Nation-Building and Ethnic Mobilization
JEMIE Special Issue: August 2011
Still parading sovereignties? Nation-building and ethnic mobilization 20 years after the fall of the Soviet Union
This JEMIE special issue will look at the states formerly part of the Soviet Union and investigate the rhetoric invoking
national self-determination to justify the policies of postcommunist state. ‘Sovereignty’ is listed among the primary arguments to avoid
institutional reform despite the changes in the international opportunity structure, and independent expertise and advice are revoked when these are
perceived to hinder nation-building. How did this ‘parade of sovereignties’ reconfigure the relationship between the majority and the minority groups in the newly independent states? What has improved for groups claiming to constitute the majority in the states (re-)established in 1991? What has remained the same? What are the consequences for minorities? Did minority groups develop novel strategies to reassert their position vis-à-vis the new state institutions?
The contributions to this JEMIE issue will make clear what policymakers, minority activists, and academics think of ethnic and cultural differences today. Do they continue to see them in exclusive primordialist terms? Have they reduced the interethnic tensions in some regions, while rendering interethnic accord more difficult in others? Are ethnic groups still understood as quasi-biological kinship communities? We are looking for contributions that provide evidence of motifs that drive the groups across the FSU to continuously emphasise their ‘innate’ right for political, economic and moral sovereignty.
The submitted articles should be around 8000 words.
If interested, please send a preliminary abstract of 500 words to Timofey Agarin t.agarin(AT)ecmi.de by October 25.
Deadline for First Draft: 10 January 2011
For more information, please see here.
