英国民族国家形成过程中的宗教因素

民族国家是一种以民族为载体,以人文传统为纽带而形成的、享有独立主权的政治共同体,它包括明确的疆界、共同的文化传统、独立行使的最高司法权,以及不可剥夺的公民权几个基本要素。英国民族国家从中世纪后期开始起步,当时王权倚重于市民阶级的支持,在建立新君主制的基础上冲破了教权至上的普世主义的束缚,摆脱了教皇和罗马教廷的控制。在17世纪的革命中,英国的清教徒秉持信仰自由的宗教信念,披着宗教外衣反抗斯图亚特的专制统治。在英国民族国家形成的过程中,从约翰.威克里夫发动的自下而上的宗教改革,到都铎王朝推动的自上而下的宗教改革,再到17世纪的"清教革命"和"光荣革命",宗教因素长期左右着英国的政治生活。     

盎格鲁—撒克逊时期英格兰的世俗贵族等级

在盎格鲁—撒克逊时期英格兰世俗贵族等级中,厄德曼、格塞特和塞恩是重要的组成部分。早期厄德曼的内涵比较宽泛,表示为高级军事首领,而后才开始拥有治郡的职能。9世纪末,厄德曼的权力地位不断提升,领有若干郡,10世纪末走向衰落,渐为伯爵所取代。格塞特是盎格鲁—撒克逊早期存在的普通贵族。伴随着塞恩影响力的提升,塞恩逐渐占据了先前格塞特的位置。在盎格鲁—撒克逊晚期,贵族等级中的领主权获得较大发展,在社会中发挥着重要的影响,贵族等级关系中开始出现封建制的萌芽。     

传统民族主义与近代民族主义的历史界标

关于中国的“近代民族主义”可以有不同层面的认识,据此,郑师渠先生认为,民族主义是以共同文化为背景,要求在政治与文化合一的基础上实现民族认同与发展的一种心理状态与行为取向。其信仰的核心是本民族的优越性及缘此而生的忠诚与挚爱。但近代以来的民族主义,首先是一种政治学     

民族主义与民族国家构建析论

民族主义是现代性的政治共同体意识与行动,民族主义塑造出了民族。民族主义强调他者意识,强调民族的政治权利,也强调民族内部的平等。民族主义推动了民族国家的创建。民族国家被证明优于之前的政权组织模式,因此民族主义又成为现代国家合法性的来源。民族国家创建之后,民族主义依然存在,还会以爱国主义、分离主义等形式表现出来。对那些只具备了民族国家外表而没有实现对民族国家的认同超越其他认同的国家而言,缔造或者深化民族主义在其未来的发展中显得尤为重要。     

维多利亚时期英国中产阶级休闲文化形成的宗教动因

维多利亚时期的中产阶级强调节欲寡欢、埋头苦干,这同清教徒勤奋工作、清心寡欲的伦理道德观一脉相承,毋庸置疑,在这样的道德、思想氛围中,休闲娱乐是好逸恶劳、没落懒散的诱因和表现,于是,古老的节日庆典和休闲活动逐渐销声匿迹了",快乐的英格兰"变成了"忧郁的英格兰"。但是,维多利亚时期绝非人们想象的那样,是沉闷无趣、枯燥乏味的时期,恰恰相反,它是塑造现代休闲的创造性时期,现代社会的许多关于假日、娱乐、休闲、运动的观念就是在这时生根发芽的,例如,足球成了英国的国球,海滨度假成了人们的惯例,新假日制度逐渐发展、完善……面对维多利亚时期新休闲世界的迅猛发展,人们不禁要问,严格遵守道德信条,满脑子工作伦理的维多利亚社会如何孕育了现代休闲?作为社会中坚力量的中产阶级在现代休闲的形成、发展中起了什么样的作用?信奉清教思想和功利主义的中产阶级如何为现代休闲的发展创造了有利的道德和思想氛围……让我们一起穿越时空的隧道,来揭开现代休闲文化形成的神秘面纱吧。     

"英国民族国家的形成"研究述评

英语中“国家”一词内涵含混、概念不周密,造成史学界长期以来对“英国民族国家”的概念争论不休。英国民族国家形成的重要基础是英格兰国家主权的建立,暴力与合法性原则奠定了英国民族国家的形成基础。尽管英国人拥有各自不同的血统身份,但是他们享有共同的公民身份。     

