Nation-state Ideology Research Articles

From the Mandate of Heaven to the modern state: the nation according to Wei Xiaobao

Abstract This paper analyzes the Jin Yong novel The Deer and the Cauldron through the lens of Etienne Balibar's theory of super-nationalism and supranationalism. The novel employs a pan-Asian racial ideology to expand national identity from Han Chinese to other ethnic groups (supranationalism) by introducing a racial Other, white Europeans, to unify warring groups. Simultaneously, Han culture is consistently uplifted as superior (super-nationalism). A critical sequence features the Kangxi Emperor asserting his legitimacy as the ruler of China to the protagonist Wei Xiaobao by claiming the Mandate of Heaven has passed from the Ming to the Qing dynasty. However, Han Chinese gallants and intellectuals constantly challenge his legitimacy because, as a Manchu, he is considered foreign. To resolve this issue, Wei Xiaobao begins constructing a racial national framework that includes Manchus. This paper further argues that Wei Xiaobao's moral relativism, unusual for a protagonist in martial arts fiction, enables the flexibility to redefine Chinese identity on racial grounds instead of moral or cultural. The Deer and the Cauldron illustrates the transition from the Mandate of Heaven to modern nation-state ideology in China, in the form of an irreverent martial arts fiction novel, crafted by the genre's greatest master.

Language teacher candidates’ representation of Türkiye's East and West: A critical discourse analysis of online discussions in a telecollaboration

This study explores data collected from a telecollaboration project between two universities in Türkiye and the US. We draw upon the notion that how language teacher candidates from Türkiye (LTCTs) situate themselves contextually pertain to their professional learning and practices and future language teacher identity. Focusing on their telecollaboration discourse, we specifically examine these LTCTs’ construction of Türkiye's multiculturalism through an oversimplistic and stereotypical East-West binary. We analyzed the data using Fairclough's three-dimensional CDA model. We found that when discussing multiculturalism, the LTCTs socio-politically constructed framing of Türkiye's East and West has been influenced by meso level institutional policies and macro level nation-state ideologies. Next, our findings showed that the LTCTs avoided controversial sociopolitical issues when talking specifically about the East refraining from any connotations of separatist discourses. We suggest teachers educators foster critical analysis within teacher education programs to help understand and prepare teacher candidates for their future practice.

The Yeni Müzik Scene in Türkiye: How did the ‘New Music’ Discourse Change Local Contemporary Music Practice?

Although the field of contemporary music composition in Türkiye is mainly considered an institutionalization grounded on the nation-state ideology and the cultural policies of the early republic period, the political, economic, and cultural changes experienced in the last 30 years have led to the formation of alternative discourses and new institutionalizations in the field. Among these new formations, the 'yeni müzik' discourse - which can be considered as the local manifestation of the 'new music' discourse that originates in the 20th-century art music canon and the new composition scene shaped around it have marked significant differences in the local contemporary music practice. By providing a critical overview of the local history of the field, examining the early emergence of ‘yeni müzik’, and documenting the post-2000s development of this new compositional institutionalization, the present paper proposes ‘yeni müzik scene’ as an alternative formation and discusses how it differs from its predecessor 'Turkish Contemporary Music' in terms of institutional, social and musical practices. Our account of the topic – which has hardly been studied in the literature – benefits from both historiographical and fieldwork practices, hoping to provide a continuous socio-cultural narrative that situates the ‘yeni müzik scene’ within the local history of contemporary music.

