UPV) and IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, (original) (raw)

JOURNAL ARTICLES by Daniele Conversi

Frontiers in Human Dynamics, 2024

Can we conceive of a continuity in the way right-wing nationalisms address environmental issues f... more Can we conceive of a continuity in the way right-wing nationalisms address environmental issues from the origins of fascism to the currently ongoing global "polycrisis"? This article explores the use of the term "eco-fascism" in connection with the climate crisis and considers the political relationship between ecologism and the contemporary far right through a historical perspective, seeking to determine persisting patterns in the relationship between the far right and the environment. Section 1 travels back to the historical origins of this relationship between nationalism, fascism and the environment, arguing that the conceptions of nature adopted and nourished by fascism had scarcely anything to do with ecology in its contemporary meaning. Section 2 explores the most well-known and consolidated studies on the relationship between the far right and climate change denialism, identifying a broad consensus that unites scholars from various disciplines on the density, intensity and persistence of this political relationship in the current millennium. The article concludes by underlining the irreality, falsifiability and internal contradictions of the notion of "eco-fascism" at a time when right-wing regimes have seized power in many countries through the use of vocabularies and sentiments in defense of the territory and its resources, but with a substantial refusal to tackle global environmental problems.

Histories, 2023

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY

Studies on National Movements, 2023

Daniele Conversi, ‘State of Nationalism (SoN): Nationalism and Climate Change’, in: Studies on Na... more Daniele Conversi, ‘State of Nationalism (SoN): Nationalism and Climate Change’, in: Studies on National Movements 11 (2023), 204-229.

Climate change is probably the most serious threat to the continuity of life on Earth. The climate emergency is accompanied by a host of deeply interrelated crises, such as biodiversity loss, the acidification of oceans and at least six other identified variables whose crossing points have been identified as ‘planetary boundaries’ (PB). Crossing any of these boundaries is likely to have immense humanitarian and environmental consequences and can influence the way in which other boundaries are affected – that is, crossing any one of them is reflected in all the other boundaries, cumulatively amplifying the vulnerability of life across the Planet.
All these boundaries are being pushed without mercy,
hammered with unprecedented force by mass human consumption........

The State of Nationalism, 2023

In this article, I first analyze the scientific background and the body of evidence available reg... more In this article, I first analyze the scientific background and the body of evidence available regarding some of the most crucial aspects of the climate crisis. I then proceed to analyze the possible multiple relationships between climate change and nationalism, emphasizing core aspects of the broader relationship between the two. In the process, I identify a research trend that I consider as the new “climate turn” which has descended and transmuted from the broader social sciences to nationalism studies. I argue that, generally, nationalism remains a key impediment to successful climate action, since a global calamity such as the climate emergency can only be comprehended and tackled on a worldwide basis and through synchronized global action.

Ernest Gellner’s Legacy and Social Theory Today, 2022

Conversi, D., 2022. 'Gellner in the Anthropocene: Modernity, Nationalism and Climate Change'. In ... more Conversi, D., 2022. 'Gellner in the Anthropocene: Modernity, Nationalism and Climate Change'. In P. Skalník (eds) Ernest Gellner’s Legacy and Social Theory Today. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 155-184.

Geo-societal Narratives, 2021

‘Geoethics vs. Geopolitics. Shoring up the nation in the Anthropocene cul-de-sac’, in Martin Bohl... more ‘Geoethics vs. Geopolitics. Shoring up the nation in the Anthropocene cul-de-sac’, in Martin Bohle and Eduardo Marone (ed.) Geo-societal Narratives Contextualising geosciences. Palgrave-Springer, 2021, pp 135-152; ISBN 978-3-030-79028-8; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-79028-8_10

Sustainability, 2021

‘Exemplary ethical communities A new concept for a liveable Anthropocene’, Sustainability, 13: p... more ‘Exemplary ethical communities A new concept for a liveable Anthropocene’, Sustainability, 13: pp. 5582, 2021.

This article argues that we need to look at living examples provided by non-state communities in various regions of the world that are, perhaps unwittingly, contributing to the maintenance of the Earth’s optimal thermal balance. These fully sustainable communities have been living outside the mainstream for centuries, even millennia, providing examples in the global struggle against the degradation of social–ecological systems. They have all, to varying degrees, embraced simple forms of living that make them ‘exemplary ethical communities’ (EECs)—human communities with a track record of sustainability related to forms of traditional knowledge and the capacity to survive outside the capitalist market and nation-state system. The article proceeds in three steps: First, it condenses a large body of research on the limits of the existing nation-state system and its accompanying ideology, nationalism, identifying this institutional–ideological complex as the major obstacle to tackling climate change. Second, alternative social formations that could offer viable micro-level and micro-scale alternatives are suggested. These are unlikely to identify with existing nation-states as they often form distinct types of social communities. Taking examples from hunter-gatherer societies and simple-living religious groups, it is shown how the protection and maintenance of these EECs could become the keystone in the struggle for survival of humankind and other forms of life. Finally, further investigation is called for, into how researchers can come forward with more examples of actually existing communities that might provide pathways to sustainability and resistance to the looming global environmental catastrophe.

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution

Environmental Politics, 2021

Climate change is arguably the single most important political issue in the world today. As yet, ... more Climate change is arguably the single most important political issue in the world today. As yet, however, there has been little research on the relationship between climate change and nationalism. In this contribution we investigate the possible existence of a ‘green nationalism’ among progressive and social democratic sub-state nationalist parties in minority nations. We identify an uncharted rhetorical and ideological continuity between how climate issues are perceived and championed among minority nations across time. This is a clear instance of ‘frame bridging’, where seemingly disparate policy elements are combined and reinforce one another. We show how sub-state political actors actively seek to use this link with climate-related environmental issues to bridge policy issues. We conclude by cautioning that it is unclear whether this sub-state ‘green nationalism’ might survive an ascent to statehood, in which state-building and other forms of realpolitik might trump and eclipse environmental concerns.

Nationalities Papers, 2020

Conversi, Daniele 2020. The Ultimate Challenge: Nationalism and Climate Change. Nationalities Pap... more Conversi, Daniele 2020. The Ultimate Challenge: Nationalism and Climate Change. Nationalities Papers 48, 4:625-636.

Climate change has rapidly expanded as a key topic of research across disciplines, but it has remained virtually untouched in nationalism studies. Climate change is a boundless, uncontainable phenomenon that ignores class, geographic, and ethnonational boundaries. As such, it can hardly be comprehended within the limits of a nationalist world vision. This article reassesses this intuition by focusing on the situational and adaptive plasticity of nationalism, characterized by its notorious Janus-faced adaptability. I first identify and address a methodological stumbling block that precludes scholars in some areas of the humanities and social sciences-specifically nationalism studies-from conceptualizing and grappling with this unfolding reality. Second, I advance a typology that can work as a conceptual grid for studying similar problems that emerge at the intersection of environmental politics, climate change, and nationalism studies. I suggest two ways in which the nation and national narratives have been and are being mobilized to make sense of, contrast, reject, and incorporate new life-changing trends. I identify these, respectively, under the umbrella terms resource nationalism and green nationalism. I conclude by emphasizing the continuing relevance of nationalism in plans for ongoing global energy transitions.

Journal of Political Ideologies, Oct 10, 2012

Ranked amongst the top three most read articles in JPI, with over 6395 downloads. The Oxford-base... more Ranked amongst the top three most read articles in JPI, with over 6395 downloads. The Oxford-based journal itself has been defined as ‘one of the leading political theory journals in the Anglophone world’.
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Abstract: Various scholars have addressed nationalism as a distinctive political ideology. The majority of them recognize it as a product of modernity and as inseparable from it. This article begins by accepting this view, identifying the spread of nationalism as part of a broader process of Westernization. However, the all-encompassing ideological dimension and common thread hovering above nationalism is identified here as modernism—that is, the sum of ideological discourses, artistic expressions and political practices gravitating around the ‘need to be modern’. Modernist notions like ‘progress’, ‘growth’, ‘advancement’ and ‘development’ have been largely conceived within national frameworks and applied within a world of ‘nation-states’. Moreover, given the selective ways in which ruling elites used the vocabulary of modernity, the very ‘perlocutionary’ effect of labelling opponents as ‘anti-modern’ often became a sufficient condition for their exclusion. The article discusses whether modernism can be identified as an ideology on its own and whether its triumph was indissociable from nationalism. It concludes that nationalism belonged to a broader modernist discourse that thoroughly accompanied the expansion of modernity.""""""

Globalisations, Feb 24, 2016

After the French Revolution, the entire edifice of absolutist legitimacy crumbled and politi- cal... more After the French Revolution, the entire edifice of absolutist legitimacy crumbled and politi- cal authority became valid only if it reflected or embodied the will of the people (or nation). Since nationalism was predicated on the myth of a common origin, language provided the raw material and prima facie evidence of shared descent (i.e. nationhood). Yet, the state form was kept intact. Absolutist centralism became revolutionary centralism and the principle of cuius regio, eius religio was replaced by that of cuius regio, eius natio (‘whose rule, his nation’). The relationship between Paris and the ‘provinces’ was not altered in form, but it was in intensity

This article traces the shifting meaning of the notion of sovereignty from the modern age to the age of globalization and its aftermath, envisaging new constellations of sovereignty taking shape across the globe. Observing the term’s centrality in the configuration of the modern nation-state and its epochal semantic shifts, it briefly examines the concept’s ‘decline’ during the era of globalization. It then introduces the notion of ‘liquid sovereignty’ in the context of rapidly changing ideas of territoriality, power, and inter- dependence. This in turn, it is argued, is connected with the surfacing of new forms of sovereignty centred on aliments, nutrition, and survival, encapsulated in the notion of ‘food sovereignty’. The article suggests that the food sovereignty movement has helped in the recovery of basic aspects of sovereignty in a world threatened by climate change and neo- liberal globalization, as the cosmopolitical dimension merged with ethno-political claims, particularly amongst Indigenous Peoples in the Americas and, to a lesser extent, Western sub-state nationalist movements.

This article explores the relationship between war and nationalism as it developed since the Fren... more This article explores the relationship between war and nationalism as it developed since the French revolution and the French revolutionary wars from the perspective of international political history. It shows how nationalism as a modern ideology changed the essence of warfare, while the relationship grew in intensity in the long gestation from the Napoleonic campaigns to World War I, reaching its peak in the heydays of totalitarianism between World War I and World War II. Totalitarianism is largely seen as an attempt to preserve the state’s radical control over its citizens achieved under war conditions.
The postwar order created the conditions and the institutions for severing the symbiotic relationship between war and nationalism by focusing on interdependence, human rights, etc. However, the excesses of neoliberal globalization have curtailed the representativeness of political institutions, while fomenting instability, which may lead to a new assertion of nationalist conflicts and war. Finally, our traditional notions of war, nations, and nationalism are likely to change when dealing with the catastrophic impact of environmental degradation.

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (JEMS), 2012

Special issue on ‘Migration and the Internet: Social networking and diasporas’ (edited by Ulf-Die... more Special issue on ‘Migration and the Internet: Social networking and diasporas’ (edited by Ulf-Dietrich Reips and Pedro J. Oiarzabal)

""The growing scholarship on ethnic diasporas has prompted various off-shoots. Two significant directions are the relationship of diasporas with globalisation and their role in the expansion and radicalisation of ethnic conflict. The corporate enthusiasm of the 1990s for globalisation has been followed by sombre reflections on its destructive impact upon a vast array of areas, including inter-ethnic relations worldwide. This article explores one crucial aspect of this wave of disruption—the rapid expansion of radical forms of long-distance nationalism, often leading to a stress on maximalist goals and an abdication of responsibility. It conceptually distinguishes between stateless diasporas and diasporas that conceive themselves as tied to, and represented by, an existing ‘nation-state’. Examples include ethnic lobbies from the former Yugoslavia, greater Han xenophobia among overseas Chinese, and Hindutva technocratic chauvinism among Hindu-Americans. Finally, the article identifies the onset of ‘online mobbing’ or ‘cyber bullying’ as a new and ominous trend in Internet radicalism.
""

Documentación Social

El Antropoceno es una nueva era geológica provocada por la acción de los seres humanos. El camb... more El Antropoceno es una nueva era geológica provocada por la acción de los seres humanos. El cambio climático es consecuencia de una idea de progreso abocada a la catástrofe socioambiental. El examen del neoliberalismo pretende desentrañar las causas de una degradación sistemática de los recursos geológicos y de sus efectos asociales e insolidarios. La prevalente ideología consumista ha sido auspiciada por la promoción de un individualismo posesivo basado en el cálculo personal e interesado. Se pondera si la presente «Edad de Bronce del welfare» es el preludio de una vuelta a la prehistoria de la protección social. En las conclusiones se señala la gran responsabilidad de las ciencias sociales y políticas para proveer enfoques superadores de la inevitabilidad del desastre socioambiental. La preservación de un modelo socioeconómico que respete un desarrollo sostenible y evite la pobreza es crucial para el mantenimiento del bienestar social.

