Centre for European Studies
School of International Studies
Jawaharlal Nehru University
M.Phil Course
Course no:
Course title : IDENTITY ISSUES IN EUROPE
Course Coordinator:
Bhaswati Sarkar
Instruction Method:
Lectures/tutorials/seminars
Evaluation Method:
Term paper/mid semester/end semester
Course Credits:
Three
Course Duration:
One Semester (winter)
Contact Hours: Four per week
The European integration process is moving on fast track. After the socialist collapse the one point agenda of East European states has been to ‘return to Europe’. This has manifested, among others, in their urge to acquire membership of European institutions, viz., the Council of Europe, OSCE, or the European Union. Given the bewildering heterogeneity in Eastern Europe and the flaring of ethnic animosities in the wake of communist collapse, all European bodies prescribe a tolerant treatment of minorities as an ‘entry qualification’ to be fulfilled. However, identity issues are not quite unique to Eastern Europe, as they are not area specific in their ramification. Across Europe established democracies have grappled with identity issues be it ethnic, religious, regional or a combination of all. Additionally, they have also attracted large scale immigration, legal and illegal, which have generated a different set of identity related issues. This course will focus on sub-national, national and supra-national identities in Europe and how they act and interact with each other. The course will also initiate students to questions related to handling ‘group clamour’ for recognition by focusing on minority rights debates, and the concept of multiculturalism.
1. Understanding identity and its importance in politics. Defining nationalism, nation, and ethnicity. Theories related to these concepts. Historical insight of nation-building in Europe – civic and ethnic nation-building
2. Challenges to nation-building in Europe – Case of Britain-Ireland; Spain-Catalonia, Basque; Germany-Turks; Hungary and the Hungarians
4. Accommodating immigrants and their differences – The politics of citizenship
5. Minority Rights Debate – Individual vs. Collective rights
6. Multiculturalism – theory and practice
7. Islam in Contemporary Europe
8. Nation States in the European Union – national identity in the supra-national context
Suggested Readings
Anderson, Benedict, Imagined Communities: Reflections in the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso, 1991)
Anderson, Malcolm, State and Nationalism in Europe since 1945 (London: Routledge, 2000)
Birch, Anthony H., Nationalism and National Integration (London: Unwin Hyman, 1989)
Brutes, Michael, Citizens of Europe? The Emergence of a Mass European Identity (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005)
Caplan, Richard and Feffer, John eds., Europe’s New Nationalism: States and Minorities in Conflict (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996)
Dieckhoff, Alain and Gutierrez, Natividad, Modern Roots: Studies of National Identity (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2001)
Dunn, John, Contemporary Crisis of the Nation State (Oxford: Blackwell, 1995)
Fenton, Steve and May, Stephen eds., Ethno national Identities (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002)
Gans, Chaim, The Limits of Nationalism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003)
Gellner, Ernest, Nation and Nationalism (Oxford, 1983)
Guibernau, Montserrat, Nations without States: Political Communities in a Global Age (UK: Polity Press, 1999)
Guibernau, Montserrat and Rex, John eds., The Ethnicity Reader: Nationalism, Multiculturalism and Migration (Cambridge, 1997)
Hosking, Geoffrey and Schopflin, George eds., Myths and Nationhood (London: Hurst and Company, 1997)
Hechter, Michael, Containing Nationalism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000)
Hunter, Shireen T., The Future of Islam
and the West: Clash of Civilizations or Peaceful Coexistence? (Washington: Praeger, 1998)
----------------, The Future of Islam and the West: Clash of Civilizations or Peaceful Coexistence? (Washington: Praeger, 1998)
Hutchinson, John and Smith, Anthony D. eds., Nationalism: A Reader (Oxford, 1994)
---------------------, Nationalism Critical Concepts in Political Science, Vol. II, (London: Routledge, 2001)
---------------------, Nationalism Critical Concepts in Political Science, Vol. V, (London: Routledge, 2001)
Jenkins, Brian and Sofos, Spyros A. eds., Nation and Identity in Contemporary Europe (London: Routledge, 1996)
Kedourie, Eilie, Nationalism (3 edition) (London, 1969)
Kellas, James G., The Politics of Nationalism and Ethnicity (London, 1991)
Kohn, Hans, The Idea of Nationalism: A study of Origins and Background (New York, 1944)
----------------, History of Nationalism (London, 1924)
Mahajan, Gurpreet, The Multicultural Path: Issues of Diversity and Discrimination in Democracy (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2002)
Miller, David, Citizenship and National Identity (UK: Polity Press, 2000)
Mortimer, Edward and Fine, Robert eds., People, Nation and State: The Meaning of Ethnicity and Nationalism (London: I. B Tauris Publishers, 1999)
Oommen ,T. K. ed., Citizenship and National Identity: From Colonialism to Globalism (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1997)
--------------------, Citizenship, Nationality: Reconciling Competing Identities and Ethnicity (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1997)
O’Sullivan, Katherine See, First World Nationalisms (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1986)
Pecora, Vincent D. ed., Nations and Identities: Classical Readings (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2001)
Poole, Ross, Nation and Identity (London: Routledge, 1999)
Rupesinghe, Kumar ed., Ethnic Conflict and Human Rights (New York: The United Nations University, Norwegian University Press, 1988)
Seton-Watson, Hugh, Nations and States (London: Methuen, 1977)
Schopflin, George, Nations, Identity, Power: The New Politics of Europe (London: Hurst and Company, 2000)
Smith, Anthony D., Nationalism, Theory, Ideology and History (Cambridge: Polity, 2001)
--------------------, The Ethnic Origins of Nation (Oxford, 1986)
Snyder, Louis L., Global Mini-nationalisms: Autonomy and Independence (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1982)
Suryadinata, Leo ed., Nationalism and Globalization: East and West (Singapore: Institute of South Asian Studies, 2000)
Taras, Ray, Liberal and Illiberal Nationalisms (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002)
Wiebe, Robert H., Who we Are: A History of Popular Nationalism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002)
Woolf, Stuart ed., Nationalism in Europe: 1815 to the Present (London: Routledge, 1996)
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