Academic literature on the topic 'Nation building process'

<p>North West University is a creation of one of many mergers between previous universities in South Africa. The process is partly thought to integrate previous advantaged and disadvantaged universities, often also previous white or black dominated universities.</p><p>Even though the merger of NWU has been perceived as successful by many, there are still problems and tensions between the campuses. This report will describe the integration process at NWU as well as handle people’s perceptions towards it and towards the changes brought by the merger. The study has been done through thematic open interviews by staff, management and students at two of the three campuses in the merger of NWU, Mafikeng and Potchefstroom. In our report we have found six clusters which we examine; responses to the merger, within and outside group, differences, history, social status, and within and outside process.</p><p>All through the report the traces from history and Apartheid are still visible in people’s minds and in the clashes between the groups. History also affects the social status of the groups, affects that today create problems for integration.</p><p>The merger was opposed by both parts, however inevitable. People from Mafikeng were found more critical to the merger, highlighting the different power relations between the campuses and fear of being swallowed by Potchefstroom. Potchefstroom in general did not see many changes and white people seem to be more worried about their individual future.</p><p>Once united as one university there is still a low grade of integration or interaction between the campuses and between the groups within them. There have been initiatives to enhance integration at an organizational level, this has though not affected the social level in a significant way. One reason to the lack of integration might be the domination of one culture group at each campus, at Potchefstroom Afrikaans, and at Mafikeng SeTswana. This domination has shown to hinder integration since minority groups either feel left out or have to assimilate to fit in. Differences between the groups also create misunderstandings and clashes in the integration process. However we have seen that the persons within the merger process tend to be more positive than the people outside of it. This might be due to increased interaction, better information and a possibility to affect the outcome that makes the people involved more positive then the ones not involved.</p>

“Comemorar efemérides” não é apenas uma expressão legítima utilizada para fazer referência à celebração de uma festa nacional. Desde o final do século XIX, ao menos em língua portuguesa, os dois termos têm sido associados como sinônimos. A presente tese representa um esforço em compreender o desenvolvimento de dois conceitos – comemorações e efemérides – na longa duração. Os encontros e desvios entre as práticas associadas a um e a outro serão pontuados através da seleção de episódios intelectuais, seguidos pelo exame de debates que os tocavam na periferia de suas articulações. Na primeira parte, dedicada às comemorações, montei uma revisão desse bem conhecido tópico de estudos endereçada a uma única hipótese, a saber: o “ofício” comemorativo pode ser entendido como uma forma de comunicação e transmissão geracional de valores. Inspirado pelas fontes, argumento que os eventuais pontos de encontro entre o par de objetos propostos nesta tese são análogos às interrelações entre a “ordem do tempo” e a “ordem da natureza”, entre o tempo dos homens e o movimento das estrelas. Neste drama conceitual, se pudermos assim chamá-lo, faríamos perceber como a superação dos antigos modelos cosmológicos não se esquivou em guardar, para assumir termo caro a Pomian, uma lógica cronosófica. Se eu for bem sucedido, esse argumento deverá se expressar na segunda parte. As efemérides, como tábuas do movimento dos corpos celestes, vieram sofrer uma lenta transição rumo ao registro dos feitos humanos. Bebendo em fontes antigas e nas práticas de emulação, personagens bem conhecidos da primeira modernidade associaram o termo primeiro aos diários pessoais, depois ao jornalismo e, nos séculos seguintes, à história literária, religiosa e política. Na França, as éphémérides emergem da revolução já como um subgênero historiográfico. No Brasil da segunda metade do século XIX, listas de efemérides encontram lugar comum junto às comemorações dentro dos debates do IHGB. É no horizonte do projeto de nação que busco observar a união dos paralelos. Esse horizonte – como um ponto de chegada – vai aparecer ao final de cada secção da tese, observado a partir da celebração do quadricentenário da descoberta de Cabral.<br>“Comemorar efemérides” is a Portuguese phrase that despite its academic ring, is often used in the mainstream press. It translates roughly as 'the commemoration of an auspicious occasion’ and is used in reference to the public marking of nationally significant events. By the end of the nineteenth century, the two terms of this phrase came to be synonymous in Portuguese. This thesis represents an effort to understand the development of these two terms – efemérides and comemorações – over the longue durée. The long-term similarities in the practical and public uses of these terms are explored by tracing their discursive deployments and examining the debates that surrounded such public uses. The first section, dedicated to commemorations, frames the analysis of this much discussed topic with the following hypothesis: the act of commemoration is a form of moral utterance between generations; it is the rehearsal and transmission of collective values. Drawing on historical sources, I argue that the eventual points of contact between these terms can be seen as analogs to the discursive exchange and conflict between the classical and peripatetic notions of the “order of time” and the “order of nature”. In this conceptual drama, one sees how the sublation of old cosmological perspectives nevertheless still contains what I shall call – following Pomian – a chronosophy. This analysis leads to the second part of the thesis. Efemérides, originally tables of the movements of the celestial bodies – also known as almanacs – underwent a slow transition from the celestial to the earthly, from the charting of the stars to the recording of human deeds. Drawing on classical texts, well-informed readers of early modernity would have associated those writings in the first instance with diaries, then with journalism and, in the following centuries, with political history. Emerging from the French Revolution as a historiographical subgenre, lists of Efemérides shared a common function with commemorations as nation-building practices that described the horizon of a project to create national identity. This horizon, as a meeting point of moral utterance and political project is explored at the end of both sections of the thesis, as it is observed in the quadricentenial celebration of Cabral’s Discovery of Brazil. It is at this horizon that the parallel developments of comemorações and efemérides promise to meet.