The International Journal of Human Rights , 2014

Anthropogenic climate change poses the possibility of total human extinction. Subsistence societi... more Anthropogenic climate change poses the possibility of total human extinction. Subsistence societies, however, have been threatened with extinction primarily as a consequence of systemic development for a very long time. Recent genocide scholarship, more particularly in relation to indigenous peoples, has engaged with some of these issues, even while terminologies such as ethnocide, cultural genocide, and indigenocide may suggest a restricted field of vision. Here, we argue that the very nature of a neoliberal globalisation and concomitant nation-state building makes all subsistence societies vulnerable to what amounts to structural genocide. But how does climate change exacerbate or complicate this bleak picture? The political economy of ‘business as usual’ in its dialectical relationship with the biosphere (expressed in the rising concentrations of greenhouse gas emissions) poses an acceleration of subsistence society vulnerability with catastrophic potential for extreme violence. But another scenario also presents itself. The very ongoing, seemingly impossible existence of non-marketised societies in direct relationship with nature, poses the possibility of their resilience in the face of climate change rather than those operating according to standard globalised norms. In conclusion, we propose that the crisis of anthropogenic climate change directly challenges not only assumptions about the ‘inevitable’ trajectory of globalisation with its supposed cast of survivors and victims but more precisely the purposefulness of ‘techno-rational’ epistemologies as set against those which might help humanity recover the possibility of a ‘moral economy’.

Nations & Nationalism, 2018

This is the introduction to a Nations & Nationalism symposium ed. by Daniele Conversi.

Ethnicities, Feb 2014

Cultural diversity is very often conceived in relationship with the nation-state, but rarely prob... more Cultural diversity is very often conceived in relationship with the nation-state, but rarely problematized in tandem with transnational forces like political and economic globalization. The article begins by recognizing the need, and the difficulty, of studying both these forces simultaneously in relation to cultural diversity. As a supranational set of institutions, the European Union provides an ideal framework in which to assess the simultaneous impact of the nation-state and globalization on cultural diversity. The EU unification project, based on a pluralist, multicultural and multilateral vision of Europe, is diametrically opposed to previous state-making practices centred on rigid notions of internal uniformity and gravitating around the practices of ‘nation-statism’. This article first proposes the notion of ‘cultural homogenization’ as an explanatory tool to identify the role of normative visions of culture associated with the nationalizing practices of most modern nation-states. It then connects this to the scholarly literature on ‘nation-building’ and focuses particularly on its critique within theories of nationalism. This in turn is associated with various resurrected pluralist arrangements which have emerged in Europe, like cultural autonomy, multiculturalism and particularly, ‘consociationalism’. However, the article identifies a more immediate challenge to cultural diversity in the de-regulative policies associated with neo-liberal globalization. It concludes that, although European consociationalism remains a well-established and time-honoured tool for stabilizing inter-cultural relations and maintaining pluralist coexistence, it does not, and cannot, provide an incentive and framework for accommodating the normative and cultural conflicts unleashed by neo-liberal globalization.

Democratization, 2012

Giant multinational corporations have emerged as new ‘sovereign’ post-national bodies having in p... more Giant multinational corporations have emerged as new ‘sovereign’ post-national bodies having in practice worn away the sovereignty of parliaments, while their power has increasingly become difficult to challenge through normal ‘checks and balances’ procedures. The gargantuan budgets of the largest mega-corporations notoriously dwarf the budgets of most independent states and are certainly ‘larger than the economies of many small and medium-sized countries’.
Yet, nobody has democratically elected the directors, managers and boards of these financial giants, let alone been able to control their actions, whose consequences can affect the lives of millions. Unaccountability has become the rule amongst the most powerful players of the globalization age. Most decision-making processes involving corporate elites, including those dealing with public money, are shrouded in secrecy, opacity and omissions, and sheltered from public view by lobbying and spinning.
Moreover, long-established notions of freedoms and human respect once prevailing in the Anglo-Saxon legal system have been overrun by new legislation approved in the wake of the US-led ‘global war on terror’ and the Guantánamo extrajudicial detention regime.
In several countries, human rights protections have been breached in the name of ‘national security’. As Ashis Nandy has cogently observed, ‘national security can become disjunctive with people's security and may even establish an inverse relationship with the latter’.
Yet, the democratic credentials of many ‘liberal democracies’ are rarely questioned, not least because citizens are given an opportunity to ‘freely’ select their representatives among an array of candidates and political lists – notwithstanding the lingering suspicion that elected incumbents may turn their back on the electorate. As a consequence, scepticism towards current forms of Western democracy has begun to prevail amongst many scholars of politics, as well as the public at large. At the time of writing (Spring 2011)
Spain's movement of the indignados (the indignant, incensed, outraged ones) became a visible manifestation of the more widespread Western malaise, which I am partly attempting to identify in this article. The clearest targets of the protesters were the unrepresentativeness of party politics and the grip of corporate control, particularly by banks, over ordinary lives.
This article concentrates on two aspects of the current democratic debate as it relates to issues of cultural and ethnic diversity: the majoritarian legacy of the nation-state and the institution-weakening impact of globalization. It first focuses on the relationship between democracy and the nation-state, placing the scholarly debate on democracy and war in this context. It then focuses on the tendency by corporate-controlled governments to turn to patriotism and populism as sources of legitimacy at a time when the latter appears to be particularly weak. Majoritarian democracy, a form of government in which decisions are taken according to the principle of majority rule, is identified as the institutional context where the populist-patriotic drift can degenerate, pulverizing itself into self-destruction. The article argues that the interaction between these two factors, majoritarianism and globalization, contributes to make democracy, and hence democratization, precarious and vulnerable. Moreover, because the nation-state has been an instrument of persistent policies of cultural homogenization, the latter concept should be incorporated in the study of the complex relationship between democracy and diversity.
Conversi, Daniele (2012) 'Majoritarian democracy and globalization versus ethnic diversity?', Democratization, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 789-811

The proliferation of studies on virtually every aspect of globalisation has not clarified the cen... more The proliferation of studies on virtually every aspect of globalisation has not clarified the central terminological conundrum of the field. Globalisation studies do not share a univocal set of terms and concepts, so that the loose usage of the very term globalisation has led to polysemy and homonymy. Accordingly, ‘globalisation’ is now used to describe everything and its opposite, from the Roman Empire to WW1, from cosmopolitan behaviour to Genghis Khan’s conquests, and even the Neolithic age. The task of critical globalisation studies should thus be to re-contextualize the phenomenon and re-locate it where it belongs. In contrast, the term Americanisation has been used more sparely, therefore maintaining an autonomous conceptual strength. However, both manufactured opinion and scholarly studies tend to argue that globalisation and Americanisation are wholly distinct phenomena. Multi-National Corporations (MNCs) have adamantly defended that they are not vehicles of Americanisation and that the result of their actions in neoliberal markets is rather a form of ‘indigenization’ or ‘domestication’ through adaptation to local cultures. Similarly, much of the globalisation literature has not come to term with the unidirectional nature of globalisation in the field of culture. This article argues that both globalisation and Americanisation should be historicized, and their respective trajectories identified as beginning in distinct epochs, operating through waves of diffusion and within specific ideological frameworks, and culminating in periods of military and economic expansion. Finally, I argue that, if cultural globalisation is studied in tandem with Americanisation, it can be conceptually circumscribed and its finite nature better identified.

Nations and nationalism, Jan 1, 2007

Is homogenising nationalism a consequence of industrialisation? This view has been most forcefull... more Is homogenising nationalism a consequence of industrialisation? This view has been most forcefully and systematically advanced by Ernest Gellner. The article contests this approach by focusing instead on militarism and militarisation. It therefore identifies the key role of the mass army as presaging the era of mass nationalism and cultural homogenisation. Drawing on a range of authors from history, sociology and political science, the relationship is found to be reciprocal and symbiotic. A preliminary exploration on the possibility of early modern (or pre-modern) forms of cultural homogenisation, is preceded by a critical assessment of Gellner’s interchange- able use of the terms culture, language and ethnicity.

Frontiers in Human Dynamics, 2024

Histories, 2023

Studies on National Movements, 2023

The State of Nationalism, 2023

Ernest Gellner’s Legacy and Social Theory Today, 2022

Geo-societal Narratives, 2021

Sustainability, 2021

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution

Environmental Politics, 2021

Nationalities Papers, 2020

Journal of Political Ideologies, Oct 10, 2012

Globalisations, Feb 24, 2016

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (JEMS), 2012

Documentación Social

The International Journal of Human Rights , 2014

Nations & Nationalism, 2018

This is the introduction to a Nations & Nationalism symposium ed. by Daniele Conversi.

Ethnicities, Feb 2014

Democratization, 2012

Nations and nationalism, Jan 1, 2007

Cambridge History of Nationhood and Nationalism, 2023

Citizenship intended as a form of legally binding group membership can be identified throughout v... more Citizenship intended as a form of legally binding group membership can be identified throughout various historical epochs and geographical spaces dating back to Greek and Roman antiquity, although predating it in unwrit-ten form. However, the idea of citizenship has been vastly transformed since it was first conceived in classical antiquity.
While the relationship between citizenship and nationhood needs to be situated within a broader perspective (encompassing both their premodern roots and their spread across the world), Parisian elites should be placed centerstage in the formation of modern citizenship. The French Revolution provided the watershed event between premodern and modern notions of citizenship. The concept used today derives largely from the postrevolutionary attempt to implement the principle set down in the “universal” declaration of rights. Once Westphalian sovereignty became nationalized, the state was transformed into a nation-state. Citizenship was simultaneously redesigned to fit the nation-state, a goal largely achieved through the ideology of nationalism. The French revolutionary idea of citizenship subsequently expanded across the world, very often associated with essentialist, uniform, exclusivist, gender-centric tropes, from which the majority of the population was de facto excluded: youth, women, ethnic minorities, and indigenous peoples were often debarred from enjoying full citizenship rights. As current notions of citizenship across the globe derive from the initial Western imprint described above, non-Western notions of citizenship remain an important but understudied topic.
As the notion of citizenship has changed – and continues to evolve – one can venture into possible future developments. Emerging forms of environmental, ecological, agricultural, global, and activist citizenship contrast with traditional state-bound citizenship – providing insights for our understanding of nationalism and more controversial notions of “animal citizenship”. In particular, existing notions of citizenship are coming heavily under attack as unprecedented inequalities related to disruptive lifestyles and environmental cataclysm loom ahead.
The unprecedented interlinked crises of biodiversity loss, pandemics, human waste, overpopulation, and, most of all, climate change, jointly pose the most far-reaching challenge ever experienced by humankind as a whole and, consequently, to both inclusive citizenship and nationhood.

Geo-societal Narratives Contextualising geosciences, 2021

Liah Greenfeld (ed.), Research Handbook on Nationalism, pp. 34-52, 2020

The left/right divide is a constitutive aspect of modern politics, shaped by the French Revolutio... more The left/right divide is a constitutive aspect of modern politics, shaped by the French Revolution, the ascent of the bourgeoisie as the dominant political force and the conflict-ridden advent of democratic politics. Since the Revolution, the left has remained symmetrically opposed to the right in the shaping of parliaments and other representative institutions. While those positioned on the left originally identified themselves as patriots, the cult of la Patrie (the Fatherland) was slowly appropriated by the right. Around 130 years after the Revolution, this appropriation culminated in the rise of the authoritarian and fascist regimes between World War I and World War II. Since then, the association has remained almost unshakable. Despite some interludes, like the rise of anti-colonialism, post-colonialism and stateless nationalism, nationalism and patriotism have remained a prerogative of the right, although it should not necessarily be so. This chapter explores the gradual evolution of the left/right dichotomy and its shifting relationship with nationalism, speculating on how new constellations of power at the edges of modernity are drastically altering notions of left and right.

The Left and Nationalism: From the French Revolution to the Anthropocene
In book: Liah Greenfeld (ed.), Research Handbook on Nationalism. September 2020, pp. 34-52

Comparing Peace Processes, 2018

‘Hacia un futuro incierto. Cambio climático, nacionalismo y cosmopolitismo de superviviencia’, in... more ‘Hacia un futuro incierto. Cambio climático, nacionalismo y cosmopolitismo de superviviencia’, in Francis Javier Moreno-Fuentes y Eloísa del Pino (eds). Las Transformaciones Territoriales y Sociales del Estado en la Edad Digital. Libro homenaje a Luis Moreno. Madrid: CIS/CEPC (Centro de Estudios Políticos y Constitucionales), 2020, pp. 99-122. ISBN: 978-84-259-1857-5

The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalism, 2020

A few times in the past, a chorus of voices have claimed the imminent demise of nationalism: shor... more A few times in the past, a chorus of voices have claimed the imminent demise of nationalism: shortly after industrialization, Marx, Engels and others envisioned a permanent solution to the national question through the super‐synthesis of prole- tarian internationalism.1 After 1917, Lenin nuanced this belief by incorporating the principle of national self‐determination within a supranational Communist political order (Connor 1984). Then, an even more crass and dogmatic neoliberal ideology prematurely announced the “end of history”, while preaching and celebrating extreme deregulation as the herald of a new era of peace and placidity in a world without conflict. The key question considered in this chapter is not rhetorically intended: What is the future of nationalism? Rather than venturing into hard to prove conjectures, the chapter explores the intense changes at every level of politics and society since the inception of nationalism. It is organized into three chronological sequences: (i) the advent of modernity, arising from the combination of industrialization, science and the French Revolution, therefore merging the economic, cultural, and political spheres, (ii) the uncertain age of neoliberal globalization when, again, culture, politics, and economics merge and combine in an ill‐defined mix, and, finally, (iii) the rapidly approaching and fast moving age of the Anthropocene, a new geological epoch shaped by human agency and intervention on an unprecedentedly massive and disruptive scale. At each stage the role and repositioning of nationalism is assessed. Overall, the chapter looks at the changes and persistence of nationalism and what it means for the future of politics – and for humankind.

