vianna (1883-1951) concerning the ethno-racial relations shaped by the Brazilian state. The study employs a historical analysis of scientific discourses within the field of law, grounded in the methodological foundations of the archaeology of knowledge and power. Vianna constructed a eugenic narrative, disseminated under the title "Evolução do povo brasileiro no Censo de 1920" (Evolution of the Brazilian People in the 1920 Census), reflecting an integrationist indigenous policy and a racist approach that steered the nation toward whitening. Examining Oliveira Vianna's theory remains crucial not only for critically revisiting the foundations of Brazilian political, legal, and social thought in its conservative and authoritarian aspects but also for understanding the normative concept of people or nation as something less naturalized.

OTHERTONGUES: MULTILINGUALISM, NATALITY AND EMPOWERMENT IN SHARON DODUA OTOO'S ADAS RAUM

ABSTRACTWritten in German by the Black British author and activist Sharon Dodua Otoo, the novel Adas Raum (2021) intervenes in contemporary debates on colonial legacies to forge ‘a critical multilingualism’ (Yildiz 2012), challenging master‐narratives and tropes of founding fathers which privilege linear constructions of time and bounded concepts of nation and peoples. This article examines how Otoo foregrounds diasporic female figures as material agents by focusing on ambivalent experiences of childbearing, then argues that the multilingual feminist text rejects dualistic heteropatriarchal models to reconceive community in terms of intersubjective encounters and shared spaces. To illuminate the politics of Otoo's structural concern with rebirth, I take up the concept of ‘natality’ developed in the writings of Hannah Arendt and Adriana Cavarero, which offers a model for imagining possibilities of political action that defy forms of domination. Black feminist thought further informs the ambivalent figuration of motherhood in Otoo's narrative and its central preoccupation with intertwined issues of gender, racial and class discrimination. Challenging the ethnocentricity that has been identified throughout Arendt's oeuvre, Otoo reveals instead how fifteenth‐century West African concepts of space and time can be understood as in dialogue with the post‐war philosopher's understanding of natality as the central category of political thought.

THE CONCEPT OF «ENGLISHNESS» AS A COMPONENT OF NATIONAL IDENTITY IN SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

The article analyzes the concept of Englishness in the scientific studies of foreign and domestic researchers. Englishness is defined as a component of national identity. The concept of Englishness is studied from different approaches. At the social level, the intellectuals are responsible for the forms of Englishness embodiment, as they organize society in a ’modern’ way. The ethno-cultural approach forms the first ideas about the nature of the national, which are defined as primordial, so the organicist approach to the problems of the national forms the idea that the nation and national identity are phenomena given to the people “by nature”, they depend on the existence of the nation-state. The concept of national identity thus becomes the main component of the ethno-cultural approach. The modernist approach was developed in the mid-twentieth century. It emphasizes the political nature of the national, asserts that nations arise under certain social conditions and disappear over time, the era of nation-states is over, and changes in historical conditions lead to the transformation of nation-states into a cosmopolitan common state. The 80s and 90s of the twentieth century saw the emergence of the postmodern concept of the national, which, unlike the politically-centered approach of the previous theory, is culture-centered, and the nation is interpreted as an “invented” or “imaginary” concept. At the same time, it is not the desire to create a holistic concept of the nation that is important, but the study of various forms of marginalization and hybridization that characterize the modern “post-national” era. National communities are characterized by the following features: they engage in joint activities, which consist of interpreting differences, forming borders, searching for traditions, creating communities, and constructing interests. “Englishness” is separated from the concept of nationalism; its study touches upon the socio-cultural sphere; this type of research examines the peculiarities of national behavior and way of thinking.

