Nation,Nationality, Nationalism and Civil Society

Abstract. This article vindicates the phenomenon of the nation and argues that civil society could not exist without it. The nation, although related to nationalism, is by no means identical with it. Extreme forms of nationalism are generally speaking iniquitous and in many cases severely damaging to the societies in which they occur. The same stricture does not apply to the nation.     

Women,Nation and Decolonisation in Papua New Guinea

This paper explores the question of women, decolonisation and nation-building. It argues that the inclusion of women within the nation of Papua New Guinea (PNG) was problematic partly because women had rarely experienced mainstream colonial rule — an experience that elsewhere provided a basis for participation in the post-colonial state. The paper also investigates how women were perceived and represented by male writers at independence. While the Pangu Pati attempted to include women in state-building, these efforts were not adequately supported. PNG's achievement of independence coincided with the globalisation of second-wave feminism, and this was to prove critical for PNG's female citizens in their efforts to be included in the new state, for PNG's membership in the United Nations provided an external push to raise women's participation in the nation. Nevertheless, the government's dependence on international organisations to push the women's agenda also hampered the development of an autonomous women's movement in the country. The paper argues that, for PNG's female citizens, colonisation, independence and decolonisation occurred simultaneously after 1975.     

现实大国与虚幻大国——抗战时期中国大国地位的二律背反

抗战期间中国国际地位的提高呈现类似二律背反的特点：一方面是中国国际地位的提高,中国在抗日战争和创建联合国等国际事务中发挥了重大作用;另一方面则是这种提高的有限性和表面性,在英、美等西方国家看来只不过是给了中国一个“礼节性”性的位置。这种现实大国与虚幻大国的矛盾与罗斯福的对华战略有直接关系,但主要还是取决于中国自身因素,即中国国力特别是经济力的不足,以及中国在事实上没有摆脱不平等条约体系的束缚。中国人民为中国国际地位的提高付出了巨大而艰辛的努力,但在很大程度上这种地位还是西方大国出于其战略利益的一种给予。只有完全排除这种“给予”因素,中国才能真正获得大国地位。     

Quebec and Canada at the Crossroads: A Nation within a Nation

Abstract. I argue first that there are many different concepts of the nation, and advocate a certain conceptual pluralism. I also argue that a population as a whole cannot constitute a nation unless it has a certain national consciousness. I then show that we must adopt a fundamental principle of tolerance. I also try to attend to the complexities of the relations between Quebec and Canada, and argue that different populations represent themselves as nations in different ways and with different concepts. 1 show that Quebec constitutes a nation within a nation. I then wonder what it would mean for Canadians to accept a Quebec nation. Finally, I try to explain why a very large proportion of the population of Quebec has increasingly been favourable to sovereignty, and favourable to making a partnership proposal to Canada.     

Infrastructure Nation: State Space,Hegemony, and Hydraulic Regionalism in Pakistan

Large‐scale infrastructures are often understood by state planners as fulfilling a national integrative function. This paper challenges the idea of infrastructures as national integrators by engaging theories of state/nation formation and infrastructure in a postcolonial context. Specifically, I put Lefebvre's characterization of the production of state space as a homogenization‐differentiation dialectic in conversation with Gramsci's understanding of hegemony, bureaucracy, and nationalism to analyze the controversy surrounding the giant Tarbela Dam in Pakistan in the 1960s. I use the Tarbela controversy as a case study to elaborate a theory of postcolonial nation‐formation through state‐led infrastructural projects. I argue that in a postcolonial context the failure to articulate a hegemonic nationalist ideology to accompany the production of large‐scale infrastructure results in a fragmentation of state space in some ways, even as state space is homogenized and integrated in other ways. The paper also offers a “hydraulic lens” on the politics of regionalism in Pakistan.