Conversi, Daniele (2020) 'The Future of Nationalism in a Transnational World'. In: The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalism (eds. Stone, John, Dennis, Rutledge, Rizova, Polly, et al.). Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 43-59.

H-Net, 2017

Scholars of nationalism have long argued about whether nationalism still makes sense in the conte... more Scholars of nationalism have long argued about whether nationalism still makes sense in the contemporary world or whether we live in a ‘post-ethnic’ (Martiniello 2001) or ‘post-national’ era (Delanty 2006; both cited in Edwards 2009: 177; Hobsbawn 2006). As the late Anthony D. Smith has taught us, these visions did not take into account the way ethnic myths, narratives, beliefs and symbols often predate the modern advent of nationalism and therefore can hardly disappear overnight (Smith 1996; 1998; 1999). In fact, nationalism shows no sign of declining in the near future and its prevaricating prominence has indeed been reinforced in the age of globalization (Conversi 2009; Nairn and James 2005).

At the same time, an ominous decline in public discourse and political legitimacy points to the possible advent of a new age of conflict in which, in a re-run of 100 years ago, history risks spinning out of control (Ghosh 2016; Gray 2008; Mishra 2017): According to Harry Leslie Smith, neoliberalism has brought us into an illusory cul-de-sac in which international war is more likely now than in 1914 or 1939 (Smith 2017). And, of course, it may be a nuclear or biological war, therefore incalculably more destructive – while neoliberal pundits never grow tired of arguing to the contrary.[2]

However, even if war and terrorism do not spin out of control, the clearest evidence of a radical, profound, perhaps irreversible, crisis of capitalism comes from the hard sciences – the social sciences still being ill-equipped for such a gigantic task. When over 97 per cent of cross-disciplinary scientific research agrees about the ‘anthropogenic causation’ of climate change (Cook et al. 2013), one should be astute enough to read between the lines and grasp a radical indictment of the viability of the capitalist system as we know it.

Has the Left renounced nationalism forever after the two world wars? Has it thus consigned the most powerful ideology of the modern age to the Right? There has been no shortage of attempts to combine the Left with nationalism. Most prominently, in France the Left attempted not just to reinvent itself but also French national identity. It did so by responding to the challenges and vagaries brought about by incipient globalization and, along the way, rediscovered and reconceptualised the identit(ies) of France (Martigny 2016). However, the pervasiveness of globalization froze these discussions and blocked their implementation in widely agreed public policies.

Globalization has led to wide-ranging changes in the relationship between place and power and, over the years, both nationalism/patriotism and the Left–Right dichotomy have been profoundly altered. The ensuing unprecedented, abrupt socioeconomic changes point towards a new and unforeseeable ‘liquid’ scenario (Bauman 2007) in an age that has the potential to be the terminal age for humankind.

The question is whether, under such historical conditions, there can be a consistent form of Leftist nationalism – as is developing among several ‘nations without a state’ and indigenous peoples across the world. This wouldn’t be anything exceedingly new: since the heyday of anti-colonialism, nationalism has reacquired a leftist image – and, as we have seen, nationalism was originally associated with liberalism and democracy. However, the relations of power are not the same today as they were at the time of the end of absolutism. As Piketty has shown with a wealth of data, the contemporary predicament is much more similar to that of the Belle Époque preceding World War I. Hence, a nationalism of the Left would be at least as equally suicidal today as it was 100 years ago – without considering the range of formidable new threats confronting humankind. On the other hand, to renounce nationalism in the name of cosmopolitan principles, although placing oneself on morally higher ground, would mean offering the Right a monopoly of the most potent contemporary ideology of mass mobilization – and one without which neoliberalism would probably be doomed. This is one of the major dilemmas political elites face today.

Ethnosymbolism. History, Culture and Ethnicity, Jan 1, 2007

… in the contemporary world: Walker Connor and …, Jan 1, 2002

Bryan Turner (ed.) Handbook of Globalization Studies, Jan 1, 2009

Minority Self-government in Europe and the Middle East: From Theory to Practice, 2019

In Olgun Akbulut & Elçin Aktoprak (eds) Minority Self-government in Europe and the Middle East: F... more In Olgun Akbulut & Elçin Aktoprak (eds) Minority Self-government in Europe and the Middle East: From Theory to Practice. Oxford: Brill, 106-130.

Nationalism and environmentalism have proved to be historically at odds with each other. The traditional emphasis on territory, land and soil, the rhetorical celebration of landscape and natural beauty and, at least in some countries, the idealisation of peasants as prototypes of national purity, have been con- trasted and contradicted by megaprojects informed by patriotic grandeur and competitive state-building. The latter have often contributed to the destruc- tion of both the environment and the rural economy. Characteristically, the centralising state has opened up national folklore museums while encourag- ing urbanisation and accepting rural displacement, thus contributing to the destruction of traditional lifestyles. Concurrently, modern states have created national parks and nature reserves, while contemplating the consequences of their accelerated development plans and unrestrained abuse of the environ- ment. Finally, when war comes, nationalism provides additional fuel to state builders engaged in sweeping infrastructure building and war machine expan- sion to annihilate both the environment and the human species.
In recent years, however, a new wave of evidence seems to suggest that at least some regional governments run by nationalist parties have been, and are still, more effective in tackling the environmental crisis of our time, enact- ing more vigorous eco-friendly legislation than their respective central gov- ernments. The key question here is: Do regional governments controlled by sub-state nationalist parties have a better record in implementing robust en- vironmental policies and effective sustainable development than their central governments?
This chapter explores the case of the Basque Autonomous Community (BAC) in Spain, with occasional reference to the broader national territory envisioned by Basque nationalists (thus including Navarre) and other meso- level institutions such as the provinces and municipalities. Our analysis illus- trates how at least some regions administered by sub-state nationalist parties (SSNPs) have a better record of environmental protection than their respective central states.

'Cultural Homogenization, Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide', in Robert A. Denemark (ed.) The Interna... more 'Cultural Homogenization, Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide', in Robert A. Denemark (ed.) The International Studies Encyclopedia. Oxford/ Boston, MA: Wiley-Blackwell (ENMISA), 2010, pp. 719-742 (ISBN: 978-1-4051-5238-9, eISBN: 9781444336597, DOI:10.1111/b.9781444336597.2010.x ) (fully refereed chapter)

El pentagrama político: Ensayos sobre música y nacionalismo., 2016

The chapter discusses to what extent free-market practices and neoliberal globalization have hamp... more The chapter discusses to what extent free-market practices and neoliberal globalization have hampered the continuing flow of creativity in Flamenco and Neapolitan song. I find that the former has encountered more solid forms of
institutional support, as well as extra-institutional communal channels, to cope with the challenges of globalisation. But, while both genres nave declined in terms of mass consumption and popularity, they have produced inventive, ground-breaking creations by combining with other genres. They have occasionally merged at a largely pioneering, experimental level. This solidity is related to both genres' capacity to convey multiple identities at the local, regional, national and cosmopolitan levels.

Himnos y Canciones. Imaginarios colectivos, símbolos e identidades fragmentadas en la España del ... more Himnos y Canciones. Imaginarios colectivos, símbolos e identidades fragmentadas en la España del siglo XX. Granada: Comares, 2016, pp. 207-224, ISBN 9788490454459.

Sovereignty Revisited: The Basque case. London: Routledge, 2018. ISBN 978113806804, 2017

‘Sovereignty, boundaries and violence: Constructing the Basque national self (1959-2011)’, in Åsh... more ‘Sovereignty, boundaries and violence: Constructing the Basque national self (1959-2011)’, in Åshild Kolås and Pedro Ibarra Güell (eds) Sovereignty Revisited: The Basque case. London: Routledge, 2018. ISBN 9781138068049

in Jennifer Jackson and Lina Molokotos-Liederman (eds) Nationalism, Ethnicity and Boundaries: Conceptualising and Understanding Identity Through Boundary Approaches. London: Routledge, 2014, pp. 57-82 (ch. 4).

in Jennifer Jackson and Lina Molokotos-Liederman (eds) Nationalism, Ethnicity and Boundaries: Co... more in Jennifer Jackson and Lina Molokotos-Liederman (eds) Nationalism, Ethnicity and Boundaries: Conceptualising and Understanding Identity Through Boundary Approaches. London: Routledge, 2014, pp. 57-82 (ch. 4).

El cambio productivo en el Antropoceno ha generalizado en la sociedad una pulsión a obtener más d... more El cambio productivo en el Antropoceno ha generalizado en la sociedad una pulsión a obtener más de lo necesario, determinando el rumbo de las sociedades contemporáneas y provocando efectos destructores del medio ambiente, muy superiores a los anteriores impactos producidos por la industrialización. Ya en 1972, en el primer informe auspiciado por el Club de Roma, “Los límites al crecimiento”, se puso de manifiesto que existían unas barreras naturales y ambientales a la expansión del industrialismo y del consumo masivo que no deberían ignorarse si quería preservarse el futuro de la vida social en nuestro planeta (Meadows y Club of Rome, 1972) . Aunque el Informe no hacía mención específica al cambio climático, es indudable que implícitamente fue una de las primeras invocaciones de Casandra al respecto. Con el paso del tiempo la exhortación del Club de Roma fue ignorada y doblegada por la pujante ideología neoliberal, la cual adquirió un estatus de supremacía acallando a las visiones alternativas y sustituyendo al modelo socioeconómico keynesiano característico de los estados del bienestar de la posguerra mundial.

… in the contemporary world: Walker Connor and …, Jan 1, 2002

En Sergio García Magariño (ed.) Gobernanza y Religión. Madrid: Delta Publicaciones, 2016, ISBN: 9... more En Sergio García Magariño (ed.) Gobernanza y Religión. Madrid: Delta Publicaciones, 2016, ISBN: 978-84-16383-42-

in Don MacIver (ed.) Political Issues in the World Today, Manchester: Manchester University Press... more in Don MacIver (ed.) Political Issues in the World Today, Manchester: Manchester University Press (Politics Today Series), 2004, pp. 48-63 [ISBN: 0719067057]

Mondadori Universita', 2022

Il punto di partenza di questo libro è che il cambiamento climatico in atto è epocale, e se non v... more Il punto di partenza di questo libro è che il cambiamento climatico in atto è epocale, e se non venisse fermato i rischi sarebbero incommensurabili. I negoziati internazionali sul clima, però, si concludono spesso con un fallimento, o al limite con il raggiungimento di traguardi parziali, e a tante parole pronunciate sul tema corrispondono raramente azioni concrete. Dopo aver delineato i vari aspetti della crisi planetaria in atto usando dati scientifici recenti, Daniele Conversi esplora le difficoltà inerenti all'adozione delle politiche necessarie ad uscirne, mettendo in evidenza come l'orizzonte entro cui dovranno essere prese le più importanti decisioni sul nostro futuro sia ancora limitato dalla morsa degli Stati-nazione e, quindi, del nazionalismo. Il volume si sviluppa lungo due linee parallele, ognuna articolata a sua volte in due capitoli. La prima parte analizza il problema da diverse angolazioni, inclusa quella delle scienze sociali, illustrando alcune delle conseguenze epistemologiche e metodologiche sorte dal convergere di varie discipline intorno ai recenti sviluppi scientifici. La seconda prende una direzione nuova, affrontando il problema della divisione geopolitica in Stati-nazione e dei loro nazionalismi incrociati che hanno impedito finora azioni concertate per fermare la crisi, influenzando tutti gli accordi internazionali sul clima-inclusi quelli che hanno avuto un successo relativo. Il quarto capitolo, in particolare, si interroga su come gestire questa pervasività del nazionalismo e su come cooptarlo verso una causa per cui non era stato inizialmente concepito, cioè la lotta al cambiamento climatico. "Mentre la ricerca scientifica continua a confermare le conseguenza sempre più rovinose dell'inazione", scrive l'autore, "la necessità di costruire reti e alleanze globali sotto la bandiera del «cosmopolitismo di sopravvivenza» non può escludere a priori tutte le forme di nazionalismo. L'emergenza climatica e le relative crisi sono così ampie e onnicomprensive che nulla dovrebbe essere escluso a priori nello sforzo comune di cercare una via d'uscita dalla possibile catastrofe".

