Nationalist Reconstructions in the Face of the Disappearance of Borders

Abstract

Together with the conflictive negotiation abouth the definition and the feeling of nation, on a strategic level, the repercussions of globalisation (and especially the negotiations with the European Union) are complicating the border issue and, as a consequence, the issue of unity (which is “always in danger”, according to the nationalist-Kemalist elites). The nationalist discourse is consumed on a popular level but, rather than simple consumption or pure strategic production, it is constituted as the production of different nationalisms in the tactics of everyday life. In this way, this article tackles the subject of the new nationalist productions, examining more deeply the tactics that range from survival to subversion or new religious rites in a situation of uncertainties and ambivalences brought about by globalisation, by a new encounter with the West and by the disappearance of borders.

Keywords

• Turkey
• nationalism
• political culture
• cultural plurality
• boundaries
• cultural identity