Depoliticizing the Modern Nation

Taking the case of the interwar Yugoslav Sokol (Sokol Kraljevine Jugoslavije), this article examines the complex relationship between the discourses of organic nationhood and political socialization in what was the largest voluntary association in the country. While Sokol typically projected a vision of itself as an apolitical entity—as it claimed to represent the organic national body—this article will explore the dynamics, as well as contradictions, between such discourses and the socio-political reality they aimed to describe and eventually alter in their pursuit of improving the ‘national body.’ In conversation with scholarship on the conceptual history of modern East Central European nationalisms, including the social history of ideas and movements and political socialization more specifically, this article provides insight into the contextual, conceptual history of nationhood by focusing on selected thinkers engaged in Sokol, against the backdrop of particular mass practices and modes of political socialization in the organization. The tension between the involvement of the masses in the allegedly apolitical formations and the reality of subjecting them to political socialization en masse provides the central axis around which the argument is organized. The article concludes that their concept of nationhood was intimately intertwined with that of democracy and simultaneously posited against (party) politics and statism. Moreover, it demonstrates that Sokol was rooted in notions of civilizational hierarchies and directly linked to producing modern political subjects for the new Yugoslav state by means of the gymnastic and educational practices they promoted and conducted.

Availability of areas and facilities for physical activity for the non-registered public

The conference on sustainability and accessibility of sports infrastructure organised by the NSA in 2022 showed how the issue of accessibility of sports and physical activities for citizens is crucial in the context of ensuring a healthy lifestyle for the general non-registered public. It also confirmed that there is a lack of any national concept for the country that addresses this topic. One of the key factors in promoting regular physical activity among the general public is accessibility, both geographic and financial. This paper outlines the current approaches to the development of databases for these places in the Czech Republic, which is the subject of the author's PhD thesis. They demonstrate that unless a national register of areas and facilities for sport and physical activity is quickly created, it is impossible to have an objective basis for planning the urban development of these places. Using the example of an analysis of selected cities in the country, it is shown that just few existing facilities are year-round complex wellness centres and that there is an insufficient number of them in relation to the demands of the people in the localities. Finally, a system of uniform methodology for the registration of suitable places and their relevance for the preparation of urban plans of town and municipality is outlined.

The Factor of Democracy and Prosperity and the Formation of the Nation State in the Example of Ukraine: Pre-War Picture

Ukraine is currently facing an armed onslaught, the likes of which no European country has struggled with since the Second World War, and it will probably take years to repair the country physically and the population mentally. However, to ensure that the future recovery process does not begin with a return to the past, a thorough analysis of the state of affairs before the intensification of the Russian onslaught in 2022, which began in 2014, is needed. The primary purpose of writing the article is to show, with real examples, the ineffectiveness of the pre-war state-forming function in Ukraine. This analysis indicates why most of the reforms were nullified and which steps must be taken to avoid these problems for the country’s correct economic, cultural, and political evolution. Using the Cobb-Douglas function, the relationship between intra-system factors of state formation and the standard of living of the country’s population is also established. It is proposed to shape the national concept of the modernisation of the public administration system and its new paradigm and to develop its state-forming model, which will be adequate with regard to Ukrainian realities (including the state post-war) and global trends. Thus, the relevance of the research topic stems from the need to provide practical recommendations for the future, post-war modernisation of the state-forming system in the context of the socio-political and economic development of the country, as well as civil society.

German food security in times of crisis

The article deals with the German food security during the conflict in Ukraine. The study analyses the German food system resilience and the Ukrainian crisis impact on food security. The author aims to solve several scientific problems as well. The article examines the German understanding of food security and how the national concept corresponds to the approaches of international organisations. The author analyses the level of self-sufficiency in basic food products in Germany and the impact of the Ukrainian conflict on various imported food products. She examines official documents of the UN FAO, the government of Germany, and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food to identify the conception of food security in Germany. The researcher scrutinises statistic data provided by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the Federal Office for Food and Agriculture, the Federal Statistical Office and concludes about the level of German self-sufficiency in food. The interpretation of data data of fluctuations in the supply of oilseeds and oil reveals the effect of Ukrainian crisis on German food security as well. Official papers and statistic data analysis shows that Germany achieved self-sufficiency in basic food. The country focuses on strengthening the sustainability of agriculture and improving food quality in its national strategic papers. The weak element of food security is imports of oil and oilseeds, the supply of which declined in 2022. At the same time, raising prices and declining supplies of gas and fertilisers can become a serious threat to food security.