Edited by Daniele Conversi. Contributions by Walker Connor, Anthony D Smith, Joshua A. Fishman, J... more Edited by Daniele Conversi. Contributions by Walker Connor, Anthony D Smith, Joshua A. Fishman, John Edwards, William Douglass, Thomas Spira, Robert J. Kaiser, William Safran, John Stone, John Coakley, Donald L. Horowitz, and Brendan O'Leary, with Introduction and final Chapter by the Editor.

Conversi, Daniele (1998) German-bashing and the breakup of Yugoslavia. The Donald W. Treadgold pa... more Conversi, Daniele (1998) German-bashing and the breakup of Yugoslavia. The Donald W. Treadgold papers in Russian, East European and Central Asian studies, 16. The Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, The University of Washington, Seattle, USA.

Since the inception of the Yugoslav crisis, the major Western powers have been unable to provide adequate or united responses to the maelstrom of calamitous events. The European Community’s decision to recognize the independence of Slovenia and Croatia on 16 December 1991, can be identified as the first coordinated attempt to find a way out of the impasse. According to its critics, this step was premature and precipitated the ensuing dramatic developments. According to its apologists, if anything, it came too late, only after the invasion of the JNA (Serbo-Croatian acronym for lugoslavenska Narodna Armija, Yugoslav People's Army, also known as YPA) of nearly one third of Croatia and a ten-day war with Slovenia.

This monograph aims to consider and analyze both viewpoints. In doing so, it will try to answer the two main questions underpinning each position: Why did Germany exert particular pressure to recognize Slovenia and Croatia? Why did the notion of Germany's responsibility for these events gain widespread acceptance? The sources will be both primary, such as statements by political leaders and diplomats, and secondary, such as academic literature touching upon the topic. The latter is still at an embryonic stage and critical research discussing the topic is still relatively limited. As is known, several countries had been pressing for recognition since the start of the war on 27 June 1991. However, it was only as et result of Germany's political and economic weight that the European Union found the will to move towards that end. This step was Germany's first bold foreign policy initiative since the end of World War 11.

Moreover, it occurred in the wake of another dramatic development, German reunification. The latter, although not openly contested by other Western powers, created a chilly sense of threat among some European countries, reviving far-reaching memories of a renewed German expansionism. Nowhere within the EC did this fear find such fertile ground as in the British popular press and in talk shows, where 'anti-Hun' rhetoric about the purported re-emergence of a Fourth Reich sprang up in popular political culture.

This monograph argues that such a political atmosphere deeply influenced and inhibited the debate over new developments in the Balkans, and in Eastern Europe in general, in the aftermath of the Cold War. Focusing on Germany's foreign initiative (often associated with Germany's Foreign Minister at the time of the crisis, Hans D. Genscher, who led the diplomatic initiative among his Euro-pean partners) provided a convenient all-encompassing rationale to make sense of an international event -the war in Bosnia- which defied most received wisdom and accepted explanations.

Effective analysis has also been inhibited by another factor: a split between international relations in practice on the one hand, and socio-political analysis on the other. There has been a tendency, if not a will, to play down the internal socio-political factors within Yugoslavia in favor of grandiose international explanations about a new carve-up of the Balkans.

This shortcoming is particularly evident in works by international diplomats, who, rather than focusing on the internal events leading to the war, give an exaggerated importance to external factors, in which there seems to be often a desperate apology of their profession's mistakes. Sociological and political interpretations of the war's domestic origins are often ignored.

The result is that journalistic reports and other insider accounts have often conveyed the issue more reliably than analyses by International Relations scholars or practitioners. In the last two years, however, studies by a younger generation of scholars, not from International Relations, have started to analyze in depth the internal causes of the war, while providing a balanced consideration of external factors.

A brief chronological outline on recognition and its opponents will establish that the former came long after Yugoslavia had begun its slide towards disintegration, and many months after the war started. The role of Lord Carrington's initiative will be given a particular weight. The ensuing section will attempt to answer the question of why Germany apparently exerted more pressure for recognition than other European countries. Western responses to the German initiative are put in the context of a widening rift among - and within - the main European powers on how to deal with the crisis. A full section is dedicated to "German- bashing" as a resurgent Western - particularly British - malaise.

2000, 212 pp. El grau de violència sense parangó que va acompanyar la desintegració de Iugoslà... more 2000, 212 pp.

El grau de violència sense parangó que va acompanyar la desintegració de Iugoslàvia només es pot explicar si considerem adequadament tant els factors externs com els interns. Com més mixtes, assimilades i indistingibles eren les poblacions que calia “separar”, més sistemàtic, incessant i cínic havia de resultar l’ús de la coacció. Això dóna compte de per què els nivells més alts de violència “interètnica” van tenir lloc a Bòsnia. Occident va reaccionar d’acord amb la hipòtesi de la similitud/diferència: quan deixaren anar les primeres bombes sobre terra eslovena, els indiferents líders internacionals i una opinió pública desconeixedora dels fets van desviar la mirada lluny de la tragèdia, o bé es van veure passar els esdeveniments posteriors de braços plegats. Quan es va engegar la neteja ètnica a Croàcia, alguns països, sobretot Alemanya, començaren, amb retard, a exercir una pressió forta sobre Belgrad per tal d’aturar la marxa envers el caos. Els acords de Dayton, precedits pels primers atacs aeris “demostratius” contra objectius serbis restringits, només es van assolir ateses les fortes pressions dels Estats Units i tot i l’oposició constant del Regne Unit i França. A la fi, quan les primeres imatges dels refugiats amb mocadors al cap procedents de Kosovo van colpejar els mitjans de comunicació, una nova commoció humanitària es va afegir al cúmul de vuit anys de patiments. Si Iugoslàvia havia concedit tants drets a les seues repúbliques i províncies, aleshores, per què es va desintegrar la federació? Que no se'n van aplacar i acontentar del tot els pobles constituents amb els drets que havien obtingut o que se'ls havia atorgat?

El grado de violencia sin parangón que acompañó la desintegración de Yugoslavia solo se puede explicar si consideramos adecuadamente tanto los factores externos como los internos. Cuanto más mixtas, asimiladas e indistinguibles eran las poblaciones que había que “separar”, más sistemático, incesante y cínico había resultar el uso de la coacción. Esto da cuenta del motivo por el cual los niveles más altos de violencia “interétnica” tuvieron lugar en Bosnia. Occidente reaccionó de acuerdo con la hipótesis de la similitud/diferencia: cuando cayeron las primeras bombas sobre tierra eslovena, los indiferentes líderes internacionales y una opinión pública desconocedora de los hechos desviaron la mirada lejos de la tragedia, o bien se vieron pasar los acontecimientos posteriores de brazos cruzados. Cuando se puso en marcha la limpieza étnica en Croacia, algunos países, sobretodo Alemana, empezaron, con retraso, a ejercer una presión fuerte sobre Belgrado para poner fin al caos. Los acuerdos de Dayton, precedidos por los primeros ataques aéreos “demostrativos” contra objetivos serbios restringidos, solo se alcanzaron por las fuertes presiones de los Estados Unidos y pese a la oposición constante del Reino Unido y de Francia. Finalmente, cuando las primeras imágenes de los refugiados con pañuelos en la cabeza procedentes de Kosovo golpearon los medios de comunicación, una nueva conmoción humanitaria se añadió al cúmulo de ocho años de sufrimientos. ¿Si Yugoslavia había concedido tantos derechos a sus repúblicas y provincias, por qué se desintegró la federación? ¿No se aplacaron y se contentaron del todo los pueblos constituyentes con los derechos que habían obtenido o que se les habían otorgado?

Agenda Pública-El País, 2019

Aludían los viejos romanos al Mare Nostrum como referente geográfico de su acción económica, polí... more Aludían los viejos romanos al Mare Nostrum como referente geográfico de su acción económica, política y social. En realidad, el Mediterráneo ya se había convertido en el basamento fundacional de los actuales valores civilizatorios del hemisferio occidental. Ahora el Mare Nostrum es escenario de un proceso convulso de deterioro ambiental y testigo de un gran drama humano. Considérese la pronunciada disminución de las precipitaciones y la ausencia de lluvia en algunas zonas, especialmente durante el período estival. Y ello es precisamente así porque la variabilidad interanual aumenta dramáticamente durante el verano, cuando se alcanzan temperaturas cada vez más extremas. Los ominosos síntomas se multiplican y el cambio climático los hará cada vez más vulnerables, con un impacto brutal en los recursos hídricos de la cuenca mediterránea; ya se manifiestan en nuestro 'pequeño océano' con la transformación de las faunas marinas y el aumento de especies invasivas. La rápida desertificación de amplias superficies del Norte de África se está extendiendo a la Europa del Sur, especialmente a zonas meridionales españolas y, en particular, a Andalucía. Recuérdese que, con unas 4.000 plantas autóctonas, la biodiversidad de la región andaluza es una de las mayores de Europa. Los estudios de Juergen Scheffran y otros colegas suyos indicaban, ya en 2012, que las precipitaciones en el Norte de África disminuirían entre un 10% y un 20% para el año 2050, con un aumento consiguiente de las temperaturas de entre 2° y 3°. Las consecuencias serían agudas en la zona noroccidental de África septentrional, al combinarse el cataclismo climático con un fuerte crecimiento demográfico, lo que haría inevitable un masivo desplazamiento migratorio hacia Europa en su flanco sur. [Con la colaboración de Red Eléctrica de España] La crisis climática empuja a un número creciente de habitantes magrebíes a abandonar sus territorios en dirección a la orilla septentrional del Mare Nostrum. Y es aquí donde, de nuevo, incide el fenómeno de las migraciones contemporáneas. Las cifras de los inmigrantes fallecidos en su búsqueda de una vida mejor en el Viejo Continente, muchos de ellos atravesando la cuenca mediterránea, son aterradoras. A fecha de 5 de mayo de 2018, y según 'The List', se habían registrado documentalmente 34.361 migrantes muertos. Son cifras que, sin embargo, podrían palidecer ante la amenaza letal del cambio climático en el Mediterráneo. La potencial mortalidad para los seres humanos por causas medioambientales no se producirá a corto plazo en modo tan impactante como el de la inmigración, pero sus efectos podrían ser más devastadores para todo el ecosistema viviente. A ambas orillas del Mediterráneo, los incendios forestales inciden dramáticamente sobre el cambio climático y son la principal causa de la pérdidas de bosques en la cuenca mediterránea, a lo que contribuye poderosamente la emisión de los gases de efecto invernadero producidos por la combustión de biomasa. La deforestación es la segunda mayor fuente antropogénica de CO2 a la atmósfera, después de los combustibles fósiles. En España, entre 1998 ! " TRANSICIÓN ENERGÉTICA

Agenda Pública El País, May 17, 2019

Nuestro interés en este artículo se concentra en la relevancia de una transversalidad global que ... more Nuestro interés en este artículo se concentra en la relevancia de una transversalidad global que debería implicar y cimentar la acción de gobierno para los próximos cuatro años y que atañe a la urgencia de un acuerdo sobre un New Deal Verde. La sintonía entre ambas fuerzas de la izquierda (PSOE y UP) durante la próxima campaña para las elecciones europeas y locales del próximo 26 de mayo, será también puesta a prueba respecto al Nuevo Acuerdo Verde, de obvias repercusiones en el nivel supra y subestatal de la agenda política. Tal sintonía se nos antoja indispensable para una deseable acción de gobierno conjunta que sea sólida y estable durante cuatro años. Existen pocas dudas en la opinión pública y publicada respecto a la situación de

Agenda Pública (El País), 2019

En las elecciones generales italianas del 4 de marzo de 2018, menos de 10 años después de su naci... more En las elecciones generales italianas del 4 de marzo de 2018, menos de 10 años después de su nacimiento, el Movimiento Cinco Estrellas (M5S) se convirtió en el primer partido de Italia con el 32,68 % de los votos en la Cámara --y el 32,22 % en el Senado. Ese cambio pareció indicar la voluntad real de una parte substancial del electorado de cambiar de rumbo y de dejar atrás la vergonzosa y triste época de la corrupción a gran escala de la era Berlusconi. Como no le era posible gobernar en solitario, el Movimiento se vio obligado a formar un gobierno de coalición con la Liga (o Liga Norte), un partido de ultraderecha que originalmente se debatía entre la autonomía y el separatismo del Norte, y que había obtenido algo más del 17 % de los votos.

¿Cómo está reaccionando la comunidad internacional? Todos los países vecinos de Italia y Europa entera no esconden su preocupación y creciente nerviosismo. Y los conflictos internos del gobierno italiano están siendo observados intensamente por la presidencia de los Estados Unidos con su plan de hundir Europa como proyecto político y social común.

