The present article discursively explores the contentiousness of indigenous identification and claims in Africa. In recent decades, a growing number of mainly hunter-gatherer and pastoralist ...communities have adopted a new form of identification as the indigenous peoples of Africa. Claimant communities have liaised with groups from other parts of the world – with an active support from indigenous rights advocates – in claiming special legal protection under the emerging (international) indigenous rights framework. Substantively, they seek redress for patterns of marginalization and dispossession. The present analysis discursively explores the sources and substance of indigenous identification and rights on the African continent. To avoid an oversimplification of complex socio-political and cultural realities, indigenous claims are examined against the backdrop of the multiple forms of expression of identity in the inherently plural African states. The analysis ultimately questions the suitability of the indigenous rights framework as the appropriate channel for efforts aimed at empowering claimant hunter-gatherer, pastoralist and other communities.
Israeli's have always felt as though they lived within a fortress under siege - surrounded and at times attacked by hostile and more populous Arab states. Within Israel, a parliamentary democracy, ...Ultra-Orthodox Jews - who rarely work, pay no taxes and do not serve in the Israeli Defense Forces - are bearing children at a far higher rate than all other groups combined. These children overwhelmingly become Orthodox Jews in turn, and over time this process of high reproduction and abstention from military service may threaten Israel's survival from within. This paper, in exploring the concept of the demographic disintegration of states, provides an overview of the interaction between the structure of government and differential population growth, as well as an explanation of how diaspora issues affect local and regional politics. Israel's experience is compared with that of Belgian, Yugoslav (Serb).
Demography and Communalism In India DeVotta, Neil
Journal of international affairs (New York),
09/2002, Volume:
56, Issue:
1
Journal Article
In May 2000, just 53 years after independence, India's overall population reached one billion. This figure was 2 1/2 times the European Union's population. While 343,000 people were born within the ...EU states in 2000, India added as many to its population during the first week of 2000. When birth rates were combined with immigration, the EU's population in 2000 grew by approximately 1.2 million; the Indian population grew as much in just the first 3 weeks of that year. Demographers claim that at this growth rate the country's population will reach 1.5 billion by 2050. Hindu extremists, in the wake of demographers calling for mandatory sterilization to stem India's population growth, have called on their community to procreate at even higher rates. Demographers have noted that with India's population due to stabilize in about 70 years, the Muslim cohort is unlikely to rise above 13% or 14%. Yet Hindu radicals continue to make claims about the imminent threat facing their community from the Muslim community.
Population size has taken on new meaning in the post-Cold War world, in which nationalism is on the rise and ethnic self-awareness seems to permeate once-placid populations. Currently, the size of a ...total population is less relevant than the absolute and relative size of a particular ethnic, religious, racial or linguistic group. An inter-ethnic war of numbers is taking place in numerous locations. The goal of this war of numbers is to increase the economic and political power of an ethnic group relative to other groups, and the method by which this is achieved entails the increase in size of one population relative to others. This inter-ethnic struggle exists because there is a positive link between political power and relative size, as well as between economic power and population size. This paper explores policies of demographic engineering. The paper discusses the link between ethnic proportion and economic and political power. Policies that some states have taken to reduce inter-ethnic conflict are examined.
Examines approaches to ethno-nationalism used in discussing causes of disintigration of the state, and role of intellectuals in politicization of ethnic identities. "Primodialist", psycho-cultural, ...meta-social, and "functionalist" approaches.
In the context of business relations, an overview of Ferdinand Toennies's (eg, 1982) antagonistic social paradigms, one based on togetherness & natural will (gemeinschaft), the other on ...individualism, cosmopolitanism, & legal obligations (gesellschaft) is presented; in addition, Max Weber's (eg, 1973) theory of gemeinschaft & gesellschaft in business relations & Georg Simmel's (eg, 1992) notion of monetary exchanges are discussed. Because Toennies rejected the importance of communitarian elements in economic exchanges, it is contended that Weber's & Simmel's conceptualizations of business relations are more productive. They implicitly agreed on two models of business relations: (1) The "German model" emphasizes togetherness in organizations & is characterized by allegiances between administrative & political elites. (2) The "English model" is delineated by relations founded on mutual trust to achieve material advantages, thus leading to the development of a business milieu. Consequently, South Korea's contemporary approach to business relations falls under the German paradigm, while that in Taiwan is described under the English model. It is concluded that relations founded on mutual trust & the preservation of business ethics account for the superior performance of the English model. 99 References. J. W. Parker
This article uses both Manchu and Han sources to interrogate the relationship between Qing and "China". After toppling the Ming reign, the Qing rulers identified their state with China as their ...eighteenth-century campaigns in Inner Asia redefined what China was. By the early twentieth century, educational institutions had facilitated the Manchu efforts to gain the hearts and minds of the Han intellectual elite, who embraced the idea that China was a multiethnic state. Although Manchu rule ended in 1911, the Chinese people never returned to the position that "China" was the property of the Han people: China's modern identity would be that of a unified multiethnic state. In other words, the Qing legacies to modern China include not just the country's vast territory but also a new concept of China that laid the solid foundation for the rise of its national identity.
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