The present study is a political biography in the broad sense of Julius Karambage Nyerere. The main perspective has been his significance for nation-building in Tanzania. The dissertation is chronologically ordered after his life and restricted to the period 1922-1977. Five themes discussed in modern scholarship on nationalism and which are considered relevant to the study of African nationalism are treated: The origin and globalization of nationalism. From the perspective of the process of global nation-building, Nyerere's activities as nationalist leader in Tanzania are discussed, which contrary to his own wishes only embraced the former colonies Tanganyika and Zanzibar. Constructivism versus realism. Here it is shown that nationalism in Africa largely followed the colonial borders and were thus constructions without any connection to historically-relevant ethnic or cultural borders. The relationship between nationalism and modernity. The fundamental problematic in Nyerere's modernizing ambitions, i.e. to unite individual and collective interests in an harmonic interplay in the name of development, is treated. Strategies for nationalizing a populace. Here, the evolution of Nyerere's social vision - ujamaa or familyhood, is described. From the central idea of Tanzanian nationalism - development - the nationalists' construction of traditional African society would unite with modern society, in accordance with the basic ideas of African socialism. The significance of an elite for nation-building. In common with nationalism's development in Europe, African nationalism was led by elites. The transformation from "Black European" to "African Personality" went via education, primarily provided by Christian missionaries in Africa. Nyerere's education familiarized him with British colonialism, nationalism and cultural heritage as well as the British School of Social Anthropology, Catholic social teachings and communitarianism. The study shows that Nyerere's political thought was influenced by Fabian socialism, Catholic social teaching, communitarianism and political thinkers like Henry George, G.D.H. Cole, R.H. Tawney and Arthur W. Lewis. Nyerere realized his political ideas first as leader of the nationalist movement Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) and after independence in 1961 as president up until 1985. He was called the "father of the nation" and ruled in his charismatic role as mwalimu, teacher. / digitalisering@umu

The writer Virgilio Rodríguez Macal, through his essays, narratives, and journalistic chronicles, actively participated in the great debates about the fate of the Guatemalan nation during and after the socialist governments of the Revolution (1944-1954). This thesis delves into a neglected oeuvre the study of which sheds light on an original perspective about a national period with continental repercussions. I study his regionalist novels Carazamba (1953), Jinayá (1956) and Guayacán (1962) within the framework of Guatemala and Latin America’s intellectual, literary and socio-political history. This approach, in combination with a close textual analysis, allows me to show that Rodríguez Macal, with a firm footing in the Latin American lettered tradition of political commitment to the construction of the nation, propounds narrative worlds that amount to national integration programs centered around the northern region of the country. I demonstrate that Rodríguez Macal adopts a regionalist aesthetic to postulate a Guatemalan autochthonous essence based on the discourse of narrators who act as discerners of that same essence based on a scientific knowledge derived from disciplines such as anthropology, historiography and sociology. Lastly, I reveal that this literary project is the expression of an independent intellectual trajectory preoccupied with proposing alternative projects for the modernization and territorialization of the nation.

The aim of the dissertation is to examine the production of children’s books for the Latvian-speaking population in Latvia and attempt to illustrate how the post-Soviet transformation has affected the conditions surrounding its development. To this end, the study investigates how the economic, political, and cultural aspects of the transformation are perceived and dealt with by actors active in children’s book production. The concept of the field of the production of children’s books as a subset of the broader field of cultural production is based on the term “literary system” as defined in the sociology of literature and the term “field” as defined in Pierre Bourdieu’s sociology of cultural production. The fundamental theoretical standpoint of the study is based on social constructivist theory. The study also investigates the phenomena in the field from the aspect of sociopsychologist Michael Billig’s concept of “banal nationalism” and sociologist Daina Stukuls Eglitis’ model of “narratives of normality.” The material is based primarily on interviews conducted between 2003 and 2005 in Riga with the actors involved with the production of children’s books in Latvia, but also on data gathered from other sources. The results indicate that the role of the state and the commercial market are perceived and dealt with differently amongst the actors in the studied field, where opposing attitudes towards mass-market products indicate that children’s books can be seen as cultural products by some and as commercial products by others. The material further implies that the opinions of the interviewees about the role of children’s books in post-Soviet Latvia are closely related to their personal visions for the future of this newly-reborn independent nation. It is the various survival strategies adopted by the key actors in the field as a response to the changing conditions in the new era that ultimately constitute the transformation of the field.