独特的地理环境与英国民族国家的形成

独特的地理环境对英国民族国家形成的影响不可低估。它使得英国在军事上由于不易被侵略而保持独立性、在宗教上与罗马教廷分庭抗礼,并因此而易于民族意识成长,从而促进其民族国家的诞生。     

对后现代视野中民族国家定位的思考

思考、讨论后现代视野中的民族国家定位问题是非常必要的。这是因为国际关系理论研究中的民族国家的定位问题与是否遵循“主权至上”原则密切相关,而全球化理论和“新中世纪主义”是后现代较有代表性的两大国际关系理论,且这两大理论在民族国家的角色定位问题上有着截然不同的观点。传统的国际关系理论家大都是     

欧洲民族主义的迷思

民族主义的歧义源于对民族主义的原产地属性缺乏分析.破解欧洲民族主义的迷思是深人剖析民族主义的必要工作."原生"民族主义是欧洲现代化的产物,欧洲通过现代民族国家的形式完成了自己的现代化任务,最终以欧盟的框架逐步化解各民族国家原有的矛盾,使得欧洲的民族冲突大致不必以战争的方式解决.因此,欧洲民族主义有可能是一种现代化的阶段性产物.     

对中国民族国家的认识

民族国家是现代国家的基本形态,具有领土、主权独立、垄断合法使用暴力、民族主义政治文化和统一的国内市场这五个特点。中国民族国家作为一个多民族国家,它的演变和发展有其自身的特点。本文从三个方面介绍了强化中国民族国家认同建设的途径和方法。     

The nation as the cradle of nationalism and patriotism

This paper argues against dismissing as ‘populist nationalism’ every positive view of one's nation and ignoring patriotism as its antithesis. The European nation exists in two senses: as a large ‘social group’, a community of real people, and as an abstract community of cultural values promoted by intellectual elites grounded in a humanities‐based education. The widespread prejudice that condemns every positive expression of one's relationship to the nation has proved counterproductive because it has prompted ever stronger spontaneous reactions in the form of primitive nationalistic egoism. This has weakened the commitment people feel towards their nation and the humanistic potential that the nation possesses as a cultural community of values. Consequently, anti‐national European intellectual elites bear some responsibility – along with those preaching neoliberal individualism – for the success of populist demagogues and the decline in patriotic values. Given the state of education today, a revival of humanist culture for national elites seems impossible, making the continued rise of primitive nationalism appear unstoppable.     

The national question: sociological reflections on nation and nationalism

The sociology of nation, national identity and nationalism has long been the subject of benign neglect. After examining the few positive contributions made by classical writers, we attempt to explain why the contribution of classical theory to the field is unreliable. In common with others we find that, for all that classical theory might treat the prominence of nation, national identity and nationalism as a passing phase, it in fact takes the existence of all three as givens to such an extent that they and their effects become invisible. But the sociology of nation and nationalism reached a turning point with the publication of Elie Kedourie's influential work in 1960. We explain the effect of this work on later writers, especially Ernest Gellner and Anthony Smith, and survey the work of these and other contributors to the field with an eye to their differences and similarities. We identify various stages in the development of the sociology of nation and nationalism, culminating in the most recent stage in which the significance of the subjective aspects of nationalism has received increased attention. We think there is room for a multiplicity of approaches to the subject and stress its central significance to sociology. We explain why nation, national identity and nationalism are certainly not in decline and suggest where the most fruitful lines of inquiry lie for future research.     

Warm nationalism: Mapping and imagining the Jordanian nation

In 2002, fourteen years after their withdrawal from the West Bank, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan revealed its new national program known as “Jordan First.” The Palace initiated this campaign as part of its shifting national discourse which now sought to actively unite Palestinian-Jordanians and East Jordanians living to the east of the Jordan River. This campaign, and particularly its common map-logo symbol, has evolved over the last fourteen years into a rather “banal” national discourse and symbol. However, Jordanian nationalism and the everyday symbols of the Jordan First campaign are not forgotten. Instead, for many Jordanians, the campaign is a reminder of “hot” geopolitics and palpable identity politics. Drawing from Michael Billig's theorizations of banal nationalism, I examine the relationship between banal and hot forms of nationalism in Jordan and argue that scholarly work on banality needs to focus attention on the connections between these categories. As such, I suggest that framing nationalism as something quite “warm” can in many instances more aptly capture the complexity of nationalism. Using a multi-method approach that includes analyses of national maps and map-logos of Jordan and in-depth interviews with Jordanians about their national identities, I highlight the connections of hot and banal nationalism. Through my analysis, I also show that a Jordanian national identity is multi-scalar, merging Arab supranationalism with Jordanian and Palestinian identities; and thus I also extend Billig's work to examine the multiple scales of nationalism.     