전쟁 이후의 감정 교육 －1950년대 『새벗』의 고아 서사에 투영된 국민국가 이념

이 논문은 1950년대『새벗』에 수록된 문학작품 속 고아의 양상을 분석하고, 잡지 광고로 유통된 건강 담론과 잡지사에서 개최한 어린이 행사의 문제를 전후 고아의 현실과 관련하여 고찰하는 데 목적을 둔다. 어린이 잡지 『새벗』에 수록된 서양 문학 중에는 고아 관련 작품이 큰 비중을 차지한다. 이 작품들은 번역 · 번안 과정에서 권선징악과 현모양처 담론의 영향하에 축약되고 단순화된다. 그럼에도 이 작품들은 조력자의 가치를 일깨우고, 어른의 관점에서 형성된 서열화의 위험성을 드러내며, 고아에 대한 연민의 중요성을 부각한다. 그에 반해 한국의 아동문학은 군인과 교사라는 구원자의 등장, 의사(疑似) 가족의 형성, 어린이의 연대라는 측면에서 차이를 보인다. 전후 한국의 작가들은 인간 본래의 취약성을 부인하며 어린이가 자신을 미숙한 존재로 치부하게 하거나 역으로 지배의 판타지에 머물게 했다. 『새벗』의 내용상 특징은 전쟁으로 인한 삶의 기반 상실, 국가주의와 반공의식의 영향과 밀접한 관련을 맺는다. 잡지에 수록된 고아 서사는 구원받을 자격을 심문하고 구원자의 관점에서 부각된 시혜성과 만족감을 남긴다. 구원자와 구원당한 자의 위계는『새벗』의 광고, 잡지사 주최의 행사와도 관련된다. 광고의 건강한 어린이 담론은 상대적으로 보호받지 못한 고아들의 몸을 독자들이 비정상적이고 불량한 상태로 여기게 했다. 또한, 문화행사의 초대권 배부나 수상자의 사적 정보 공개는 사회적 서열화와 정상 가족 이데올로기의 문제를 안고 있었다. 이에 대한 몇몇 작가들의 비판적 노력에도 불구하고, 1950년대『새벗』이 어린이들에게 제공했던 희망의 서사는 전쟁의 상처를 봉합한 채 전후 국민국가 담론에 기대어 성인과 아동, 아동과 아동 사이의 권력관계를 내포한 정치적 텍스트로 남을 수밖에 없었다.

О научном обеспечении импортозамещения в национальной безопасности России

The study of national economic and financial security in the context of sanctions and import substitution revealed the lack of a unified methodology in the economic block of the Russian Federation, manifested in the form of discrepancies in the methodological approaches of regulatory institutions of the ministerial level. The presence of such theoretical and methodological discrepancies in the work of the regulatory institutions of Russia indicates the lack of a unified national state ideology for the formation of the development strategy of individual territories and the country as a whole. Effective and stable development of the country is impossible without strong science, the results of which are implemented in public practice. Declaring a serious large-scale import substitution project, there is actually no task to develop an appropriate theoretical and methodological basis for it, to define a paradigm that is designed to reflect national interests. The presence of developed theories and methodology as the basis of the scientific foundation in the country’s economy, including economic security as an integral part of Russia’s national security, allows us to develop effective strategies that constitute a unique intellectual base for the development of the country’s economic sectors. If import substitution is based only on the initial level, without a scientific basis that takes into account the national interests of Russia, the preservation of the country’s sovereignty turns out to be an impossible task. To verify the assertions made, letters were sent containing questions about the use by institutions of domestic or foreign theoretical and methodological tools in their work. The correspondence covered 7 ministries and the Bank of Russia, which form the economic bloc of the RF Government. The analysis of the responses allows us to conclude: import substitution in Russia is defined narrowly, only in relation to groups of goods, technology and equipment without taking into account scientific domestic developments in theory and methodology; it is not clear what domestic/foreign tools are used in the economic block of Russia; there is no constructive interaction between representatives of the scientific and educational community and managerial practitioners. Import substitution in Russia should start from the theoretical and methodological level, where the strategy is defined and the integrity in the activities of the institution and the relevant sector of the economy of the country is set.

Pride and profit: language, identity and tourism in Russia

ABSTRACT This article argues that multilingual locales with minority, national and global languages at hand can become a site where meaning of social experience is negotiated and contested, and the role of minority languages can be reconceptualized. More specifically, using the example of Tatar, a minority language in Russia, as well as the framework grounded in the tropes of ‘pride’ and ‘profit, the study reveals that participants’ symbolic connections to language include social categories, sense of belonging, and camaraderie, as well as the indication of symbolic profit in the form of authentic goods and services that generate economic benefits. Despite the lingering nation-state ideologies of language purification and standardization and their role in construction of the “self” and the “other,” the study demonstrates that tourism may serve as a method of authentic differentiation by packaging language-enhanced features to enrich experiences for tourists, and to secure economic profit, create a stronger sense of pride, identity, and empowerment for producers of the language.

Theorising migration politics: do political regimes matter?

Research on the politics of migration has so far largely produced context-bound analyses that tie specific migration policies to specific political regimes. This introduction charts existing migration research, including its gaps and biases, and introduces new avenues for empirically grounded theory-building. We draw upon the rich collection of empirical cases assembled in this volume to demonstrate that political regimes – be they liberal or illiberal, democratic or authoritarian – do not strictly and mechanically determine migration politics. Instead, we argue that migration politics and political regimes co-produce each other. Studies of migration politics in Argentina, Tunisia, Japan and South Korea, the United States and Australia, the Philippines, China, and Saudi Arabia showcase the imbrication of migration politics with broader dynamics of regime change, state formation and nation-state ideology, and dissect the role of civil society, legal actors, employers, and international norms across democratic and un-democratic contexts. They reveal unexpected similarities in migration policies in different political regimes at a time when states across the globe are increasingly adopting illiberal practices and policies. Ultimately, we suggest that, beyond contextual variations, migration politics offers an ideal vantage point for understanding state transformations and political changes around the world.

