This essay advances the discussion on immigrant integration by considering its three primary forms : civic, social and cultural, as previously conceived of by David Miller. Each form of integration...Show moreThis essay advances the discussion on immigrant integration by considering its three primary forms : civic, social and cultural, as previously conceived of by David Miller. Each form of integration is defined, as to clarify deliberation on immigrant integration. In order to render general deliberation more profitable, as well as the assessment of government policies on integration, this paper presents an urgent case for the creation of an index which may measure the past, current, and future situations of immigrant integration. All existing indices on integration measure government policies on integration, rather than the actual situation of integration. An estimate of the current situation of immigrant integration and subsequent manner by which to measure the occurrence is undertaken. An analysis of Maghrebian immigrant social integration in France will be utilized as a case study on immigrant integration in western democracies. A defense for the importance of civic and social integration is advanced. The conceptions of integration and prescriptive views that will be made are built upon the adherence to a republican model of democracy, a foundational element of western democracies.Show less
This thesis takes on an inter-disciplinary approach to examine the extent to which the state of Kenya used the genre of portrait photography to create a sense of nationhood after independence. I...Show moreThis thesis takes on an inter-disciplinary approach to examine the extent to which the state of Kenya used the genre of portrait photography to create a sense of nationhood after independence. I take on the theory of nation and nationalism as a framework to discuss and visually analyse the portraits of Kenya's four president and citizens portrait in the form of identity photography. By first establishing how modern-state Kenya came into being, the discussion set a premise to the motivation behind the study. The first chapter analyses the standardised official presidential state portraits, their materiality, physicality and their symbolism to communicate a change of leadership in Kenya. The second chapter investigates the 'self-fashioned' portraits of the presidents which take on different aesthetics and visual codes creating different meanings and therefore are interpreted using other references. The last chapter is a shift from 'honorific' portraiture of the presidents to the 'repressive' class of the sitters- the citizens. This chapter investigates citizen's portraits used in the colonial times to control movements of labourers and surveillance and how it is now used as a form of document of National Identification. This thesis argues that all the mentioned kinds of portraiture contributed to disseminating the idea of nationhood.Show less
This thesis follows the trajectories of two museums, the National Museum of Damascus and the Iraq Museum in Baghdad, across the past two decades, to investigate the extent to which notions of...Show moreThis thesis follows the trajectories of two museums, the National Museum of Damascus and the Iraq Museum in Baghdad, across the past two decades, to investigate the extent to which notions of nation, national heritage and the public good have come to be evaluated before, during and after conflict. Charged with pride and burdened with pain, the material heritage of this region in many ways stood at the centre of the conflicts of the past twenty years, and would come to define the future of the nations of Syria and Iraq. Tracing the histories of the two national museums, from closure to reopening, through the vantage point of the antiquities in their collections, this thesis strives to illustrate how Syrian and Iraqi heritage has been appropriated and narrated in strategic and contested ways by a diverse network of invested actors, both locally and globally. Drawing on exhibitions and press material surrounding pivotal events in these museums’ biographies, this thesis argues that in suppressing the legacy of pain and trauma with which their patrimonies are inscribed, local and international culture professionals impeded post-conflict healing and inadvertently acted against the interest of the public good. Reconstructing the museum and its destroyed collections could serve to incite national introspection and to reconnect the peoples of Syria and Iraq with the heritage from which they have for so long been alienated, but if recent years’ heritage trauma remains unaddressed in the post-conflict museum, genuine healing may never be attained. In order to lay the groundwork for reconciliation, and to pave the way for the transformation of conflict, this thesis proposes agonistic dialogue as the means through which museum professionals and museum publics may collectively come to terms with the healing and hurting sides of their national heritage.Show less
“Although, according to the founders of the Republic of Turkey, a Turkish ethnic nationalist ideology had to become the fabric of society, the irony is that this ideology is at the same time the...Show more“Although, according to the founders of the Republic of Turkey, a Turkish ethnic nationalist ideology had to become the fabric of society, the irony is that this ideology is at the same time the main source of political conflict and violence” (Jongerden 2001, 81). The establishment of the Turkish Republic under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal, consolidating Turkish Nationalism as State Ideology, was the beginning of a history full of paradoxes and contradictions. Especially the Turkish central government and the Kurdish community entered a century of ups and downs what would become known as the ‘Kurdish Question’. While the Turkish Nationalists have remained constant in their ideology, the Kurds have witnessed a turbulent ideological development throughout history, which has both divided as unified the Kurdish community on different occasions. Although the dream of an independent Kurdistan has always been in the background, the Kurdish community has not always been able to pursue this dream, or been willing to. In the more modern days, however, when the Kurds in Turkey became more active again in their struggle for independence, the PKK gained prominence among the Kurds, with Abdullah Ocalan as its leader. Thereupon, since the late 1990s, Ocalan would become to represent the PKK, whereas the PKK in its turn would represent the entire Kurdish Nation (Bozarslan 2008, 351). Thus, when Abdullah Ocalan came up with the ideology of democratic confederalism, the Kurdish community followed. How did Ocalan, however, after all these years, come up with this ideology one may wonder, and how does this democratic confederalism apply to the ‘Kurdish Question’? In order to be able to research this complicated issue in the most effective ways, the theoretical framework of the issue must be determined and defined correctly, prior to the actual analysis of the case. This means that in order to fully comprehend concepts such as the ‘Nation-State’, it must be established what the concepts of the ‘Nation’ and the ‘State’ individually withhold, after which, the concept of the ‘Nation-State’ can be explained and analyzed in the light of the Kurdish Question. Furthermore, to properly grasp these conceptions, we must understand their foundations. Therefore, by means of chronological order, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Ernest Renan, and Max Weber will be examined, to lay down the basic rationale behind ‘State formation’, ‘the Nation’ and the ‘State’. In addition, the contexts of ‘Nationalism’ and the Right to Self-Determination will be assessed. Based on this theoretical framework the ideological development of the Kurds in Turkey will be decomposed and analyzed to investigate how the direct secessionist Kurdish ambitions for an independent Nation-State evolved into an ideology of Democratic Confederalism.Show less
By comparing historical narratives that coincided in WW II, I intend to examine how the national identities of the Netherlands and South Korea contrasted with one another and illustrate how the...Show moreBy comparing historical narratives that coincided in WW II, I intend to examine how the national identities of the Netherlands and South Korea contrasted with one another and illustrate how the former Comfort Women have been represented within their own social constructs thereafter. A crucial reason for partaking in a historical comparison, between the Netherlands and South Korea, is to combine a lesser documented case with a case which has received substantially more coverage in academia and the media. By examining historical events, I propose to shift the perspective from gaining formal recognition and compensation from the Japanese government, which is often the point of view in the media and an often discussed topic by academics, to instead: How were the former Comfort Women treated and represented by their own society after WW II? It is important to examine the Comfort Women Issue from a different perspective because the perspective of the society of which the former Comfort Women are a part of, holds as much significance in historical terms of accountability as the issue of the Japanese government’s reticence to offer satisfactory recompense.Show less