Defining the nation: Recent historiography and Irish nationalism

This article considers problems raised in recent historical scholarship concerning the definition of Irish national identity. Catholicism's growing importance in this identity is shown by comparing the eighteenth century United Irishmen, who combined secular and sectarian republicanism, the romantic nationalism of the nineteenth century Young Ireland movement, and the almost exclusively Catholic Irish Republican Army of this century. However, this Catholic, Gaelic, separatist identity excluded Protestant, non‐Gaelic and unionist Irish people. The author concludes by rejecting the notion of ‘an immemorial Irish nation, unfolding holistically through the centuries’, to stress discontinuities over time and the wider geographical setting of the British Isles.     

To justify a nation: Inter-war soviet nationalism

In 1972 an anonymous author wrote in the Soviet journal Veche: Why during the Fatherland War, when mortal danger hung over the country and when extraordinary strength of spirit was needed did “Soviet patriotism” prove insufficient, and it was necessary urgently to call to remembrance the Church, Aleksandr Nevskii, Peter I, and Suvorov that is princes, tsars and reactionary generals? Why were not the cult of the heroes of the civil war and the cult of the heroes of the class struggle not enough? ¹      

A new sociology of nationalism: The sociology of property and nation

In this essay, I will reflect upon what has been sociology's contribution to understanding the emergence and development of nationalism and how sociology can contribute to understanding nationalism's present and future through a property rights perspective. The essay will discuss, in particular, how historical sociological analysis of property rights and property rights regimes may be central to understanding nationalism past and future. After a general and brief discussion on the current, so‐called return of nationalism, the essay starts with discussion of some late enlightenment proto‐sociologists, suggesting that these writers actually analysed some crucial early dynamics of property and sovereignty which is central to understanding nationalism. The essay then moves on to suggests why a property rights focus might be a useful perspective to understanding nationalism in the 21st century.     

The shape of the nation: Visual production of nationalism through maps in Turkey

Nationalism, as a political discourse requiring a fundamental connection to a particular territory has constantly referred to maps as evidence of the eternal existence of the respective nation. In the case of modern Turkey, the national map has been a symptomatic signifier of a constant anxiety of territorial loss. Built around such anxiety, Turkish nationalism has been sensitive towards the borders defining national territory. This article analyzes the use of national maps as instruments for the cultural production of nationalism in Turkey throughout the last three decades. In the process, it is intended to differentiate between official maps produced under state authority and popular maps circulated in mass media.Throughout the 1980s, national maps included in school textbooks presented a country surrounded by hostile neighbors on all sides, in tune with the political climate of the Cold War. A crucial aspect of these official maps was the cartographic awareness they generated which, in the following decade, would become operational in the widespread use of the map as a nationalist sign. With the emergence of the Kurdish question in the 1990s, the national map became a key instrument in promoting nationalist sentiments with the invention of the flag-map logo as a favorite symbol. After the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Kurdish issue was projected on to Northern Iraq, and a new mode of cartographic representation was invented. “Appropriated maps” produced through the digital retouching of random maps found on the Internet visualized irredentist desires enlarging the country’s territory especially into Northern Iraq and invoking the Ottoman past. These maps, which consciously distorted geographical information, turned to historical references to sustain their cartographic validity.     

Market civilisation meets economic nationalism: the discourse of nation in Russia's modernisation

This article examines how the discourse of nation functions as a mechanism furthering the expansion of a neoliberal market civilisation in Russia. It contributes to discussions that have challenged the assumed mutual exclusivity of economic nationalism and neoliberalism. The article develops its argument in the context of the idea of contemporary international society as a market civilisation characterised by an adaptation to and adoption of neoliberal standards by states. The ongoing modernisation project in Russia illustrates the workings of such standards, as exemplified by the project for an innovation city in Skolkovo, in the Moscow metropolitan area. Building on an analysis of the Skolkovo debate, the article agues that there is no inherent contradiction between economic nationalism and neoliberalism. Rather, the nation is an important symbolic system that produces a cultural susceptibility to, and a discursive field for, the introduction of neoliberal standards of market civilisation in Russia.