TRANSFORMING RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES INTO ETHNIES: THE PROCESS OF LEBANESE NATION-BUILDING 1920-1958 G&uuml / rcan, AySe Ezgi MSc., Graduate Program of Middle East Studies Supervisor: Dr. Erdogan Yildirim August 2007, 100 pages This thesis analyzes the process of nation-building in Lebanon in an historical context, covering the period staring from the declaration of the French Mandate in 1920 until the first civil war of 1958. The thesis defines nation-building as a process of transformation of the pre-modern form of religious identity into the modern ethnic and/or ethno-national identity, which develops along with state-making. In contrast to the claims in the literature that label all non-Western nation-building and state-making as deficient processes emerged as a result of the direct effects of Western colonialism, this study aims to establish an alternative approach in understanding the process of Lebanese nation-building. In this context the thesis evaluates the validity of the premises of the modern nationalism approaches in the literature on questions such as how far colonialism can be labeled as the primary source of Third World nationalism(s), and to what extent the nation-building processes were successful. The thesis claims that the Lebanese case presents a complex case, since nation-building was emerged not only emerged as a result of Western colonialism and power struggles but also did materialize because of the power struggles between and within domestic (Lebanon), regional (Arab states) and international (Europe and Ottoman Empire) actors.

In this thesis, the purpose is to analyze the path that the nation building process in Kazakhstan has been following in the post-Soviet period through examining the various policies implemented and the official rhetoric and discourses stated by the Kazakh policymakers. The ethno-symbolist approach of Anthony D. Smith and the views of Walker Connor and Willfried Spohn on nationalism and national identity have been utilized in the analysis of the research. The Soviet Nationalities Policy is examined to be able to better understand the post-Soviet nation-building, because the policies implemented under this comprehensive project, which had been outlined by the Bolsheviks, had deep political, cultural, demographic and linguistic impacts on the process in Kazakhstan. The ethnic situation has also been laid down in order to highlight under which ethnic circumstances the nation building process has been taking place. After analyzing the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the post-Soviet policies about language, education, employment, culture and national symbols, the statements of the President Nursultan Nazarbayev and the move of capital, this study claims that post-Soviet nation building process and nationalism in Kazakhstan have both ethnic and civic components whereby the nation building process in Kazakhstan is a more ethnic process than it is civic.

The writer Virgilio Rodríguez Macal, through his essays, narratives, and journalistic chronicles, actively participated in the great debates about the fate of the Guatemalan nation during and after the socialist governments of the Revolution (1944-1954). This thesis delves into a neglected oeuvre the study of which sheds light on an original perspective about a national period with continental repercussions. I study his regionalist novels Carazamba (1953), Jinayá (1956) and Guayacán (1962) within the framework of Guatemala and Latin America’s intellectual, literary and socio-political history. This approach, in combination with a close textual analysis, allows me to show that Rodríguez Macal, with a firm footing in the Latin American lettered tradition of political commitment to the construction of the nation, propounds narrative worlds that amount to national integration programs centered around the northern region of the country. I demonstrate that Rodríguez Macal adopts a regionalist aesthetic to postulate a Guatemalan autochthonous essence based on the discourse of narrators who act as discerners of that same essence based on a scientific knowledge derived from disciplines such as anthropology, historiography and sociology. Lastly, I reveal that this literary project is the expression of an independent intellectual trajectory preoccupied with proposing alternative projects for the modernization and territorialization of the nation.