An Analysis of the Recently Issued Language Policy in IOK: Process, Causes and Influences

The language policy in IOK (Indian occupied Kashmir, i.e. Jammu and Kashmir) has been changed recently and a new “five official languages” policy has been established. This paper untangles the three steps of the language policy change: modifying the Constitution, enacting The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 and passing The Jammu and Kashmir Official Languages Act, 2020 and reveals the root causes of the change by collecting data from the media and historical documents. Results show that the language policy change in this area has been affected by many factors such as Hindu Chauvinism, the nation-state ideology, local identity, and issues of minorities’ language right. This paper then makes a further analysis of the possible influences of the new policy: exacerbating religious disputes, aggravating separatism, and undermining social justice and complicating the regional situation. The implication can be made from the language policy change in IOK is that language policy should be made based on the language-as-resource orientation and a comprehensive analysis of the specific historical and social conditions of a country or an area so that it can promote social harmony.

Language dominance and shift among Kalhuri Kurdish speakers in the multilingual context of Iran

AbstractThe current language policy and planning of many countries still adhere to the nation-state ideology of “one nation equals one official language”. This issue is likely to cause the linguistic minority groups to devalue or even abandon their own mother tongue and identify with the official language of the country. A case in point is Iran where Persian is the only official language and other languages are merely tolerated, but not promoted. The principal aim of this study is to find factors that lead Kalhuri Kurdish people to choose to speak with their children in Persian at the risk of losing their native language, a phenomenon which may happen as a result of linguistic/language suicide or because of linguicide. Therefore, a researcher-designed and validated questionnaire was administered to 384 Kalhuri Kurdish parents. The results indicated that the language policy and planning in Iran has made Kalhuri parents use Persian in interactions with their children instead of using their own vernacular, Kalhuri. The sociolinguistic implications of the study are discussed in the light of the research findings.

The Romance-Speaking Balkans: Language and the Politics of Identity

The Romance-Speaking Balkans: Language and the Politics of Identity

Exclusionary practices of English language teaching departments in Turkey: radical pedagogy, British colonialism and neoliberalism

This study problematizes English language teaching departments (ELT) in Turkey that have ignored the importance of radical pedagogy, the history of British colonialism and neoliberalism in the curriculum because Orientalist, Occidentalist and neoliberal discourses have led to the exclusion of critical discourses in ELT in Turkey. Therefore, the possible reasons for the absence of some curricular topics present a complicated structural problem. Exclusionary practices of ELT departments can be ascribed to Turkey’s political regimes that have reinforced both nation-state ideology and Anglo-American neoliberal policies. The English language has also been reified as a gateway to westernization and globalization under the feeling of urgency and fear of falling behind. Therefore, the spread of English has been allowed in almost all spheres of life even if neglecting local, national and international languages has violated linguistic human rights. This paper proposes that the dominance of English can be deconstructed by including radical pedagogy and the history of British colonialism and neoliberalism into the curriculum and by prioritizing linguistic human rights to allow more space for the survival of other languages.

Neither Traitor nor Nationalist – Zheng Xiaoxu’s Intellectual Trajectory

ABSTRACT Known for his loyalism towards the Qing dynasty after its collapse, Zheng Xiaoxu remains a controversial figure in modern Chinese intellectual history. A former protégé of Zhang Zhidong, he openly declared the Republic of China as his enemy state and served Manchukuo – Japan’s puppet state in northeastern China – as prime minister. Rather than resorting to the typical conception of Zheng as a ‘traitor of the Han’ (hanjian), this article examines Zheng’s political and intellectual journey from the late Qing period until his death in Xinjing (Changchun) – the capital of Manchukuo – through an in-depth reading of his diary. It shows that Zheng’s political standpoint remained consistent throughout his life. Insisting upon the open-door policy and the Kingly Way (wangdao), he believed that cooperation with Japan to establish Manchukuo was the only way to save Asia, including the Han Chinese. He further argued that whilst he was aware of his racial origin, nationalist and nation-state ideology that built upon ethnicity were simply not his creed.

