National Community (national + community)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


A Global, Community Building Language?

INTERNATIONAL STUDIES PERSPECTIVES, Issue 2 2008
Amitai Etzioni
Although long championed, a global language has not come to fruition despite considerable efforts. Many fear that such a language would undermine the particularistic, identity-constituting primary languages of local and national communities. These concerns can be addressed at least in part by utilizing a two-tiered approach in which efforts to protect primary languages are intensified at the same time that a global language is adopted as an additional language and not as a substitutive one. Although the U.N. or some other such global organization could, theoretically, choose a language to serve as the global language, English is already (and increasingly) occupying this position as a result of the colonial period and post-colonial developments. In this respect, English is compared to the development of the railroad system in the United States, which although introduced at considerable human costs by overpowering corporations, later became an integral part of the economy and society. Whether English should be adopted as a second language, or as a third or fourth one, is heavily influenced by the level of difficulty involved,the labor to fluency ratio,in acquiring a new language. [source]


The French Riots: Questioning Spaces of Surveillance and Sovereignty

INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, Issue 2 2006
Susan Ossman
ABSTRACT This paper examines the riots in France in late 2005 in terms of how they lead to a reconceptualization of the spaces of danger, culture, territory, and sovereignty. It traces a brief history of danger zones and immigration, noting how these two terms have increasingly overlapped. We analyse key discursive formations - legal, political, social scientific, and media - whose explanation for the emergence of the "immigrant" delinquent is linked to what is identified as a culture of poverty. They provide a sustained examination of recent legal reforms of juvenile law as well as judicial practices within the juvenile justice system to show the systematic exclusionary practices of what is claimed to be a colour blind republican system. They reveal a consensus across the political spectrum and among police, prosecutors, investigating magistrates, and new security experts on the need to privilege accountability, restitution, and retribution in the treatment of juvenile offenders. We present evidence from interviews and ethnographic observation among youths of all backgrounds. Ironically, while the children of immigrants seek to claim a voice in the national community, their peers from more privileged social milieu express increasing distance from national concerns, seeking to lead lives as Europeans or global citizens. We end by arguing that this needs to be taken into account in any analysis of frustrated and disenfranchised suburban youths. A transnational or supra-national sociology that accounts for the itineraries of immigrants of all kinds must be developed. LES ÉMEUTES EN FRANCE: QU'EN EST-IL DES ESPACES DE SURVEILLANCE ET DE LA SOUVERAINETÉ? Les émeutes qui ont éclaté en France fin 2005 conduisent à une reconceptualisation des notions de danger, de culture, de territoire et de souveraineté. Cet article, qui présente un bref historique des zones de danger et de l'immigration, montre combien ces deux concepts ont tendance à se rejoindre. Nous analysons les principales formations discursives - juridique, politique, sociale, scientifique et médiatique - qui expliquent l'émergence du délinquant « immigré » en l'associant à ce qui est décrit comme une culture de la pauvreté. Elles nous offrent un examen soutenu des réformes récentes du droit des mineurs et des pratiques judiciaires au sein du système de justice des mineurs, et montrent les pratiques d'exclusion systématiques d'un système républicain prétendant ignorer les préjugés raciaux. Elles montrent que, d'un bout à l'autre de l'échiquier politique, dans la police, chez les procureurs, les juges d'instruction et les nouveaux spécialistes de la sécurité, il existe un consensus sur la nécessité de privilégier l'obligation de rendre des comptes, la réparation et le châtiment dans le traitement des mineurs délinquants. Nous étayons cet argument à partir d'entretiens et d'observations ethnographiques de jeunes de tous les milieux. De façon assez ironique, alors que les enfants d'immigrés veulent avoir leur mot à dire au sein de la communauté nationale, les enfants de milieux plus privilégiés se disent de moins en moins concernés par les préoccupations nationales et cherchent à mener une vie d'Européen ou de citoyen du monde. En conclusion, nous avançons que cette situation doit être prise en compte dans toute analyse des jeunes des banlieues frustrés et privés de droits. Une sociologie transnationale ou supranationale qui rendrait compte des itinéraires des immigrés, tous milieux sociaux confondus, serait une bonne chose. LAS REVUELTAS FRANCESAS: CUESTIONAMIENTO DE LOS ESPACIOS DE VIGILANCIA Y SOBERANÍA En este artículo se examinan las revueltas de Francia a finales de 2005 en la medida en que conducen a una reconceptualización de los espacios de peligro, cultura, territorio y soberanía. Se traza una breve historia de las zonas de peligro y de la inmigración, señalando a la atención cómo estos dos conceptos han ido solapándose crecientemente. Se analizan formaciones discursivas clave -jurídicas, políticas, propias de las ciencias sociales y mediáticas - cuyas explicaciones de la aparición del delincuente "inmigrante" se vinculan con lo que se ha descrito como una cultura de la pobreza. Se ofrece un examen sostenido de las recientes reformas jurídicas de las leyes sobre los menores, así como de las prácticas judiciales dentro del sistema de justicia de menores para mostrar las prácticas de exclusión sistemática de lo que se considera que es un sistema republicano daltónico. Se revela un consenso entre los políticos y entre la policía, los fiscales, los jueces de instrucción y los nuevos expertos en seguridad sobre la necesidad de dar prelación a la asunción de responsabilidades, la restitución y la retribución en el tratamiento de los menores delincuentes. Se presentan pruebas extraídas de entrevistas y de la observación etnográfica de los jóvenes de todos los ambientes. Irónicamente, mientras los hijos de inmigrantes tienden a reclamar una voz en la comunidad nacional, sus iguales de medios sociales más privilegiados expresan un creciente distanciamiento de las preocupaciones nacionales y prefieren vivir como europeos o ciudadanos del mundo. Se termina arguyendo que es preciso tener en cuenta este factor en cualquier análisis de los jóvenes frustrados y privados de voto que viven en los barrios periféricos. Será preciso desarrollar una sociología transnacional o supranacional que explique los itinerarios de todo tipo de inmigrantes. [source]