Несколько слов о постмодернистском транзите понятия нации

The article offers various interpretations of the concept of nation. The reason for referring to the topic is the paradox between the semantic ambiguity of the concept and its simultaneous active use in the scientific and public space. The article is based on the works of R. Brubaker, E. Balibar, I. Wallerstein. In addition, a cross-section of interpretations of the “nation” in Russian history is presented. The transition from the initial synonymization with the state and the people as a whole to its reduction to the concept of an ethnos is noted. An attempt is made to show the integration potential of the concept of nation, embedded in its original academic and political meanings.

The global refugee: Oceanic border thinking in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s By the Sea

This article attends to Abdulrazak Gurnah’s By the Sea as a critique of the normative understanding of the border as having a singular, prohibitive function for the refugee, and reads it as a call to register the border as a moving and permeable formation. What I call oceanic border thinking conveys Gurnah’s insight into the imbrication of littoral and land zones, and the effect of the proliferation of biopolitical technologies associated with various iterations of colonial and postcolonial bordering, including partitioning, arbitrary detention, deportation, and expulsion. The border’s liquidity — the elemental property of water — captures the valence of By the Sea’s oceanic border imaginary, which, in turn, challenges overdetermined readings of the border as attached primarily to land, and the reduction of the refugee to a presentist conception of race or nationality. The liquidity of borders, here, is not meant to suggest a state of extremity, crisis, or morbidity of Indian Ocean polities; rather, it suggests an approach to Gurnah’s oceanic writing as a process of world-making across waters in tandem with the biopolitical technologies that reoriented lives in shifting geopolitical territories. Oceanic border thinking enables one’s sense of the world not only in water but onwards into the land, whether in Africa, England, or continental Europe. Transferrable and dissident, this method helps with the exploration of how cartographic, literary, and imaginative conceptions of the border, as observed from water, bear the potential to trouble easy categorizations of borders and the histories associated with them.

Mechanisms for overcoming socio-cultural gap and falsifications in the international environment of student youth

The article studies mechanisms of counteracting falsification of consciousness and tools influencing constructive civic position of young people in the Russian higher education system. The determining role in this process is played by activities of Russian higher education institutions creating conditions for forming active citizenship of young people in the framework of educational, in-class, and extracurricular activities. The scientific research results obtained can be used by management of higher educational organizations in order to improve effectiveness of work in the field of organizing educational, inclass, and extracurricular activities in the process of forming active citizenship and implementing the national concept of state youth policy and patriotic education. The results allow expanding application of practices to overcome socio-cultural gap and falsifications in the international environment of student youth.

Od narodu szlacheckiego do narodu wszystkich warstw – tworzenie się nowoczesnego narodu polskiego w XIX w. i na początku XX w.

In the nineteenth century on Polish lands we are dealing with rapid civilizational, economic and social changes. State divisions are gradually disappearing. New structures are formed. These changes also apply to national issues. We can say that in the nineteenth century the concept of nation changed: from a political nation of the nobility to a nation of ethnic Polish origin, where language and religion played a significant role. The Polish peasant population, Polish bourgeoisie, and workers to a large extent integrated with the Polish nation, joined the Polish landed gentry and intelligentsia. A nation was emerging, encompassing all social strata. On the other hand, the non-Polish-speaking Ukrainian, Belarusian, Lithuanian and Jewish communities began to define their nationality not as Polish, but more and more often as Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Jewish to a lesser extent, or Belarusian. These processes will intensify in the interwar period, when we will be dealing with an independent Polish state implementing its nationality policy.