Se trata de un diseño que ya se dio a conocer durante la presidencia de George W. Bush, cuando miembros de su gobierno atacaron repetidamente a varios países europeos y a la "vieja" Europa como concepto que superar. A partir de la invasión de Afganistán e Irak, las fracturas cada día más irreconciliables alimentaron una profunda desconfianza entre Europa y los Estados Unidos. En particular, las elites corporativas de los Estados Unidos nunca perdonaron a Europa la adopción de un sistema monetario único, horrorizadas por la amenaza que representaba el euro para la supremacía mundial del dólar. Ahora, con Donald Trump y Steve Bannon, su ‘embajador’ en Europa y exjefe-estratega, el sueño republicano de Bush parece convertirse en realidad, pero a través de una radicalización sin precedentes de los conflictos y un apoyo masivo a los regímenes autoritarios.

El juego para la destrucción de Europa se jugará principalmente en Roma. El sometimiento de Roma al soberanismo autoritario podría significar la destrucción del sueño europeo. En este caso, el proyecto devastador de Bannon-Trump podría avanzar y ganar gracias a la incongruencia italiana.

Negli ultimi decenni, la crescita abnorme dei consumi di gran parte della popolazione terrestre h... more Negli ultimi decenni, la crescita abnorme dei consumi di gran parte della popolazione terrestre ha prodotto gravi effetti sul nostro pianeta con conseguenze potenzialmente catastrofiche per il futuro di tutte le specie viventi. Tali effetti sono oggetto già da vari decenni di studi, rapporti di ricerca e pubblicazioni di alto impatto che hanno coinvolto quasi tutte le discipline scientifiche. Purtroppo però tutta questa abbondanza di studi ha fatto capolino solo in modo intermittente sui mezzi di comunicazione di massa e nelle reti sociali, spesso ostacolata e contraddetta dalla visibilità istrionica di pseudo-scienziati portavoce, riconosciuti o meno, delle lobbies petrolifere e dei combustibili fossili. Dato tale pervasivo vuoto di informazione, non c'è da sorprendersi che il pubblico sia più orientato a crucciarsi per i prezzi di consumo dell'energia elettrica piuttosto che a chiedersi come ridurre le emissioni. Oggi mancano gli strumenti e la volontà di mostrare a tutte le popolazioni cosa si debba fare in pratica per contribuire a ridurre i cambiamenti climatici.
.....Solo pochi giorni fa, i risultati di una ricerca scientifica appena pubblicata sulla prestigiosa Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) confermano in termini ancora più catastrofici l'imminenza della 'sesta estinzione di massa' nella storia del pianeta. Si parla di "biological annihilation" (annientamento biologico) rivelando come miliardi di animali siano già stati eliminati negli ultimi decenni, conseguenza diretta e indiretta dell'attività umana. Come se non bastassero gli allarmi che ci giungono da tutti i fronti, le ricerche confermano un'unica tendenza: l'impatto del consumo di massa promosso dal neoliberismo imperante sta alterando la superficie terrestre in maniera irreversibile, fino a cambiare lo stesso suolo su cui poggiamo i piedi (poche volte invero perché usiamo prevalentemente mezzi di trasporto).
Nel corso dell'ultimo secolo, con l'uso generalizzato dell'automobile, ci si è adagiati sullo sfruttamento dei combustibili fossili attraverso un aumento massiccio dei consumi, promuovendo inoltre una divisione internazionale del lavoro tra regioni destinate all'estrazione e altre destinate all’industrializzazione. Questo modello è stato responsabile non solo di un aumento senza precedenti delle emissioni di CO2, ma anche di un processo a senso unico di omogeneizzazione culturale, a seguito del quale mai prima d'ora così tante persone hanno assunto abitudini di consumo originariamente proprie delle vecchie élites occidentali.
Tali processi hanno contribuito ad aumentare i livelli di povertà e di emarginazione sociale, sia nei paesi sviluppati che in quelli in via di sviluppo. Secondo un noto rapporto di Oxfam (‘Extreme Carbon Inequality’, 2015), la stragrande maggioranza delle vittime del cambiamento climatico sono proprio coloro che vivono in paesi che contribuiscono di meno allo stesso. E per di più, le regioni più vulnerabili ospitano circa la metà più povera della popolazione mondiale. Un grafico assai rivelatore dell'ingiustizia climatica, non lascia dubbi su come la metà più povera della popolazione mondiale, produca solo il 10% delle emissioni globali di carbonio, mentre il 10% più ricco del pianeta contribuisce a oltre il 50% delle emissioni.

Diario Público, Jul 5, 2017

Popularizado inicialmente por el químico Paul J. Crutzen para designar una nueva fase separada de... more Popularizado inicialmente por el químico Paul J. Crutzen para designar una nueva fase separada del Holoceno (última época geológica del período Cuaternario), el Antropoceno hace referencia a la influencia determinante de la conducta humana en la atmósfera de la Tierra. El incremento de los gases de efecto de invernadero (GEI) es probablemente el elemento definitorio del inicio de la nueva era, a mediados del pasado siglo XX.

The Left and Nationalism Monthly Series I read Maurizio Ferrera’s article largely as a response ... more The Left and Nationalism Monthly Series

I read Maurizio Ferrera’s article largely as a response to, and interpretation of, the global ghosts and fears evoked by the Catalan crisis. Moreover, the author perceives similarities between Italy's Northern leagues and the Catalan pro-independence parties; this vision seems to inform much of his interpretive framework.

The article is a further hint that Catalonia's push towards independence has led in practice to a rehabilitation of political Jacobinism and a return to state centralisation. Or is it the other way around? Separatism causes centralism, or no, centralism causes separatism: the egg and chicken dilemma is back.

Most Europeans now seem to fear more a government run by ERC in Barcelona than a neo-conservative PP government in Madrid which, it should be recognised, has secured greater respect than either Brexit or Trump. The Spanish Prime Minister has so far been quite successful in enhancing this image. Nobody can deny that, while Catalan nationalism has acquired a bad press, the Spanish central government appears so far strengthened by the way it has managed the conflict, even though it has effectively imposed unprecedented draconian measures – which, in the end, may prove to be a mere short term gain. In parallel, the continued radicalisation of the Catalan conflict has generated deep fractures within Catalonia itself, which are easily exploited by the central government. This in turn is likely to lead to further fragmentation and divisions. But, sooner rather than later, some sort of negotiation will be necessary. We do not know what will happen tomorrow, we only know that negotiation should always be firmly on the table.

Despite ample evidence to the contrary, there is thus a widespread fear that secessionism harbours the seeds of fascism, xenophobia and racism. The very notion is worrisome: Can such labelling be transformed into a self-fulfilling prophecy? As always, the answer largely depends on the general will to negotiate, which has now become a rara avis, a scarcely available good in the age of Trumpism.

Tras la cumbre ONU sobre cambio climático finalizada en París el 12 de diciembre de 2015 nada sus... more Tras la cumbre ONU sobre cambio climático finalizada en París el 12 de diciembre de 2015 nada sustancial parece haberse producido. La mayoría de la gente parece resignada a continuar con “lo de siempre” (business as usual). O sea, continuará el alto consumo de combustibles fósiles.
Pero la devastación provocada por el cambio climático no ceja y sus efectos se hacen sentir más y en más territorios de nuestra querida Tierra. La capa de hielo del Ártico prosigue su incesante derretimiento, al igual que los glaciares de los Alpes, el Himalaya y los Andes. En Bolivia, el Lago Poopó, el segundo más grande del país, se ha evaporado el mes pasado, dejando a los pescadores sin sus tradicionales recursos de sustento. La sequía sin precedentes en las regiones agrícolas del este de Australia está obligando a los agricultores a reclamar agua o a abandonar su medio de vida…..
Sin embargo, el dato más inquietante es que sabemos con certeza matemática que todo este proceso de auto-destrucción es causado por el sistema económico existente en obsesiva expansión, con un consumo masivo desbordado que todo lo devora. La etapa actual del considerado capitalismo extremo es el principal responsable del cambio climático.
La omisión más importante en París ha sido precisamente el insuficiente reconocimiento otorgado a los vínculos indiscutibles entre calentamiento global y capitalismo. Es decir, la cumbre evitó confrontar la ideología neoliberal incrustada en el actual sistema económico, la misma que promueve la explotación desenfrenada de los recursos mundiales en beneficio de una pequeña élite a través del consumo de grandes cantidades de productos enormemente contaminantes. El capitalismo extremo parece inmune a la autocrítica e incapaz de hacer frente a sus propios defectos, y mucho menos a reformarse.
Para transformar en algo creíble el encuentro de París, con sus variopintas imágenes de personas de múltiples colores, credos y lenguas inmortalizadas en un sinfín de imágenes, se requiere que el acuerdo se refleje en una legislación vinculante y ejecutiva. Casi 200 países se comprometieron a limitar los gases de efecto invernadero con el fin de evitar aumentos de temperatura más de 1,5 grados centígrados, así como a controlar los progresos realizados cada cinco años. Pero tales promesas deben traducirse en acciones tangibles y de efectos inmediatos.

‘Sull’orlo dell’abisso.Come mitigare gli effetti del cambio climatico?’, Articolo 33, vol. 8, n. ... more ‘Sull’orlo dell’abisso.Come mitigare gli effetti del cambio climatico?’, Articolo 33, vol. 8, n. 2, Febbraio 2016, pp. 46-47; ISSN: 2280-4315

Resa popolare dal Nobel per la chimica Paul Crutzen per designare un nuovo periodo geologico sepa... more Resa popolare dal Nobel per la chimica Paul Crutzen per designare un nuovo periodo geologico separato dall' Olocene (ultimo periodo geologico dell'era Quaternaria), la nozione di Antropocene ci richiama all'impatto determinante, permanente e irreversibile del comportamento umano sulla superficie terrestre. Nel suo libro tradotto in italiano come Benvenuti nell'Antropocene, Crutzen argomenta che le prove per stabilire l'inizio del nuovo periodo sono già visibili sia nelle rocce, in forma di isotopi nucleari, sedimenti, scorie, particelle di alluminio, cemento, plastica e carbone, sia negli oceani e nelle zone costiere, con l'innalzamento del livello del mare conseguente allo scioglimento dei ghiacci. L'aumento rapido dei gas a effetto serra (GHG, greenhouse gas) è probabilmente l'elemento che definisce meglio l'inizio della nuova era, che si può collocare all'incirca verso la metà del 20º secolo, anche se il dibattito rimane aperto circa l'identificazione di una data precisa. Negli ultimi decenni, la crescita abnorme dei consumi di gran parte della popolazione terrestre ha prodotto gravi effetti sul nostro pianeta con conseguenze potenzialmente catastrofiche per il futuro di tutte le specie viventi.

Agenda Pública (El Pais), 2018

Hace unos días, el presidente de la Generalitat, Quim Torra, habló de una "vía eslovena hacia la ... more Hace unos días, el presidente de la Generalitat, Quim Torra, habló de una "vía eslovena hacia la independencia" de Cataluña. Más allá de que sea viable, conviene repasar los hechos que rodearon al proceso esloveno y sus efectos colaterales durante el período de desmembración yugoslava (1991-1999). Eslovenia fue el primero de los países que se separaron de Yugoslavia. Ello concatenó las declaraciones de independencia-una tras otra-de todas las repúblicas y un territorio autónomo, Kosovo, que formaban parte de la República Democrática Federal de Yugoslavia. Ésta fue constituida en primera instancia al final de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, y estuvo bajo conducción política y mando militar del mariscal Tito de 1953 a 1980. La declaración de independencia eslovena de junio de 1991 no fue pacífica. Provocó una reacción inmediata del Ejército yugoslavo y causó más de 70 muertos en la propia Eslovenia (la llamada Guerra de los Diez Días). Siendo dicha declaración la directa responsable de tan trágico resultado, esto no fue lo más grave. Sí lo fue como desencadenante del proceso de desintegración política y territorial que siguió en una tierra predispuesta históricamente para la carnicería. La debacle eslovena continuó en Croacia, donde conllevó una despiadada guerra civil y el primer caso de limpieza étnica que se produjo en Europa en la posguerra mundial. En lo relativo a Bosnia, asumió la forma de un verdadero genocidio con casi 100.000 muertos. A la serie de masacres masivas en Kosovo sólo pusieron fin los bombardeos disuasorios de la OTAN en Serbia. [Recibe diariamente los análisis de más actualidad en tu correo electrónico o en tu teléfono a través de nuestro canal de Telegram] En el año 2000, Daniele Conversi, uno de los coautores del presente artículo, publicó el libro 'La desintegració de Iugoslavia', en el que se acometía la tarea de explicar el cómo y el porqué de la desintegración, a la que había conducido en un primer momento la declaración unilateral de independencia de Eslovenia. Aunque el libro tuvo difusión en el mundo académico, y fue incluso citado profusamente por el influyente historiador nacionalista Joan B. Culla i Clara, su repercusión mediática fue escasa. Quizá el libro podría haberse leído entonces como una poderosa señal de advertencia. Casi 20 años después, y dado que la lección que se analizaba entonces no se ha comprendido ni entendido en absoluto, sirvan nuestras presentes reflexiones para proseguir en la tarea de arrojar algo de luz a tan devastador asunto. El libro se ocupaba de dos asuntos principales, de carácter externo e interno. Primero: la comunidad internacional defendió la pervivencia del Estado yugoslavo, incluso cuando la sangre comenzó a fluir. Tal apoyo se prolongó hasta que se hicieron evidentes las pruebas del genocidio cometido por los paramilitares serbios. Segundo: la defensa de la unidad yugoslava se dejó en manos del Ejército federal, una institución controlada por mandos serbios. Recuérdese que el partido comunista de Yugoslavia, que había controlado las instituciones políticas de la federación, se convirtió en el partido comunista de Serbia. La etnización partidista lo convirtió en una organización promotora de un tipo de secesión serbia, pese a proclamar que auspiciaba la continuidad de una Yugoslavia unida. En realidad, y en las mentes del secretario general Slobodan Milosevic (1941-2006) y del entorno ! " AGENDA POLÍTICA