,Everybody's entitled to their own opinion': ideological dilemmas of liberal individualism and active citizenship,

JOURNAL OF COMMUNITY & APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 2 2007
Susan Condor
Abstract Conversational interview accounts were used to explore everyday understandings of political participation on the part of young white adults in England. Analysis focussed on dilemmatic tensions within respondents' accounts between values of active citizenship and norms of liberal individualism. Respondents could represent community membership as engendering rights to political participation, whilst also arguing that identification with local or national community militates against the formulation of genuine personal attitudes and rational political judgement. Respondents could represent political participation as a civic responsibility, whilst also casting political campaigning as an illegitimate attempt to impose personal opinions on to others. Formal citizenship education did not appear to promote norms of political engagement but rather lent substance to the argument that political decision-making should be based on the rational application of technical knowledge rather than on public opinion or moral principle. In conclusion we question whether everyday understandings of responsible citizenship necessarily entail injunctions to political action. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Minorities and the National Ethos

POLITICS, Issue 2 2009
Amitai Etzioni
This essay focuses on the question of how to curb the tension between the rights of members of minorities and the particularistic values of the national community. The essay first examines a radical multicultural treatment of this issue and shows it to be unattainable and inadvisable. The essay then proposes an alternative treatment, Diversity Within Unity, a societal design that combines the nurturing communities of minorities and of the majority and is more conducive to human flourishing. Diversity Within Unity assumes that all citizens will embrace a core of values while being welcomed to follow their own subcultures on other matters. [source]


The "Thin Dividing Line": Prime Ministers and the Problem of Australian Nationalism, 1972,1996

AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF POLITICS AND HISTORY, Issue 4 2002
James Curran
This paper is concerned with the way in which Australian prime ministers gave expression to an idea of "national community" in the post,1972 era. With the declining relevance of the British connection, the departure of "great and powerful" friends from the region, the imperative of engagement with Asia and the emerging concept of Australia as a "multicultural" society, one of the central challenges for these leaders has been whether or not they could offer an alternative myth of community which would preserve social cohesion in the new times. This raises an important historical question concerning Australian political culture at this time , what happened to the need for nationalism? By examining the speeches of Prime Ministers Whitlam, Fraser, Hawke and Keating, it can be seen that far from asserting an old,style, exclusive Australian nationalism, in most cases these leaders expressed great caution and hesitation towards the idea of nationalism itself. [source]