Europe as a nation? Intellectuals and debate on Europe in the inter-war period

In 1933, a number of European intellectuals among whom Paul Valéry, Johan Huizinga, Julien Benda, Hermann von Keyserling, met in Madrid and in Paris to discuss the identity and history of Europe under the initiative of the International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation of the League of Nations. During the symposia, the participants try to define a common European narrative beyond national differences, and some of them evoke the idea of a European ‘homeland’ or ‘nation’, as already advocated in those years by Gaston Riou (Europe ma patrie, 1928) and Julien Benda (Discours à la nation européenne, 1933). Salvador de Madariaga for example calls for a ‘European nationalism’; Georges Duhamel presents ‘Mother Europe’ as an opposing force to growing patriotism; Julio Dantas hopes for a ‘européenité’ as opposed to the individual ‘national’ feelings. What is the reason for insisting so repeatedly on those concepts, when trying to overcome the dangers of nationalism? This paper analyses the different formulations adopted by the participants in the symposiums to describe their idea of a European ‘nation/homeland’, and tries to identify the specific aspects and historical implications of these concepts.     

Banal and everyday (inter)nationalism: French and Italian anarchist exiles in London, 1870s–1914

This article explores the anarchists' multilayered theoretical and practical engagement with the concepts and performance of nations, nationalism and national belonging, by applying the frameworks of banal nationalism (understood as an ideology) and everyday nationhood (the daily practices in which nation and nationhood are enacted) as analytical categories, to investigate the Italian and French anarchist exile groups in London between 1870 and 1914. Adopting these theoretical categories proves fruitful in probing the anarchists' perception and enactment of the idea of nation and national belonging, contributing to the literature on the relationship between pre-1914 socialist movements and (inter)nationalism and highlighting the specificity of anarchism therein. Using Fox and Miller-Idriss's four categories of everyday nationhood, we show that while the anarchists explicitly subverted the everyday performance of nationhood, redeploying it along internationalist lines, some forms of attachment to the national did endure and were in fact not always contradictory with anarchist internationalism. Looking at the exilic rituals of this intensely diasporic group thus complicates the simplistic but still pervasive view of a monolithic ideological internationalism and rejection of the national on the part of anarchists.     

Assessing Seismic Social Vulnerability in Urban Centers — the Case-Study of Nablus,Palestine

ABSTRACT

Seismic risk depends on three factors: seismic hazard, exposure of assets and communities, and vulnerability—physical and social. Whereas hazard and exposure are harder to act upon, vulnerability can be significantly reduced, if properly characterized for each asset, population, or society in general. This article assesses the social vulnerability and resilience level of the city of Nablus, an important urban center in Palestine. The region, considerably exposed to seismic hazard, features, from the in-built view point, very recent or very old historical buildings, without seismic design provisions. On the socio-economic side, the well-known political conflicts and societal challenges are key vulnerability factors. The method employed was based on Social Vulnerability Indicators (SoVI) extracted from census data, integrated with the more recent SCORECARD approach, which was applied to the urban community of Nablus. The goal was both to obtain an overall vulnerability score for the city and to characterize internal differences among its main areas, connected to its historical urban expansion and patterns. The results show that both physical and social vulnerability can be related and that the city development patterns can mirror the relative social vulnerability.     

Monitoring of Shipwreck Sites

A three-year research project, The Monitoring of Shipwreck Sites (MoSS), was initiated in 2001 as a partnership between several European countries: Finland (project leader), Germany, Holland, United Kingdom, Denmark and Sweden. The aim was to establish a suitable programme for the monitoring, safeguarding and visualizing of shipwreck sites, based on the investigation of three wrecks located in the Baltic and North Seas. Phase I involved the monitoring process, with the investigation of physical, chemical and biological factors that will help to identify potential threats to buried and exposed archaeological material. Phases II and III considered safeguarding and visualizing of shipwreck sites.
© 2005 The Nautical Archaeology Society