A comparative analysis of cultural representations in collegiate world language textbooks (Arabic, French, and German)

In world language learning contexts, where learners may have infrequent contact with the target language speakers, learners are primarily exposed to these speakers and their cultures through textbooks. Therefore, the representation of the target language communities and their cultures in textbooks greatly influences language learners’ understanding of these communities. Drawing upon the concepts of imagined communities and identities (Kanno & Norton, 2003) and conducting a multimodal critical discourse analysis (Machin & Mayr, 2012), we analyzed three introductory level world language textbooks (Arabic, French, and German) used at a U.S. university. We examined how the texts imagine language learners and target language communities. Our findings indicate that nation-state ideologies and tourism discourse prevail in how the textbooks imagine language learners and communities, and they fail to represent the complex identities and cultures of language users and learners. We found that these textbooks construct language learners as uncritical and apolitical, and represent language communities as homogeneous and essentialized in which minoritized groups are tokenized or erased. This study contributes to the scholarship in textbook analysis with the critical examination of three collegiate world language textbooks through a comparative analysis of the similarities and differences amongst these textbooks. Based on the findings, our paper presents implications for teaching, including class activities that the authors use to counter the problematic discursive construction in these textbooks.

Erken Cumhuriyet Dönemi Tiyatro Oyunlarında Köken ve Medeniyet Miti

In this article, traces of the myth of origin and civilization, which became the sacred narratives of the new regime at the time of the proclamation of the Republic, will be revealed through Early Republican Era theatre plays. The article will emphasize the contribution that the myth of origin and civilization made to the process of construction of Turkish identity, as well as the effective part that it played throughout the nation-state building process by its creation of collective identity and historiography as well as its effect on the field of art. Furthermore, this paper will use examples from theatre plays of the period to analyze the reflections of the process of nation-building upon the theatre plays of the era, and to examine the relationship between the state and the theatre as well as the effects of the myth of origin and civilization (a necessity for the nation-state ideology) on the playwrights of that time. In addition, the way in which political myths become a necessity for playwrights will also be analyzed. 

Ulus-Devlet Öğretileri üzerinden Türk Öğrencilerin Suriyeli Göçmenler Hakkındaki Düşünceleri Üzerine Eleştirel bir Tartışma

This study is mainly based on chats with secondary and high school students. The implicit points in their daily complaints about their Syrian peers in neighborhoods were turned into a problematic for a qualitative survey. The students living in the regions in which generally Syrian immigrants are located account for the research group. The results were based on the analysis of the students’ letters they wrote to their Syrian peers in the spring of 2018: 150 letters saluting the young Syrians with “Dear my Syrian Friend” are exposed to a discourse analysis. The theoretical structure drawing classical and contemporary Marxist approaches together argues that the relationship between nationstate ideology and education creates a kind of political socialization in response to the ideal value of “fully-democratic education”. The salutations and nationalist statements that the students wrote reveal that not any mechanism of acceptance works. The students accuse the Syrians, particularly young men, of being unfaithful to their own country foremost, and of weakening the economy of the country where they took refuge by being a cheap labor force, behaving inappropriately towards the traditional and moral values, becoming a threat to Turkish language, having high fertility, taking over common spaces and behaving loosely.

TURKEY’S REFUGEE POLICY UNDER THE SHADOW OF THE NEO-OTTOMANISM: A SOURCE OF SILENT CONFLICT?

Along with Turkey’s changing refugee policy from the Eurocentric, secular nation-state ideology to the neo-Ottomanist one on the state level, there also exist main handicaps on the micro power level concerning the successful coordination of the refugee issue with full respect of the human rights. Economic, cultural and especially political factors play a role in the relationship between Syrians and Turkish residents. Fragmentation within the Syrian community living in Turkey is also evident. On the other hand, different from the state policy, Turkish people implicitly show their reluctance towards this migration wave without creating a social turmoil. In this line, it is suggested here that Neo-Ottomanism, as a rising trend, helps a considerable majority of the society to take a moderate stance towards the immigration flux.

Multilingualism and Social Inclusion

This is a thematic issue on the relation between multilingualism and social inclusion. Due to globalization, Europeanization, supranational and transnational regulations linguistic diversity and multilingualism are on the rise. Migration and old and new forms of mobility play an important role in these processes. As a consequence, English as the only global language is spreading around the world, including Europe and the European Union. Social and linguistic inclusion was accounted for in the pre-globalization age by the nation-state ideology implementing the ‘one nation-one people-one language’ doctrine into practice. This lead to forced linguistic assimilation and the elimination of cultural and linguistic heritage. Now, in the present age of globalization, linguistic diversity at the national state level has been recognized and multilingual states have been developing where all types of languages can be used in governance and daily life protected by a legal framework. This does not mean that there is full equality of languages. This carries over to the fair and just social inclusion of the speakers of these weaker, dominated languages as well. There is always a power question related to multilingualism. The ten case studies in this thematic issue elaborate on the relation between multilingualism and social inclusion. The articles in this issue refer to this topic in connection with different spaces, including the city, the island, and the globe; in connection with different groups, like Roma in the former Soviet-Union and ethnic Albanians in Macedonia; in connection with migration and mobility of Nordic pensioners to the south of Europe, and language education in Scotland; and finally in connection with bilingual education in Austria and Estonia as examples of successful practices including multilingualism under one and the same school roof.