This dissertation examines the political regime during the single party rule in Turkey between the years of 1923-1950 in relation to the concept of tutelage. The main argument supported in this work is that tutelary tendencies, contrary to the assumptions of Kemalist historicization, do not serve as segue to democracy, but rather make consolidation of democracy difficult, even impossible. In support, this dissertation provides a close examination of the Kemalist nation building process beginning from the Ottoman modernization process extending to the demographic engineering projects of the Republic. The examination reveals that tutelary tendencies are a reflection of the savior mission undertaken by the elite during the Ottoman-Republican modernization process. The political elite, in their mission to save and build the nation, not only ignored the political and social fabric of the time, but they insisted on radical interventions to the demographic fabric of the society in order to transform it to the nation they envisioned. During the execution of the nation-building project increasingly more authoritarian measures were legitimized by declared target of democracy. The social resistance to the radical interventions was suppressed by more authoritarian measures that were perceived as the cost of achieving democracy. The elite perceived themselves uniquely fit for deciding what is in the best interest of the people. Whether the aim of democratization was reached or not was also decided by the tutelary elite. Not wanting to let go of the power, they continuously invented new prerequisites to democracy. This cycle resulted in the persistence of the authoritarian regime. In the final analysis, this dissertation reveals that the tutelary tendencies of the avant-garde elite are the biggest obstacle on the path to democracy.

Based on Christina Reid&rsquo<br>s five Plays &ldquo<br>Tea in a China Cup,&rdquo<br>&ldquo<br>Did You Hear the One About the Irishman &hellip<br>?,&rdquo<br>&ldquo<br>Joyriders,&rdquo<br>&ldquo<br>The Belle of the Belfast City,&rdquo<br>and &ldquo<br>My Name, Shall I Tell You My Name?&rdquo<br>the aim of this study is to put under discussion the idea that the sectarian conflict between the two ethno-religious communities in Northern Ireland is maintained deliberately and a national identity unique to the people in this country cannot be constructed at least in the near future. The Protestants in Northern Ireland cannot choose Irishness as a national identity because the Irishness has been monopolized by the Catholics, and cannot adopt the Britishness as a national identity because of the varieties in the social factors they have. Likewise, the Catholics in Northern Ireland do not call themselves British because their Catholicism involves an Irish identity with the rejection of the British rule, and they cannot truly entitle themselves Irish due to the differences in social conditions. However, both factions try to adhere themselves to a national identity through their communal ideology. The Protestants claim that they are part of Britain, while the Catholics claim that they are members of Irish Nation. This situation has led to reluctance in both communities to stop the conflictual circumstances which encourage both groups to tether to their traditions more intensely, to contribute to the otherization process reinforcing their social identity and lead them to impose their working ideology on their new members whose divergence from traditions will definitely pose a threat to their identity. Also, in this country the forgetting / remembering process, which is actually exploited to forge a national identity, is orchestrated by the two communities to enlarge the intercommunal chasm through the narration of the old stories and memories, creation of stories, commemoration activities and museumizing certain objects. Throughout the study the key points which will be highlighted are as follows: nation, national identity and nation building process, the sectarian conflict between the two communities in Northern Ireland, maintenance of conflictual situation and the employment of the forgetting / remembering process in Northern Ireland.