This article introduces a special issue of Contention Journal addressing various contemporary mobilizations of civil society in response to the war in Syria and the migration of refugees into Europe. With contributions from Turkey, Israel, Lebanon, Canada, the Czech Republic and Germany, the cases represent a breadth of multidisciplinary approaches and a variety of stylistic standpoints, from statistical media analysis to troubled personal reflections of engaged activist academics. The subject matter ranges from political mobilization against authoritarianism and austerity, transnational philanthropy, the emergence of local grassroots voluntary aid to right-wing populist nationalism. Though diverse, a coherent narrative is seen to converge around the refugee crisis as it unfolds in Europe; one of radical polarization within civil societies and starkly conflicting imaginaries of social futures that claim to preclude the legitimacy of other possibilities. At the same time alliances are being generated beyond borders in an attempt to bolster ideological capacity, authority, and force. This is not a clash of civilizations but the rubber band ball of transnational tension, a strained, chaotic and overlapping global contestation. At stake is the understanding of what a civil society should be.
Sight and Touch between East and West
Ethics, Ethnography and Social Theory
Liene Ozolina
2014 ). The East European version of nationalism – labelled ‘ethnonationalism’ – is feared as uncivilised and dangerous in comparison to the Western ‘civic nationalism’, even as the former is now becoming mainstream in the old democracies across the
In Anthropological Journal of European Cultures
- Published (Print):
- 01 Sep 2020
- Article Type:
- Review Article
- Pages:
- 102–107
Liberation Autochthony
Namibian Veteran Politics and African Citizenship Claims
Lalli Metsola
citizenship. I will argue Namibian ex-combatant and veteran politics exemplify a particular kind of exclusionary nationalism that is comparable with autochthonous and ethnonationalist politics of citizenship that tend to operate through “cultural” designators
Ana Miškovska Kajevska
thorough examination of the terms “antinationalist” and “nationalist” is visible throughout the whole book. I warned “against the creation of simplified dichotomies” 7 and I reminded “scholars to always ask what one's alleged nationalism or antinationalism
The East Side Story of Gender and Feminism
The Hungarian and Czech Cases
Gabriela Dudeková Kováčová
of interwar female activism and its ideas. She opens the question of why today there is still a “long-lasting connection between extreme nationalism, perceived national interest, and illiberal gender values” (14). In her opinion, “this connection
Research Methodology in Kurdish Studies
Interactions between Fieldwork, Epistemology and Theory
Mehmet Orhan
religion, geography and power relations with the Ottoman Empire determined how they reacted to nationalism and modernist trends. While the Kurds sparked both the political and scientific interest of scholars, diplomats and travelers, the collective national
In Anthropology of the Middle East
- Published (Print):
- 01 Mar 2020
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 1–19
Women and War in the Balkans
A Comparative Review Essay
Maria Bucur
metaphor of the double helix seems to hold here. 2 Notes 1 Maria Bucur, “Between Liberal and Republican Citizenship: Feminism and Nationalism in Romania, 1859–1918,” Aspasia 1 (2007): 84–103; Maria Bucur and Mihaela Miroiu, eds., Patriarhat şi
“Amongst Affectionate Female Friends”
Same-Sex Intimacy in Nineteenth-Century Polish Correspondence
Natalie Cornett
independent women in an age of emerging nationalism that put the nation above all else, including class and gender. Żmichowska and her Enthusiasts wrote incessantly to each other, and some 1,200 or so of their letters have been published thus far while even
Ana Kolarić
(dedicated to political and social issues, literature, literary criticism, etc.), editorials, illustrations, notes, correspondence, and advertisements, as well as topics including education, morality, gender stereotypes, feminism and emancipation, nationalism
Heidi Hakkarainen
prime example of this. In 1848, in the material provided by the Austrian National Library, humanism began to be discussed in relation to other isms, such as socialism, liberalism, and nationalism, which also spread with the revolutions as the German
In Contributions to the History of Concepts
- Published (Print):
- 01 Jun 2020
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 22–46