The rule of law in the UK: essence and approaches to determination

The research is focused on the essence of the rule of law as a constitutional and legal principle as the basis of the UK constitution and approaches to its determination. The rule of law, being a general legal principle, which has been developed in various legal concepts, including the British rule of law, the German rechtsstaat, the French etat de droit, at the present stage has become one of the fundamental constitutional and legal characteristics, both at the national and supranational level. National concepts of the rule of law, having certain differences and peculiarities, are essentially aimed at achieving similar goals. However, their substantive content is formed on the basis of existing features of specific national legal orders. One of the earliest and most developed in terms of constitutional and legal theory and practice is the UK approach to the rule of law. However, the question of its determining remains relevant at the present stage. The object is the concept of the rule of law developed in the UK, the subject is its specific features and manifestations, as well as approaches to its determination in British legal doctrine and practice. The purpose is to explore the issue of determination of the rule of law in the UK and to form a comprehensive approach to understanding its essence. The methodological basis of the research is constituted by 1) dialectical method, 2) general scientific methods including analysis, synthesis, comparison, analogy, deduction and induction, 3) special methods including logical, formal-legal, comparative-legal, and statistical methods. Based on the analysis the author makes an attempt to define the essence of the rule of law as an integral part of the UK constitution and its key features.

Prevention of Higher Education Radicalism in Aceh: Perspectives of Constitutional Law and Islamic Law

Higher education actually plays a role in strengthening national insight and nationalism in an academic framework as evidenced by efforts to prevent radicalism. This study examines the efforts of universities in preventing several universities in Aceh, namely Syiah Kuala University, Ar-Raniry State Islamic University, Malikussaleh University, Teuku Umar University and Muhammadiyah Aceh University. This research uses empirical legal methods with an approach to constitutional law and Islamic law. The data collection techniques used were in-depth interviews and literature studies. The results of this study show that radicalism is not found in higher education institutions in Aceh. Internal and external factors can influence the difficulty of finding radicalism. Internal factors include a diverse understanding of university elements about radicalism and a lack of religious understanding among students and leaders. The external factor is that there is no regulation that provides indicators of radicalism and students joining various organizations, and it is difficult to distinguish which ones are radical. However, universities have made efforts to prevent radicalism, namely; prevent lecturers and students from having extreme ideologies, strengthen the concept of nationalism and nationality and encourage students to participate in non-academic activities. In the context of constitutional law, this effort is a strategic policy carried out by the state through universities to create stability and peace. In addition, in the context of Islamic law, these efforts are in line with the objectives of Sharia, namely preventing harm and creating the benefit of the nation and state.

Culture perception and the distinctive characteristic of cultural identity

This article examines the concepts of nation and nationality from the perspective of supreme identities built by the central government, and sub-identities that identify themselves as a nation. The thesis that ownership of a state does not transform a group into a nation, but that this group creates the opportunity to transform national identity into a supreme identity, is studied on the case of the Turks and Kyrgyz.

Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space 2023: The Relevance of Ideas, Goals, and Objectives

The article examines the main goals and objectives of the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space 2023 (PQ–2023), exploring its scenographic and performative practices in the context of the latest cultural programs. The author analyses the aspirations of modern theater artists, architects, multimedia masters and designers of spatial content to implement their ideas in curator projects. The article defines the artistic characteristics of the most interesting projects from Portugal, Catalonia, Cyprus, Slovakia, Romania, Norway etc.; these are the projects, the authors of which act not only as exponents of theatrical ideas but also touch on a wide range of issues relevant today. The author defines the target and conceptual characteristics of the plastic formula of the Ukrainian pavilion Garden of Living Things, the project of curator and scenographer Bohdan Polishchuk. The author analyses the patterns and well-founded regularities of effective installations by Ukrainian artists in the space of the Garden: Wimple by Lyudmyla Nagorna, Boat by Serhiy Rydvanetsky and Natalia Rydvanetska, Reading the Landscape by Inessa Kulchytska, Scales of War by Oleh Tatarinov, Mary’s Dream by Maria Pogrebnyak, Roots. Network of Connections by Yulia Zaulichna, Enjoy it. The Author Bears no Responsibility. Like Russia by Olesia Holovach, Theater of Memories by Olena Polishchuk. The article discusses the manifestations of the authors’ positions at moments of history critically important for Ukraine. The author emphasizes the profound role of artists as successors and developers of the best concepts of the national scenography, in the evolutionary projects of which the national concept has always been combined with the European one.