in Thomas M. Leonard (ed.) Encyclopedia of the Developing World, Dec 2005

in Anthony D Smith and Athena Leoussi (eds) Encyclopaedia of Nationalism

Self-determination is a principle in international law that a people ought to be able to determin... more Self-determination is a principle in international law that a people ought to be able to determine its own future and political status free from external interference. It hence embodies the right for all peoples to decide their own political, economic, and cultural development.
The principle was first implemented on European soil following the post-World War I col- lapse of the dynastic Central European empires (Russian, Austro-Hungarian, and Ottoman). It was zealously fostered by the president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924), thus becoming the cornerstone for the entire post-World War I order heralding the beginning of the ‘‘American century.’’ Accordingly, the boundaries of newly formed states had to be made congruent with ‘‘existing’’ ethnonational divisions. In order to achieve this goal, each self- determined unit had ideally to be conceived as an internally homogeneous entity. On the other hand, wherever possible, oppressed minorities should be granted the same right. Although the original idea was to establish a more stable world order, the effect was just the opposite, to increase European disorder, since all newly cre- ated entities included numerous minorities in their midst. The resulting convulsions became propitious for the consolidation of the United States as the hegemonic power at the global level.

in Peter N. Stearns (ed.) The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World. New York/ Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008,

in Dinah L. Shelton (ed.) Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity, 3 vols. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2004

in Jeffrey Ross (ed.) Religion and Violence: An Encyclopedia of Faith and Conflict from Antiquity to the Present

in Carl Skutsch (ed.) Encyclopedia of the World's Minorities

Encyclopedia Britannica, Britannica Yearbook: 2001

in Bernard Cook (ed.) Europe Since 1945: An Encyclopedia

in Eamonn Rodgers (ed.) Encyclopedia of Contemporary Spanish Culture

‘Paris - and now what?’, The Economy Journal, (Special issue on: ‘Climate change’), Wednesday, 2... more ‘Paris - and now what?’, The Economy Journal, (Special issue on: ‘Climate change’), Wednesday, 24 February 2016

No country is perfect. But, when a country’s influence is matchlessly global, any small imperfect... more No country is perfect. But, when a
country’s influence is matchlessly global,
any small imperfection reverberates
throughout the ecumene with dramatic
after effects. From political correctness to
crime and punishment, from the erosion
of civil liberties to religious fundamentalism,
the impact of American political
culture on the rest of the world is hardly
disputable. Anatol Lieven explores this
dimension with unequaled precision,
arguing that American nationalism lies at
the core of both domestic and foreign
policy.
Jacksonian nationalism, the creed of a
closed community under perpetual siege
from ethnic minorities, terrorists and
criminals operates in tandem with a more
exportable and optimist creed, called
‘patriotism’. Lieven demonstrates the
affiliation between the two, questioning
whether the more ‘ethnic’ variety is really
the dominant one. He recognizes that
the patriotic trend towards cultural and ideological homogeneity is forced upon a
highly plural society. Indeed, the attempt
to superimpose homogeneous conformity
onto such a rich and varied environment
is a recipe for totalitarian thought and
practice.
The argument recurring throughout the
book, that we are facing an extremely
aggressive and unprecedented form of
hyperpower nationalism, is plausible.

Political Studies Review, vol. 3, 2: pp. 246-257. First Published Apr 1, 2005

The Review of Politics, 2010

Nations and Nationalism, 2007

Political Studies Review, vol. 1, 2: pp. 195-220. First Published Apr 1, 2003.

Political Studies Review, vol. 1, 2: pp. 195-220. First Published Apr 1, 2003. Especially engagin... more Political Studies Review, vol. 1, 2: pp. 195-220. First Published Apr 1, 2003.
Especially engaging is the chapter on
patriotism, where the author deals with
patriotism’s kin-like features as evinced
in related terms: ‘patriarchalism’, ‘patron’,
‘patronage’, ‘patrician’, and so on. Thus,
patriotism cannot really be ‘civic’ and
it is often hardly distinguishable from forms of nationalism and ethnonationalism.
This chapter should be
compulsory reading for all those who
still deliberately identify patriotism as a
more ‘acceptable’ form of nationalism. An
interesting chapter on communitarianism
could have offered sharper and tougher
criticisms. Indeed, the book provides a
‘soft’ critique of particularism, as its main
argument remains sinuous and often
lacking teeth. One reason for this is its
highly abstract nature without empirical
referents to existing nationalisms, not
even to the most powerful – that of the
USA. Neither is there sufficient attention
to the impact of globalization
or Americanization. A very interesting
chapter on the use and abuse of key terms
in multiculturalism in the end fails to
deliver, as the uncertain relationship
between culture, ethnicity and nation
remains shrouded in ambiguity. Why do
scholars often confuse these terms? If
there is such a confusion, it is because
common elements, as well as differences,
exist, but they are not systematically
explored.

Revista Internacional de Sociología

La crisis ‘europea’ de los años 2010 abarca no sólo la dimensión económica sino la política, inst... more La crisis ‘europea’ de los años 2010 abarca no sólo la dimensión económica sino la política, institucional y de identidad. Además, España está inmersa en su propia crisis resultante en gran medida de una desregulación inmobiliaria salvaje sin parangón.
Uno de las sinécdoques más utilizadas en los estudios de la ciencia política y de los estudios europeos, particularmente en los trabajos de Milward y Moravcsik, es que la Unión Europea fue el resultado conveniente y casi involuntario de los cálculos económicos de unos líderes políticos que querían perpetuarse, reforzando su poder. En tiempos actuales de crisis económica y política, se olvidan las raíces emocionales y el impulso idealista que acompañaron todo el proyecto europeo además de su racionalidad.
¿Podrá Europa solventar los problemas que le acechan? Quizás la única posibilidad sería la profundización del proceso de unificación a través, por ejemplo, de una tesorería asociada a la banca central europea, o la simultánea adopción del federalismo fiscal con un sistema fiscal común, al mismo tiempo que se neutralizan las fuerzas destructivas de los nacionalismos estatales, que redoblan sus amenazas contra el proyecto europeo.
El libro de Luis Moreno proporciona claves sumamente útiles e innovativas para esclarecer todos esos temas interrelacionados entre sí.

Nations and Nationalism, 2005

... The Federalization of Spain. Daniele Conversi. Article first published online: 27 SEP 2005. D... more ... The Federalization of Spain. Daniele Conversi. Article first published online: 27 SEP 2005. DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-8129.2005.00223_12.x. Issue. Nations and Nationalism. ... More content like this. Find more content: like this article. Find more content written by: Daniele Conversi. ...

Review of: Agirreazkuenaga, Joseba (2014) ‘The Making of the Basque Question: Experiencing Self... more Review of: Agirreazkuenaga, Joseba (2014) ‘The Making of the Basque Question: Experiencing Self-Government, 1793-1877’, Nations and Nationalism, Vol 20, Issue 1, pages 182–184. Indexed in ISI/WoK and Scopus, impact factor 2013 (2 years): 0.667 (Q1, ranked 3/72 in the category History)

This guide accompanies the following article: Daniele Conversi, ‘Democracy and Nationalism – Teaching Guide’, Sociology Compass 2/1 (2008): 156–182, 10.1111/j.1751-9020.2007.00063.x

For many years, scholars and laymen have hung on to the belief that democracy, particularly liber... more For many years, scholars and laymen have hung on to the belief that democracy, particularly liberal democracy, could easily do away with national and ethnic conflicts, so that we could all live in a more peaceful world. Many have forgotten that dictators in the past had already used democracy to establish their iron grip. Hitler seized power in a democratic context, however, unique and peculiar may we judge Weimar Germany from today’s standards. Over 50 years later, Milosevic’s ascent to power in Serbia was confirmed within an electoral democratic framework. More recently, populist autocrats like Italy’s PM Silvio Berlusconi, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and some Latin American leaders have thrived on majoritarian democratic principles, treating electoral results as vox populi vox dei while manipulating popular emotions through patriotic appeals.

However, an increasing number of authors share a disenchanted view of liberal democracy, stressing its incapacity to bring durable peace and granting human co-existence. This trend can be called ‘demo-skepticism’ and should not be confused with ‘anti-democratic’ thought. ‘Demo-skeptics’ stress in particular democracy’s incapacity to regulate and rein in nationalism. Michael Man’s milestone work on the Dark Side of Democracy demonstrates how majority rule can lead to the explosion of ethnic cleansing and genocide.

In line with Mann’s argument, majoritarian democracies as political systems do not often take into account minority aspirations and identities. In such a context, the rule of the dominant ethnonational majority remains unchallenged on most grounds. Obsessed by fear of difference, many majoritarian democracies have been historically unable to deal with ethnic, cultural and religious pluralism – depending on which of these bases a majority group is defined. Moreover, majoritarian democracies are often opposed, or suspicious about, multiculturalism.

Over the past two centuries, this has led to self-defeating policies of cultural assimilation, predicated on a vision of cultural homogeneity, which eventually led to physical eliminationism and genocide in a context of international war. Therefore, we can identify a link between cultural homogenization, intolerance and, eventually, the degeneration of democracy.

Finally, liberal democracy both in its majoritarian and in its multicultural variety, can be charged with having encouraged, rather than simply adapted to, globalization, with all its harrowing consequences. The litmus test for contemporary democracy will probably be its capacity to tackle climate change catastrophe and survive intact

Planet Agora, 2003

Scholars still cannot agree on the meaning of the term globalization, for which there is no yet c... more Scholars still cannot agree on the meaning of the term globalization, for which there is no yet coherent or universal definition: some authors focus on mere economic aspects, others on financial flows, others on policy-making and the law, and so on. Of all forms of globalization, cultural globalization is possibly the most visible and effective as it proceeds on its lethal path of global destruction, removing all traditional barriers and securities in its wake. It is also the form of globalization which can be more easily identified with US global dominance. In this opaper, I shall relate cultural globalization to the twin concept of 'cultural security', as developed by Jean Tardif and others.
In its current shape, cultural globalization can be broadly understood as one-way massive
import of standardized cultural items and icons from a single country, the United States of America. For large portions of the ecumene, it is hence synonymous with Westernization, and, more accurately, Americanization. The international consequence of this global threat is a widespread sense of 'cultural insecurity'. The latter is so far unable to express itself in rational and organized ways, and is just beginning to express itself through visceral and unpredictable anti-American attitudes (Sardar and Davies 2002).
'Americanization' should be here intended in its most superficial, incoherent, fractional,
and deficient sense. As aping and mimicking something one does not even grasp the
value of. As the spread of quite trivial and commercial aspects of industrialized US mass directed products.
The area which requires most urgent attention is the relationship between Americanization and inter-ethnic, or national, conflict The main challenge is to define the relationship between the two: Does nationalism reinforce globalization or can it rather represent a challenge to globalization? Is globalization reinforcing nationalism or can it in some way be channelled in the opposite direction? What kind of nationalism is most likely to emerge with, or as a response to, globalization? Is globalization a causal factor in the explosion of ethnic conflict, xenophobia and racism?

En contraste con la visión convencional de la globalización como una fuerza del "bien" (que preva... more En contraste con la visión convencional de la globalización como una fuerza del "bien" (que prevaleció hasta las pandemia de 2020), el artículo sostiene que la forma actual de globalización cultural debe conceptualizarse como sinónimo de americanización. En cuanto forma de sustitución cultural y destrucción de las culturas del mundo, la globalización ha provocado conflictos en varios niveles. Debido a que el proceso es unidireccional, el resultado no puede ser la auspiciada ‘fusión’ entre naciones y grupos étnicos. Al contrario del evangelio materialista predicado por los fundamentalistas de la globalización desenfrenada, la imposición de más y más productos de masas e iconos culturales estadounidenses significa cada vez menos posibilidades de encuentro interétnico, menos comunicación y menos entendimiento mutuo entre naciones. En su forma actual, la globalización significa conflicto y, en última instancia, conflicto internacional.

keywords: ethnic conflict, nationalism , Americanization, globalization
keywords in Spanish : conflicto étnico, nacionalismo, americanización, globalización

Ethnopolitics, 2007

Canada, post-Soviet Russia and Spain can be identified as standard examples of ‘regional and plur... more Canada, post-Soviet Russia and Spain can be identified as standard examples of ‘regional and plurinational federations’ (RPNFs). John McGarry dedicates most space to this type, chieﬂy because of its more successful record. In order to test McGarry’s hypothesis, I focus on Spain as an example of a quasi-federal setting and Italy as an instance of unitary state. In agreement with McGarry, I show that asymmetric arrangements are more accommodative, durable and practical, having proved in both cases more ﬂexible and effective in managing and preventing ethnic conﬂict.