This dissertation concerns a crucial episode in the international legal history of nation-building: the Greek-Turkish population exchange. Supported by Athens and Ankara, and implemented largely by the League of Nations, the population exchange showcased the new pragmatism of the post-1919 order, an increased willingness to adapt legal doctrine to local conditions. It also exemplified a new mode of non-military nation-building, one initially designed for sovereign but politico-economically weak states on the semi-periphery of the international legal order. The chief aim here, I argue, was not to organize plebiscites, channel self-determination claims, or install protective mechanisms for vulnerable minorities – all familiar features of the Allied Powers’ management of imperial disintegration in central and eastern Europe after the First World War. Nor was the objective to restructure a given economy and society from top to bottom, generating an entirely new legal order in the process; this had often been the case with colonialism in Asia and Africa, and would characterize much of the mandates system throughout the interwar years. Instead, the goal was to deploy a unique mechanism – not entirely in conformity with European practice, but also distinct from non-European governance regimes – to reshape the demographic composition of Greece and Turkey. I substantiate this argument by marshalling a range of material from international law, legal history, and historical sociology. I first examine minority protection’s development into an instrument of intra-European nation-building during the long nineteenth century, showing how population exchange emerged in the Near East in the 1910s as a radical alternative to minority protection. I then provide a close reading of the travaux préparatoires of the 1922-3 Conference of Lausanne, at which a peace settlement formalizing the exchange was concluded. Finally, I analyze the Permanent Court of International Justice’s 1925 opinion in Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations, examining it from the standpoint of wide-ranging disputes concerning the place of religion and ethnicity in the exchange process. My aim throughout is to show that the Greek-Turkish exchange laid the groundwork for a mechanism of legal nation-building which would later come to be deployed in a variety of different contexts but whose precise status under international law would remain contested.

This dissertation concerns a crucial episode in the international legal history of nation-building: the Greek-Turkish population exchange. Supported by Athens and Ankara, and implemented largely by the League of Nations, the population exchange showcased the new pragmatism of the post-1919 order, an increased willingness to adapt legal doctrine to local conditions. It also exemplified a new mode of non-military nation-building, one initially designed for sovereign but politico-economically weak states on the semi-periphery of the international legal order. The chief aim here, I argue, was not to organize plebiscites, channel self-determination claims, or install protective mechanisms for vulnerable minorities – all familiar features of the Allied Powers’ management of imperial disintegration in central and eastern Europe after the First World War. Nor was the objective to restructure a given economy and society from top to bottom, generating an entirely new legal order in the process; this had often been the case with colonialism in Asia and Africa, and would characterize much of the mandates system throughout the interwar years. Instead, the goal was to deploy a unique mechanism – not entirely in conformity with European practice, but also distinct from non-European governance regimes – to reshape the demographic composition of Greece and Turkey. I substantiate this argument by marshalling a range of material from international law, legal history, and historical sociology. I first examine minority protection’s development into an instrument of intra-European nation-building during the long nineteenth century, showing how population exchange emerged in the Near East in the 1910s as a radical alternative to minority protection. I then provide a close reading of the travaux préparatoires of the 1922-3 Conference of Lausanne, at which a peace settlement formalizing the exchange was concluded. Finally, I analyze the Permanent Court of International Justice’s 1925 opinion in Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations, examining it from the standpoint of wide-ranging disputes concerning the place of religion and ethnicity in the exchange process. My aim throughout is to show that the Greek-Turkish exchange laid the groundwork for a mechanism of legal nation-building which would later come to be deployed in a variety of different contexts but whose precise status under international law would remain contested.

The intellectual and political roots of present-day China lie in the late imperial era and the transition to modern statehood. As the last chain of the thousands years of dynastic rule in China, the Qing Dynasty ended in 1911 with a revolution. Even though the Republican regime was immediately established after their revolution, it took three decades until thenew government (People&rsquo / s Republic of China) achieved full sovereignty on the territory. The thesis argues that the 1911 Revolution is a major turning point in Chinese transformation not only because of the regime change but also the ideological shift towards modern statehood. In this study, first, the social forces and actors on the eve of the Revolution are analyzed. The gentry-domination of society and the power relations within the forces involved in the Revolution - especially the intellectuals and the military - appear to be the two major reasons why the transition was not completed with the Revolution. The second focus of the study: the process of breaking with the past. In other words, how was the shift in people&rsquo / s mind achieved? In China, this turning point did not coincide with the 1911 Revolution and/or regime change. It came later in 1910s, reaching its peak in 1919, with the New Culture Movement of the May Fourth intellectuals. There had been some influential intellectuals building a nationalist discourse even before the May Fourth Movement (e.g. Liang Qichao, reformist and ideologue in late Qing dynasty) but the radical and outspoken tone of the New Culture Movement achieved the grounds for a shift in minds. I will briefly analyze the intellectual work of the period and its politicization. A special emphasis is given on Sun Yat-sen&rsquo / s political and intellectual contribution to the transition since he was not only a major political activist but also a theoretician whose works (Three Principles of People) have been influential on China&rsquo / s nation-building process.

Thesis (M.A. of Arts)--Miami University, Dept. of Spanish and Portuguese, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 34-36).