scholarly journals To Build a Notion: US State Department Nation Building Expertise and Postwar Settlements in 20th Century East Central Europe

2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 72-89
Author(s):  
Liliana Riga ◽  
James Kennedy
Keyword(s):  
Nation Building ◽  
State Department ◽  
Historical Sociology ◽  
The State ◽  
Freedom Of Information ◽  
East Central Europe ◽  
Comparative Historical Sociology ◽  
Knowledge Practices ◽  
Collection Practices ◽  
A Site

This article offers a contribution to the sociology of social science knowledge practices and expertise through the empirical lens of US nation building policies. Drawing on archival materials, including the State Department's Freedom of Information Act documents, and interviews with key policymakers we offer a comparative historical sociology of the US State Department as a site of nation building knowledge and expertise. In examining the evolving character of nation building expertise in three key moments across the twentieth century, we find that as nation building expertise and its attendant knowledge practices were redefined and institutionally relocated, the essential character of the expertise and data collection practices that were valorized shifted from social scientism in the 1910s to geopolitical empiricism in the 1940s to liberal legalism in the 1990s. This changing character of nation building knowledge practices at the State Department had an effect on the substance of US nation building policy.

REMEMBERING ZINGAL: STATE, CITIZENS, AND FORESTS IN TURKEY

2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 493-511
Author(s):  
Hande Özkan
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
The State ◽  
Nuclear Industry ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
A Site

AbstractThis article analyzes Turkish forestry as a site of nation building. To understand the ways in which forestry shaped ideas of the state and citizenship, I explore the history and memories of the forestry enterprise, Zingal, from the early 20th century to the present. I argue that the conflicting narratives around Zingal in archives and memory are symptoms of the contradictions inherent to nationalist modernity. I also reveal the continuation of similar contradictions in the 21st century by showing how citizens’ discourse of resentment over deindustrialization can coexist with their objection to a potential nuclear industry.

The State Department Speaks

1944 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 124-136
Author(s):  
Dexter Perkins
Keyword(s):  
State Department ◽  
The State

scholarly journals Remittance Houses and Transnational Citizenship: Mapping Eritrea’s Diaspora–State Relationships

2021 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-80
Author(s):  
Milena Belloni
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Housing Projects ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
Transnational Citizenship ◽  
A Site

Can diaspora houses be used as a site to explore transnational citizenship? Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Eritrea, this article shows that different kinds of remittance houses reify different categories of transnational citizens with various sets of rights and duties. Drawing on studies on state–diaspora relations and remittance houses, I illustrate the key role that housing plays in the Eritrean state’s efforts to build a loyal diaspora. By looking at housing projects (state-led and individual) over the last thirty years, the article shows how different groups of emigrants – based on their relationship to the state of origin as well as their status in their country of residence – have been more or less able to realise their aspirations to build a house back home. By doing this, I show the importance of considering remittance houses as not only transnational cultural artefacts but also political claims to membership.

“Forward to David the Builder!” Georgia's (re)turn to language-centered nationalism

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 522-542 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christofer Berglund
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
The State ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
The Past ◽  
Building Project ◽  
The Rose ◽  
State Language

After the Rose Revolution, President Saakashvili tried to move away from the exclusionary nationalism of the past, which had poisoned relations between Georgians and their Armenian and Azerbaijani compatriots. His government instead sought to foster an inclusionary nationalism, wherein belonging was contingent upon speaking the state language and all Georgian speakers, irrespective of origin, were to be equals. This article examines this nation-building project from a top-down and bottom-up lens. I first argue that state officials took rigorous steps to signal that Georgian-speaking minorities were part of the national fabric, but failed to abolish religious and historical barriers to their inclusion. I next utilize a large-scale, matched-guise experiment (n= 792) to explore if adolescent Georgians ostracize Georgian-speaking minorities or embrace them as their peers. I find that the upcoming generation of Georgians harbor attitudes in line with Saakashvili's language-centered nationalism, and that current Georgian nationalism therefore is more inclusionary than previous research, or Georgia's tumultuous past, would lead us to believe.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document