300065 Nation-Building and Ethnicity Formation in (Post)Colonial Societies (S) (SoSe 2012)

This Seminar combines historical as well as social science perspectives (social anthropology, sociology as well as political studies) in order to analyse national, religious and ethnic constellations in past and present. It examines the dynamics of nation-building and of national transformations paying special attention to regional and global as well as to sub-national contexts. In the forefront of this seminar are the dynamics of we-group definitions, boundary-dynamics (e.g. ethnic boundary-making), contestations and conflicts evolving in colonial as well as in postcolonial societies.
In the first block, pre-modern and early modern national accommodations will be in the forefront. Colonial and semi-colonial orders and emerging ‘empire-type’ formations will be examined, by paying special attention to diversity management, to power differentials and to inequality. In this vein, historical entanglements as well as political imaginations will be object of inquiry.
The second block addresses measures at modernisation in national societies resulting in governmental measures at assimilation. Endeavours aimed at national homogenisation will be discussed against the backdrop of policies secluding minority cultures and practices as well as measures encroaching upon local and regional life-worlds. Of interest are here, among other things, the conscious plans and measures at ‘moulding’ national societies, the rationales underlying these, and their effects.
The third block is geared at processes of ethnic (re)assertion that could be observed around the world for more than the last two decades. Ethnic mobilisation and ethnic conflict will be analysed on the basis of selected case-studies that the students can propose. An important dimension will lie in processual approaches highlighting the transformation of ethnic dynamics in the course of time, taking in particular shifting societal contexts, under which these evolve, under consideration.
The fourth block will concentrate upon the increasing globality and transnationalisation of national, religious and ethnic configurations. Of interest will be first the narratives and role models of ethnic and religious self-assertions and the channels of their transmission around the globe. Second, networks and organisation of ethnic and religious activism will be addressed. Finally we will seek to answer the question whether under the conditions of globality more uniformity in institutional arrangements geared at accommodating religious and ethnic diversity is coming about in (selected regions of) the world.

Requirements for participation, required level

Seminar: MA Sociology, BGHS
Students attending this Seminar must be ready to read English texts and to discuss them in English. They are expected to guide sessions and to write discussion summaries. Ideally, they should already be acquainted with theoretical approaches to ethnicity formation.

Bibliography

Anderson, Benedict R., Imagined Communities. Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. London: Verso Ed., 1985

Gellner. Ernest, Nations and Nationalism. Oxford: Blackwell, 1983

Kymlicka, Will, Multicultural Odysseys. Navigating the new international politics of diversity, Oxford u.a.: Oxford Univ. Press, 2007