Nationalist Transformations: Music, Ritual, and the Work of Memory in Cambodia and Thailand

Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Cambodia and its diaspora since 2004, this article explores tensions that arise when individuals and institutions impose nation-state ideologies on music and ritual that predate the nation-state concept and transcend official state boundaries. In numerous contexts, musicians and dancers in Cambodia and Thailand perform offerings and blessings that honor their teachers and initiate artistic lineages. Due to broad influence from India and centuries of conflict and borrowing, these rituals—though not necessarily their musical content—have proliferated in these two countries. I describe these nearly identical rituals—called thvāy grū in Khmer and wai khruu in Thai—and their contexts before outlining the historical narratives that have led to their attainment of political and nationalist significance. Today, individuals and institutions in both nations claim that these rituals effect a continuity that reflects each country’s unique national identity. Using Paul Ricoeur’s essay on “Memory and Forgetting,” I argue that these rituals fulfill a “duty to remember” that, in Cambodia’s case, counteracts a colonial narrative of decline. However, this remembering works against an equally essential task, what Ricoeur calls “the duty to forget.” I argue that the prioritizing of memory over forgetting, enacted by the thvāy grū and wai khruu, contributes to the continuing animosity and violence between Cambodia and Thailand. In making this argument, I attempt to show how ethnomusicology can move beyond consideration of how ritual reflects social structures to explore music and ritual’s role in inculcating political thought.

India’s Northeast and the Enigma of the Nation-state

One of the major challenges before the “mainstream Indian nationalists” at the dawn of India’s independence was the political integration of the “Northeast” with India envisaged as a nation-state. Some parts of the colonial frontier, such as the Naga Hills, had already witnessed a parallel nationalist discourse with the imagination of sovereignty before India’s independence. With independence, the Indian nation-state project was made difficult by the geopolitical significance of the region, shaped by the experience of the partition, which separated India and Pakistan (East and West), creating a milieu of not-so-favorable international politics. The postcolonial history of the troubled periphery has been marked by an imposed notion of homogeneity and a binary of the nation-state (or the Indian mainstream) and the Northeast. Political theorists have long refuted the notion of national homogeneity. Nevertheless, the dichotomy between the plains and the valley constructed by the colonial logic was and is reinforced by the nation-state ideology, turning the periphery into a cauldron of conflict. This article engages critically with the history of conflict witnessed in the region since independence, against the backdrop of colonial interventions and the integrationist logic of the nation-state. This article argues that the political and developmental strategies, adopted by the Indian state to integrate the region, have led to the perpetuation of conflict in different forms.

LANGUAGE IDEOLOGIES AND THE POLITICS OF LANGUAGE IN POST-COLONIAL AFRICA

Academic and political discourse on language policies and nation-building in post-colonial Africa is highly ideologised. Facing two extreme ideological positions, namely what one might call ‘19th century European nation state-ideology’ vs ‘20th/21st century African Renaissance-ideology’, language planners and decision makers in Africa are caught between a rock and a hard place. The paper begins by sketching out salient differences between the two sets of ideological positions: (1) Ideologies based on European historical-cultural experience which gave rise to a particular ‘Western’ mind-set; this mind-set is built on convictions regarding European exceptionalism and on notions linked to linguistically and culturally homogenous nations. (2) Ideologies informed by anti-colonialist struggle and anti-imperialist philosophy which, further, rest on the recognition of sociolinguistic realities in Africa, the latter being characterised by extreme ethnolinguistic plurality and diversity. While the first set continues to have considerable impact on academic and political discourse in terms of prevailing Eurocentric perspective and attitudes infested by Orientalism, the second is rooted in idealistic positions relating to Universal Human Linguistic Rights and notions of African Identity and Personality. Such strategies have been and still are widely discussed in academic and political circles across Africa. A third position is that of bridging this ideological gap by advocating multilingual policies which would combine indigenous languages of local and regional relevance with imported languages of global reach towards the strategic goal of mother tongue-based multilingualism (MTBML). The ongoing highly controversial debate, however, tends to overlook the fact that MTBML is exactly the ‘language(s)-in-education policy’ that most so-called developed countries, including the former colonial powers of Europe, have long since installed to best serve their own political interests and economic progress.