NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

Abstract

During the last two decades of the 20th century, the normative debate on multiculturalism has been one-dimensional. It has deployed arguments related to cultural demands either linked to feminism and sub-cultural identities, immigration, or national minorities. Little attention has been given to the relations between these dimensions, and how they affect each other in putting forward demands to the nation-state. The purpose of this article is to set a research agenda on the interaction between cultural demands of immigrants and minority nations by reviewing three basic reflections of J. Carens, W. Kymlicka and R. Bauböck.     

The New World Order: A Deconstruction of the Nation-State and a Disaggregation of the “Mixed Political Economy”

The structure of the New World Order and its corresponding functions are becoming apparent. First, there will be a deconstruction of the nation-state. It will be bisected as power shifts to higher “macro-regional” levels on the one hand and lower “micro-regional” levels on the other. Second, there will be a disaggregation of the mixed political economy. It will be bifurcated as socialism is used at upper levels of human aggregation to alleviate pollution and as capitalism is used at lower levels to alleviate poverty.     

The Geographies of Exclusion and the Politics of Inclusion: Race-based Exclusions in the Teaching of International Relations

In this essay, we argue that race has yet to be integrated as an analytical category shaping the study and teaching of international relations. We suggest that although the issues of race and gender are systematically coded into central concepts in the discipline, they are made invisible through a "series of ontological and epistemological maneuvers." Focusing on two concepts central to the discipline—sovereignty and the nation-state—we suggest that race can be better integrated into the teaching of international relations by focusing on the ways in which these maneuvers structure the geographies and politics of exclusion and inclusion in international relations. We conclude that raising questions about the ways in which race is taught in the academy is in itself critical—what we teach, how we teach, and who teaches are all questions that need repeated airing for achieving interpretative autonomy as well as a transformative politics.     

Afro-Porteños at the end of the nineteenth century: discussing the nation

Argentina is a country that, even today, identifies itself as a modern, white, and European nation. This representation began to be projected in the last decades of the nineteenth century, framed in the state-consolidation and nation-building processes, which will be the historical context for this paper. It was also the time when a certain notion became broadly accepted: that Afro-Argentines, the descendants of formerly enslaved African people, had ‘disappeared’. By contrast, in that same period, Afro-Porteños (Porteños are citizens of Buenos Aires, capital of Argentina) had not disappeared but constituted an important community, which produced numerous newspapers. Through the analysis of Afro-Porteño newspapers, their self-representations and discourses, some of the ways they negotiated with the ideology of modernity and Europeanism (that implied whiteness) will be discussed. The agency of Afro-Porteños will be examined as we analyze how Afro-Porteño intellectuals promoted state values to their group and at the same time defended their community against discrimination.     

民族国家观念的建构与女性个体国民身份确立之间的关系

近代中国的女权运动与民族主义运动是现代性追求的两个侧面。文章首先分析了“天赋人权”观和“民族国家”理念的内在逻辑,论证“天赋人权观”和“民族国家观念”内在地包含着女性个体身份确立的要求,其构建和传播过程为近代女权运动开拓了新的话语空间。其次,分析观念传播和话语建构的过程,分析男性和女性话语的共性和差异性。认为近代女权主义者策略性地使用了男性主流话语和国家主义的女权逻辑,同时,女性通过构建“同为国民,同担责任”的话语和“同担责任”的行动确立了女性的主体身份和彰显了女性的主体性和能动性。     

权利观念的中国化——从民族国家选择到社区伦理挑战

中国在法治现代化过程中,始终面临的基本问题是,外来权利观念与在地经验之间的关系。所谓在地经验,包括民族国家的认识和社会民众的认同两个层面。这也就意味着,权利观念进入中国要经历双重语境化的过程。一方面,引入外来权利观念是中国建立强大民族国家的需要,并且权利观念会随着国家治理策略的改变而改变;另一方面,权利观念一旦被确立为国家意识形态,并强力推行进入社会生活,有可能会加速既有社会结构的解体。由于新的社会结构并不能很快形成,反而使得社会处于不稳定状态。对于转型社会而言,以个体权利为基础,同时强调公民社会责任的共同体观念的建立就显得十分必要。     

Migrants into Members: Social Rights,Civic Requirements,and Citizenship in Western Europe

How do the states in Western Europe turn outsiders into insiders? This article examines that question by introducing a new qualitative framework that we term national membership conditionality structures (MCS). This framework includes not only status acquisition rules, such as those governing naturalisation and settlement, but also, crucially, civic integration requirements and social benefit eligibility standards. The article illustrates how linkages across these policy sectors shape different membership-making processes for third-country nationals by examining the MCS variation in Great Britain and Germany, two countries that both experienced significant migration inflows beginning in the first post-war decades. As a contrast to these two ‘mature’ MCS cases, a study of Spain is also included as a ‘nascent’ case, whose recent experience with large-scale immigration provides an opportunity to consider an MCS under active construction. The article concludes that while EU-level policies and institutions have extended their reach to cover ever more sectors, the components of national MCS remain largely outside supranational purview. As such, membership remains a core imperative of the contemporary nation-state.