The twentieth century has seen the emergence of new states shaped on the classic nation-state model. What have been the implications for minorities in these new nation-states? How have minorities responded to nationalising processes generated by the state’s self-definition? In order to answer these two questions the book offers an innovative perspective on the complex interactions between national minorities and newly established nation-states. Starting with a novel discussion by Rogers Brubaker of his concept of nationalising state, the authors of the book further discuss this model by using a large array of diverse cases such as Moldova, Ukraine, Turkey, Malaysia and Israel. These contributions shed light on common trends in relation to state-building processes, citizenship, rights of national minorities and their mobilisation. The original theoretical framework, combined with a comparative approach, challenges our understanding of these crucial issues.
A group of young scholars, under the intellectual patronage of Rogers Brubaker, have undertaken the challenging task of disentangling the complex relationships between newly nationalising states and their national minorities, mainly in Eastern and Central Europe, but also beyond (Malaysia, Israel, Turkey…). The result is a well researched book, theoretically informed, which sheds refreshing light on state-building processes, minorities’ mobilisation and inter-group relations. (Alain Dieckhoff, Senior Research Fellow, CNRS, Sciences Po Paris).
This volume brings together well researched case studies which explain when and how nationalism begins to matter. Nationalism and group belonging are not taken for granted, but explored as political processes that display similarities from Southeast Asia to Poland. The contribution of this volume is to explore the relationship between nation-states and minorities as dynamic process. (Florian Bieber Professor of Southeast European Studies, University of Graz).