The Catalan Digital Republic: Between Nation Branding and Nation Building

ABSTRACT This article empirically studies the Catalan Digital Republic, that is the set of practises, narratives, institutions, and infrastructures mobilised by a stateless nation to reposition itself in the international arena. The article has a two-sided objective. First, to analyse how nation branding and nation building strategies intersect with digital technologies and technopolitical narratives. Second, to examine how stateless nations are making use of such technologies and strategies in order to find their way in the international arena. To satisfy these objectives we have empirically studied the case of Catalonia, a stateless nation which in the last years has developed an ambitious technopolitical strategy rebranding itself as the southern European technological hub. To do so we have relied on a triangular methodological strategy combining (1) critical discourse analysis; (2) in-depth interviews with high-profile actors coming from the political, academic, and civil society landscape, and (3) a thorough documentary analysis. The first part of the article explores the concept of digital nation and its relationship with the notion of nation branding. In the second part of the text, we present the methodology and the objectives. We continue the paper by outlining the results of the interviewing process and the critical analysis of the findings. The article concludes with a critical recapitulation of the research results.

Nationalism: A Theoretical Approach

The origin of the first research on the definition of nationalism dates back to the 18th century. Thus, the formation of the concept of nationalism was influenced by the Industrial Revolution, and then the concept continued to develop until today. The aim of the article is to explain the basic arguments of modernist nationalism theories and their shortcomings.

From Condemnation to Cooperation: The Evolution of China’s Position toward UN Peacekeeping Operations

In its capacity as a great power, China has assumed greater responsibilities regarding the provision of global public goods. Therefore, it has become the UN Security Council’s permanent member which contributes the largest amount of troops to peacekeeping operations. Consequently, China has steadily increased its financial contributions and registered an 8.000 peacekeeping stand-by force. Nonetheless, China’s current leadership in the field of peacekeeping operations differs radically from its initial rejection for missions which it regarded as imperialist instruments destined to undermine the progress of revolutionary movements and weaken the principle of sovereignty. Therefore, in this article, I will explain the evolution of China’s stance toward UN PKOs from an outright rejection to a moderate opposition, and from a limited support to an active participation. Furthermore, I will explain how PKOs enable China to protect its national interests in conflict zones and upgrade its military capabilities through military operations other than war. (MOOTW). Finally, I will explain that this stance is the reflection of evolving national conception roles and of a more ambitious Chinese foreign policy; through which Beijing seeks to strengthen international cooperation, safeguard its interests and nationals overseas, redefine international norms and global governance schemes and reaffirm its great power status.

Nationalising the international in China: A phenomenological study on the purpose of international schooling in an era of regulation

AbstractRecent policy changes to the regulation of international schooling for Chinese nationals in China have seen restrictions on curriculum, admissions and ownership. While there is evidence of the impact of these changes at the institutional level, it is not clear how recent regulation has impacted the actors at the phenomenological level. In order to address this gap, we situate recent regulation within the concept of cosmopolitan nationalism, which highlights the interplay of local and global forces and places lived experience at the forefront of analysis. We also draw on qualitative survey and in‐depth interview data with teachers from an international school in China that explored their understandings of international schooling. By analysing the teachers’ understandings of international schooling, we were able to gain an insight into the impact of regulation at the level of lived experience. Overall, we found little evidence that regulation had impacted the teachers’ beliefs about international schooling, suggesting either the normalisation of regulation or a lag between its implementation and internalisation. Our findings also suggested two main configurations of cosmopolitan nationalism held by the teachers. The first, which we refer to as ‘cosmopolitanism with national characteristics’, positions international schools as a more diverse and care‐free alternative to domestic schooling. The second configuration of cosmopolitan nationalism, which we refer to as ‘nationalism with cosmopolitan characteristics’, positions the nation as the foundation and cosmopolitan‐related aspects as peripheral.