| Srl | Item |
| 1 |
ID:
114668
|
|
|
|
|
| Publication |
2012.
|
| Summary/Abstract |
This article contributes to the debates on China's socio-political transformations by tracing the link between China's modernization and nationalism, and
analysing their mutual interplay. Many recent studies discuss post-Mao China's
development as a unique model challenging earlier development approaches. Instead,
the argument pursued here points to the dependence of China's dominant development
thinking on the paradigm of modernization and its symbolic celebration in official
discourse and public rituals. By tracing the impact of the modernization paradigm in
the influential annual publication China Modernization Report and in the 2009
National Day mass parade, the article shows how and what kind of Chinese nation is
produced. I argue that China's ostensibly unique development model is constrained by
the modernization thinking underlying it. Analysis of the discourses on modernity and
'scientific development' and the symbolism associated with them reveals a series of
dichotomies and oppositions underpinning China's nation-building. China's pursuit of
modernization relies on the suppression of other possible development paths within
China and subsumes Chinese development experiences under those of the generalised
West, thereby restricting development alternatives to those allowed within a
hierarchical view of the world.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 2 |
ID:
080577
|
|
|
|
|
| Publication |
2007.
|
| Summary/Abstract |
Memories of military sacrifices and demonstrations of 'national' characteristics of bravery, comradeship and integrity still have considerable popular purchase within contemporary states and communities, and as such can accrue significant political capital. With this in mind, this paper will show how Ulster Loyalists attempt to anchor themselves in the memory of the Somme, seeking to deliberately construct a line of direct continuity between modern Loyalism, which has been suffering from a variety of pressures, fissures and marginalization throughout the Northern Ireland peace process, and Ulster Unionism of the early 20th century, a period which in contrast was marked by unity, mass mobilization and elite leadership. Crucially, that political generation's decimation during the First World War is a potent myth of blood sacrifice which thickens, rather than pollutes, the narrative of a Unionist 'Golden Age' of mobilization and strength. As such, the mythic proving grounds of battlefields long gone have become advantageous sites for modern political acquisition. This use of the memory of the Great War as an identity resource will be compared and contrasted with similar projects in Canada and Australia.
Rather than simply miring Loyalists in archaic and militaristic tropes, and invented links to the past, this paper will argue that commemorations, particularly that of the Somme, can have a transformative and cohering effect on modern Loyalism, in both the political and paramilitary spheres.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|