Notions of ethnicity and culture have been interchangeably used since at least the advent of nati... more Notions of ethnicity and culture have been interchangeably used since at least the advent of nationalism and the nation-state. They have thus been associated with security issues, providing the basis for the 'securitisation' of cultural minorities and justifying assimilationist pressures and practices on the part of the nation-state.
This paper argues that one of the ways to disentangle the diversity-security nexus, and hence de-securitise diversity, is by re-establishing the distinction between ethnicity and culture. Highlighting the different substance of these two concepts, the paper re-reads Gellner's explanation of the rise of nationalism through the homogenising force of industrialism, by noting Gellner's consistent mixing of the two concepts.
The paper finally combines Gellner's notion of incongruence and his description of counter- entropic traits with the early securitisation studies literature as developed in IR since the 1990s.

Abstract Two phenomena have changed the international sociopolitical landscape in recent years. O... more Abstract Two phenomena have changed the international sociopolitical landscape in recent years. One is the upsurge of ethnonational movements challenging longer established nation-states; the other is the migration of ever larger number of people into these areas. ...

Aludían los víejos romanos al Mare Nostrum como referente geográfico de su acción económica, polí... more Aludían los víejos romanos al Mare Nostrum como referente geográfico de su acción económica, política y socíal. En realídad, el Mediterráneo ya se había convertido en el basamento fundacional de los actuales valores civílizatorios del hemisferio occidental. Ahora el Mare Nostrum es escenario de un proceso convulso de deterioro ambiental y testigo de un gran drama humano. Considérese la pronunciada disminución de las precipitaciones y la ausencia de lluvia en algunas zonas, especialmente durante el período estival. Yello es precisamente así porque la variabilidad interanual aumenta dramáticamente durante el verano, cuando se alcanzan temperaturas cada vez más extremas. Los ominosos síntomas se multiplican y el cambio climático los hará cada vez más vulnerables, con un impacto brutal en los recursos hídricos de la cuenca mediterránea; ya se manifiestan en nuestro 'pequeño océano' con la transformación de las faunas marinas y el aumento de especies invasivas.

El Antropoceno sirve como contexto general de análisis del presente capítulo. Popularizado inicia... more El Antropoceno sirve como contexto general de análisis del presente capítulo. Popularizado inicialmente por el químico Paul J. Crutzen para designar una nueva fase separada del Holoceno , última época geológica del período Cuaternario, el Antropoceno hace referencia a la influencia determinante de la conducta humana en la atmósfera de la Tierra (Crutzen y Stoermer, 2000, Steffen et al., 2011). No existe un acuerdo generalizado respecto al comienzo de esta nueva fase. Algunos científicos lo sitúan con las explosiones nucleares de 1945 y la aparición del isótopo 239 de plutonio (Waters et al., 2015). Este criterio ha sido validado por otros geólogos tras la integración de otras consideraciones estratigráficas (Zalasiewicz et al., 2011b; 2015; 2017). El incremento de los gases de efecto de invernadero (GEI) es probablemente el elemento definitorio del inicio de la nueva era. Pese a sus diversas interpretaciones, hay un creciente consenso en situar a mediados del pasado siglo XX el comienzo del nuevo período geológico (Zalasiewicz et al., 2011a; Waters et al., 2016)Peer reviewe

Nations and Nationalism, 2017

Dominant nationalism, dominant ethnicity: identity, …, 2009

Since at least the French Revolution, Western state-building has been associated with power seizu... more Since at least the French Revolution, Western state-building has been associated with power seizure by specific ethnic groups-or by politicians acting on their behalf. This process has radically transformed the world's political map. Only after the French Revolution the ...

Diàlegs, 2000

Resumen: Nationalism, boundaries and violence [DANIELE CONVERSI]«Boundary» and related terms have... more Resumen: Nationalism, boundaries and violence [DANIELE CONVERSI]«Boundary» and related terms have been in use since the commencement of disciplines like geography and history, yet their conceptualization is relatively novel in other social sciences.

PARTECIPAZIONE E CONFLITTO

Sul finire degli anni'80 diversi studiosi anticipavano la progressiva perdita di rilevan... more Sul finire degli anni'80 diversi studiosi anticipavano la progressiva perdita di rilevanza politica e sociale delle identità etnico-nazionali in seguito all'affermarsi dei processi di globalizzazione e transnazionalizzazione. Nonostante tali previsioni, in molti paesi le ...

Radical Ethnic Movements in Contemporary Europe

CHAPTER THREE Ethnoradicalism as a Mirror Image of State Centralisation: the Basque Paradigm in F... more CHAPTER THREE Ethnoradicalism as a Mirror Image of State Centralisation: the Basque Paradigm in Franco&#x27;s Spain Daniele Conversi Few cases are better suited to explore the central topic of this book than the instance of Spain. My aim is to address the relationship between state ...

The central myth which accompanied the incapacity of the West to tackle the crisis and subsequent... more The central myth which accompanied the incapacity of the West to tackle the crisis and subsequent war in former Yugoslavia was that Germany\u27s recognition of Slovenia and Croatia made all international efforts to negotiate peace impossible. The “German conspiracy thesis” was actually following the legend of Gennan\u27s attempt to extend influence to the Mediterranean, which would secure its domination. This mainstream political interpretation, embraced also by certain sectors of the academia and parts of public opinion, was accompanied by intense Gennan-bashing, especially in British tabloids. Tracing its roots, the author points out three major elements: (a) re-emergence of anti-European trends, especially in Britain and the US, (b) the threat posed by Gennan reunification, felt by various European countries, and (c) the lack of Western expertise in Balkan security questions, which was recognized and used by Belgrade\u27s diplomatic circles. In the concluding part, the author arg...

Historia contemporánea, 2012

Expanding on the concept of «nationalization of the masses», the article explores the processes o... more Expanding on the concept of «nationalization of the masses», the article explores the processes of cultural homogenization as a recurrent pattern in the formation and expansion of the European «nation state» until after World War II. It argues that such practices could not be systematically conceived before the French Revolution and the ensuing wars. In fact, large-scale homogenization was hardly practicable before the Twentieth century, mostly due to the lesser bureaucratic control and the lack of adequate military technology. With Paris as its global epicentre, the process radially spread eastward through waves of progressive Westernization. While identifying nationalism as the dominant identity of the modern era, the article illustrates with a wealth of examples its recurrent overlaps with patterns of cultural homogenization, once nationalism is seized by the state. We maintain that the three intertwined conditions, cultural homogenization, genocide and nationalism, reached their peak during the two world wars and under the totalitarian rule built upon attempts to prolong the patterns of mass mobilization induced by war. In synthesis, the article affirms the need to engage in a social and political history of cultural homogenization as a sweeping and far-reaching set of events which profoundly affected almost every aspect of modern societies.

Mural Internacional, 2021

In contrast to mainstream, conventional view of globalisation as a force for ‘good’, the article ... more In contrast to mainstream, conventional view of globalisation as a force for ‘good’, the article argues that the current form of cultural globalization needs to be conceptualised as synonymous with Americanization. As a form of cultural replacement and destruction of world cultures, globalization has engendered conflict on a series of levels. Because the process is one-way and unidirectional, the result is anything but the fusion between nations and amalgamation of ethnic groups. Contrary to the gospel preached by the evangelists of unrestrained globalization, the imposition of more and more American mass products and cultural icons means less and less possibilities for direct inter-ethnic encounter, communication and mutual understanding among nations. In its current form, globalization means conflict and, ultimately, international conflict.Keywords: Ethnic conflict; Nationalism; Globalization.RESUMENEn contraste con la visión convencional de la globalización como una fuerza del &q...

Nations and Nationalism, 2020

Two phenomena have changed the international sociopolitical landscape in recent years. One is the... more Two phenomena have changed the international sociopolitical landscape in recent years. One is the upsurge of ethnonational movements challenging longer established nation-states; the other is the migration of ever larger number of people into these areas. These simultaneous trends have altered previously established concepts of nationhood. Curiously, studies dealing with these two processes have remained hitherto disjointed and research treating their mutual relationship is still scarce. This paper will compare two areas where the two phenomena merge --and, indeed, reinforce each other. Both cases are situated in Spain’s prosperous periphery: Euskadi (Basque Country) and Catalonia. Large amount of immigrants moved from the country's southern regions to the more economically wealthy and industrialized north. At some stages, mass immigration did contribute to a certain apprehension amongst locals that they might be swamped by new arrivals. At the peak of the migratory movement [19...

ABSTRACT Nationalism and modernity both indulge in practices of classification, definition and de... more ABSTRACT Nationalism and modernity both indulge in practices of classification, definition and delimitation, leading to the simultaneous destruction of old boundaries and the rise of new ones. Focusing on nationalism as a boundary-building practice, this chapter argues that it belongs to a broader ideological discourse that began to prevail with the onset and expansion of modernity that pushed towards the disruption of traditional boundaries and the rising of new ones. The chapter also argues that over the last decades these trends have interacted with neo-liberal globalization, processes which also corrode as well as reinforce existing boundaries. Finally, the chapter examines three cases from different modernization stages that have resulted in boundary changes or consolidation, examining the implications of these shifts. The relationship will be unpacked in the following way: The first section expands on Ernest Gellner’s vision of boundaries as associated with the notion of ‘congruency’. It observes the way boundaries interact with industrial modernity by producing and reproducing expectations of regularity and homogeneity within societies. This is followed by the identification of specific ‘boundary approaches’ and then by a discussion of the modernity or antiquity of ethnic boundaries. The next three sections explore the interaction between state-formed identities and cultural homogenization, first across one of the oldest existing inter-state frontiers, the Franco-Spanish one. Having identified modernity as an era of boundary destruction and demarcation through nationalism and cultural homogenization, the chapter goes on to analyze the cumulative effects of cultural homogenization and the reinforced salience of inter-state boundaries through the lens of Ciudad Juarez under a regime of neo-liberal globalization. The final section explores the notion of ‘natural boundaries’ (both ethnic and state) in East Africa, observing their ongoing collapse as a result of the highly destructive impact of climate change. These boundaries areas are chosen as symptomatic of the three historical moments they represent: the legacy of the nation-state, the effects of neo-liberal globalization and an anticipation of the coming era of climate change. Ethnicity is present throughout these three ‘stages’, yet nationalism is slowly withdrawn from the chapter’s main argument as we pass from the boundaries of modernity to those of globalization and then to climate change’s erosion of natural boundaries.

Environmental Politics, 2021

ABSTRACT Climate change is arguably the single most important political issue in the world today.... more ABSTRACT Climate change is arguably the single most important political issue in the world today. As yet, however, there has been little research on the relationship between climate change and nationalism. In this contribution we investigate the possible existence of a ‘green nationalism’ among progressive and social democratic sub-state nationalist parties in minority nations. We identify an uncharted rhetorical and ideological continuity between how climate issues are perceived and championed among minority nations across time. This is a clear instance of ‘frame bridging’, where seemingly disparate policy elements are combined and reinforce one another. We show how sub-state political actors actively seek to use this link with climate-related environmental issues to bridge policy issues. We conclude by cautioning that it is unclear whether this sub-state ‘green nationalism’ might survive an ascent to statehood, in which state-building and other forms of realpolitik might trump and eclipse environmental concerns.

Sustainability, 2021

This article argues that we need to look at living examples provided by non-state communities in ... more This article argues that we need to look at living examples provided by non-state communities in various regions of the world that are, perhaps unwittingly, contributing to the maintenance of the Earth’s optimal thermal balance. These fully sustainable communities have been living outside the mainstream for centuries, even millennia, providing examples in the global struggle against the degradation of social–ecological systems. They have all, to varying degrees, embraced simple forms of living that make them ‘exemplary ethical communities’ (EECs)—human communities with a track record of sustainability related to forms of traditional knowledge and the capacity to survive outside the capitalist market and nation-state system. The article proceeds in three steps: First, it condenses a large body of research on the limits of the existing nation-state system and its accompanying ideology, nationalism, identifying this institutional–ideological complex as the major obstacle to tackling cl...

Documentación Social (monográfico sobre ‘Cambio climático y crisis socioambiental’), n. 183, ISS... more Documentación Social (monográfico sobre ‘Cambio climático y crisis socioambiental’), n. 183, ISSN 0417-8106

Historia Contemporánea, Dec 12, 2012

"Este número monográfico espera inaugurar una nueva línea de investigación en la historia contemp... more "Este número monográfico espera inaugurar una nueva línea de investigación en la historia contemporánea internacional, además de fortalecer la tendencia hacia la historia internacional dentro de la historiografía española. La historia internacional, transnacional, global o mundial (Weltge- schichte) sigue siendo relativamente poco desarrollada en el mundo académico español —a pesar de algunos señales perceptibles de creciente interés en algunas universidades y a parte de la relación especial con América Latina.
Además de los autores de los primeros cinco artículos, los participantes internacionales de esos seminarios incluyen también Mark Levene (University of Southampton), Stuart J. Kaufman (University of Delaware), y Uğur Ümit Üngör (Utrecht University), que aunque no han contribuido a este número con artículos, sí que han aportado presentaciones, comentarios y trabajos centrados en el tema del monográfico.
El tema del monográfico, Nacionalismo y Homogeneización, intenta conectar dos áreas hasta ahora poco vinculadas, combinadas o concertadas: el nacionalismo ligado a la construcción de los «estados-naciones» y los procesos de homogeneización cultural que han acompañado esa construcción. Se trata, en realidad, de un área de investigación interdisciplinaria novedosa a nivel tanto ibérico como internacional. A pesar de la importancia histórica del fenómeno, no se ha producido un enfoque especifico o un cuerpo de literatura unificado, sino sólo una plétora de trabajos desconectados, con estudios de casos idiosincrásicos y dispersos entre distintas disciplinas y áreas geográficas. Historiadores internacionales que quieren encontrar algo en la misma línea tienen que hacer referencia a la obra de George L. Mosse sobre la «nacionalización de las masas», que se remonta a casi cuarenta años y se refiere principalmente al periodo de entreguerras, además de quedarse largamente limitado al caso alemán (Mosse 1975). Hay también el libro paradigmático, pero exclusi- vamente dedicado al caso francés, de Eugen Weber (Weber 1976). Para abarcar una mirada de más amplio espectro, el historiador tiene que travesar las barreras disciplinarias y adentrarse en terrenos discursivos ajenos, por ejemplo aprovechando el eclecticismo de una disciplina como relaciones internacionales, gracias al trabajo casi solitario de Heather Rae (Rae 2002). Quienes están familiarizados con la sociología histórica, la historia social y sociología política se refieren normalmente a los trabajos de Mann, Tilly, Scott y otros que en gran medida consideran la homogeneización cultural como un epifenómeno de amplios cambios estructurales, económicos y socio-políticos (Mann 1993; 2005; Scott 1998; Tilly 1975; 1992).
En resumen, con el tema de ese monográfico se espera promover un campo de investigación relativamente nuevo y innovador, que cubre un fenómeno central y un período determinante en la historia europea e internacional."

Research into genocide as well as climate change is a highly interdisciplinary endeavour, transce... more Research into genocide as well as climate change is a highly interdisciplinary endeavour, transcending the boundaries of established disciplines. The current special issue takes this into account by approaching the subject from a number of perspectives. Methodological and theoretical heterogeneity is intended and the various chapters should be read together.

The book analyses the study of the growing field of ethnicity and politics from a number of diffe... more The book analyses the study of the growing field of ethnicity and politics from a number of different angles. These include the nature of the subject itself, different theoretical approaches, ways of addressing political issues the relationship gives rise to, the impact of major global challenges and a survey of output in the field. Comprehensive text book makes great course reading.
Questions of identity, particularly ethnicity, play an increasingly important role in people’s lives. They are also of growing significance in both domestic and international politics. The increased attention to these issues has been matched by the mushrooming of scholarship in the field of ethnicity and politics. The chapters in this survey of recent analytical developments examine the contribution that this literature has made within the broad area of comparative politics within the discipline of political science. They are written by experts active in the international network of scholars that has been devoted to the study of this subject. The question of what we mean when we use ethnic terminology is rigorously interrogated. And the major theoretical approaches to the study of ethnicity and politics are critically examined. Ways of addressing ethnic diversity are debated under the wide headings of accommodation and integration. The issue of ethnicity in world politics is considered through an analysis of how watersheds of the last 25 years, including the end of the Cold War, 9/11 and the global economic downturn have impacted on the study of the subject. Also analysed is the output of publications in scholarly journals that has addressed this subject area.
Contents:
· Ethnicity – what are we talking about? (Jean Tournon)
· Ethnic and national mobilization (Eric Kaufmann and Daniele Conversi)
· The politics of accomodation and integration in democratic States (Brendan O’Leary and John McGarry
· Global watersheds and the study of ethno-politics (Adrian Guelke
· Who is doing what, where and how in the study of ethnicity and politics (Britt Cartrite and Dan Miodownik)

The editors: Adrian Guelke Professor of Comparative Politics, Queen’s University of Belfast
Jean Tournon Directeur de recherche, Fondation nationale des sciences politiques, IEP, Université de Grenoble

PhD Thesis, LSE (London School of Economics) Published 1994 Length 626 pages

Conversi has skillfully woven together three major themes of modern nationalism: the importance o... more Conversi has skillfully woven together three major themes of modern nationalism: the importance of values and culture, the role of the state, and the sources of political violence. He does this through a masterly study of the differences between an inclusive Catalan, and an exclusive Basque, nationalism. This is an analysis steeped in historical understanding, rich in sociological insight, and sensitive to political nuance. It is essential reading for all students of nationalism and politics, as well as for anyone interested in modern European developments.'
Anthony D. Smith, Professor of Studies in Nationalism, LSE

'Dr Conversi's comprehensive study of the chief ethnic nationalism within modern Spain - those of Catalonia and the Basque Country - will soon be recognised as one of the best assessments available of the intricate world of Iberian identities. The fact that both areas are prosperous, competitive and highly dynamic by any West European standards makes them especially interesting. Daniele Conversi's is the best analysis so far available in English. The rigour and scholarship with which he has carried out his research turn The Basques, the Catalans and Spain into a key contribution to our understanding of nationalist and ethnic movements in stateless societies in contemporary Europe.
Students of Spanish society and culture will also find it useful and enlightening, as it satisfactorily explores the political, economic and cultural consequences of Catalan and Basque nationalism.'
Salvador Giner, Institut d' Estudis Catalans (Director), Institut d' Estudis Socials Avançats, Barcelona

'This outstanding comparative study not only is one of the most comprehensive studies on Basque and Catalan nationalism, but is also a fine piece of theoretical reflection on the nature of political mobilization in subnational distinctive cultural identities. For this reason, it deserves to have a place in any library covering Spanish politics'
José E. Magone, University of Hull (from 'Regional and Federal Studies', vol. 8, n. 2, Summer 1998)

'The best and most persuasive comparative study of Basque and Catalan nationalism which we have either in Spanish or English'.
Professor Stanley G. Payne, Modern European History, University of Wisconsin- Madison (from 'Social History Society', Spring 1998, vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 74-5)

'Based on extensive use of primary and secondary sources, this study will be particularly valuable to students of modern Spanish history as well as to historians and political scientists reasonably well versed in sociological approaches to their respective disciplines'
S.H. Burkholder, University of Missouri (from 'Choice', May 1998, vol. 35, no. 9)

Conversi presents a wealth of fresh material on the [Catalan] region's culture, and makes a convincing case for its central importance to nationalism there. Precisely because of the lack of cultural material, the sections on the Basque Country are solid but less illuminating, serving ultimately to suggest the importance of economic and political factors. ... [T]his is a thought provoking book, of value not just to Iberian specialists but to students of nationalism in general'
Chris Ross, Herriot-Watt University, 'Political Studies', 1999

John Agnew's (UCLA University of California, Los Angeles) review article was published as 'Geographies of nationalist mobilisation', in Geopolitics (vol. 4, no. 3, December 1999, pp. 189 - 193)

Sir Raymond Carr's review was published as 'Inventing Euzkadi' in the 'The Times Literary Supplement(October 31, 1997, no. 4935, pp. 12-13) .

reviews have appeared in:

David George, National Identities, vol 1, n. 1, pp. 89-90

Edward Moxon-Browne, 'Why terrorism?', Government & Opposition, Spring 1999, Vol. 34, Issue 2, pp. 280-2

Cyrus Ernesto Zirakzadeh, American Political Science Review, 207, Vol. 94, March 2000, pp. 207-208

Andree Lecours, Nationalism & Ethnic Politics, vol. 5, n 1, pp. 157-8

The book has also been reviewed in: Contemporary Politics (John Naylon, Keele University), Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies (Angel Smith, Leeds University), Catalan Review, (Charles King, Georgetown University), South European Society & Politics (Kenneth N. Medhurst), Ethnos-Nation (Universität zu Köln), Political Geography, Ethnic & Racial Studies, Ethnic Studies Review, Journal of Southern Europe & the Balkans, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, El Contemporani (Graham Pollock).

Anthony D. Smith (1939–2016) was a unique scholar, an exquisite teacher, and the founder of the e... more Anthony D. Smith (1939–2016) was a unique scholar, an exquisite teacher, and the founder of the ethnosymbolic approach.

SEN Journal

We are witnessing a rather precipitous fall of political legitimacy of the neoliberal state. Beyo... more We are witnessing a rather precipitous fall of political legitimacy of the neoliberal state. Beyond nationalism, this can be seen in the rapid rise of anti-system movements, like the M-15 or indignados (aka “outraged”) in Spain, Beppe Grillo’s direct democracy movement in Italy, the Occupy movement in the USA, UK and elsewhere, and the electoral gains of Syriza in Greece, each of them with its different organizational roots, but all deeply dedicated to change the current political system. At the same time, the spread of populism, often accompanied by anti-Europeanism, threatens to twist the European Union’s hard-won achievement of tolerance through a seemingly unstoppable wave of xenophobia, Islamophobia and racism .

Less concerned with central institutions and traditional party politics, stateless nations seem to offer a more agile, novel and untested context in which to experiment citizen engagement and democratic deepening. In particular, they seem to offer alternatives to the corrupted and inefficient legacy of the neo-liberal state.

Spain finds itself at the intersection point of two economic crises, one global, the other home-made, or, better, ‘house-made’. The former derives from a generalized failure of neo-liberal globalization to address a whole set of burning existential problems, like the uncontrollability of financial flows and anthropogenic climate change. In Spain, corporate de-regulation policies have devastated the territory through over-construction, environmental degradation, demographic concentration and low-quality housing standards, particularly along the Mediterranean coast. Despite the two crises being deeply inter-linked, no incumbent politician seems able to address them, either jointly or separately.

Easyweb. easynet. co. uk. doi

For several decades, sociologists, philosophers, political scientists, as well as politicians, lo... more For several decades, sociologists, philosophers, political scientists, as well as politicians, lobbyists and corporate CEOs, have blazed abroad that the 'free market' can provide a response or solution to all human crises and conflicts. Accordingly, we should be collectively ushered into a global era of peace. Like erstwhile Marxist and socialist myths, neoliberal globalisation should have been heralded a new era, forever free of nationalist tensions. Multiple signs have contributed to dispel this hope, despite large sectors of the economic elites still tending to cling to notions of free market fundamentalism. The advent of Donald Trump as US president, the rise of xenophobia in the West and elsewhere, British and Catalan secessionism, mounting aggressive nationalism in China, Russia, Turkey, India, and an endless list of other crisis points, all indicate that the 'free market' is not only utterly unable to provide any response to the emerging multiple problems it has created, including ethno-political crises, but it has sometimes contributed to aggravate all of them. Moreover, the market seems to be unable to address climate change, which itself points towards the 'end of the road' or the demise of consumerist capitalism as we know it, with consequences on national borders. However, the linkage between nationalism and the marketplace has remained largely under-studied and under-theorized. Indeed, the 'market' includes nationalism as nationalism is one of the many items available on the marketplace, so that the most talented sellers are bent to win a greater share of the market. Moreover, of the many ideological products available on the marketplace, nationalism is probably the best-selling one. This can lead researchers along two main paths and explore two sets of interrelated questions: First, how has free market inspired, sometimes rebranded nationalism and national identities? Second, how has nationalism taken advantage of the market? The conference aims at unpacking and analysing the relationship between the nation and the 'market'. The focus is both historical and contemporary, without geographical limitations.

'Nationalism & the Market' International Conference -Programme

Diario Público, Mar 29, 2020

Sería osado y acientífico establecer un nexo causal entre una cosa y la otra. El virus no es cons... more Sería osado y acientífico establecer un nexo causal entre una cosa y la otra. El virus no es consecuencia linear del cambio climático. Pero la 'intuición' como método científico también nos informa que las concomitancias abonan la relación binaria entre ambas cosas. Y las personas están dispuestas a creérselo. Y hacen bien. El 'efecto mariposa' se ha incorporado inapelablemente al imaginario epistemológico de las gentes. Lo que sucedió en Wuhan y con la morgue improvisada del Palacio de Cristal en Madrid no parece ser una simple casualidad epifenómica.

Agenda Pública-El País, Nov 1, 2019