Session 5a: Defining, Contesting and Redefining

5th Global Conference

Friday 9th March – Sunday 11th March 2012
Prague, Czech Republic

Construction of a Nation: The early Years of the Turkish Republic and Dersim Events
Aylin Demir
Turkey

This paper aims to present a construction of ‘us’ and ‘others’ through an example from Turkey, a country that contains a range of ethnic diversities. In the early twentieth century, there were many traumatic events in the transition period from the Ottoman Empire to the Turkish Republic. The historical background, in that sense, symbolizes the beginning process of the nation state in its history. As part of the transition, in Turkey as part of the new state discourse, attempts were made to diminish ethnic differences for the sake of the ‘nation’. During this period, one of the important issues was related to the people of Dersim (Dersimli) and occurred mainly between 1937 and 1938. I will briefly explain how the mainly Kurdish/ ‘Zazaki-speaking Alevi, Dersimli people, were described as ‘primitive,’ ‘bandits,’ and ‘abject’ in the course of ‘modern’ nation state discourse and how this has a significant role in the definition and construction of the new nation in relation to ‘others’. This period is very important in the understanding of the early years of republic which located itself through the tensions between those definitions. My main argument focuses on the exclusion and marginalization of Dersimli which demonstrates how a sense of ‘us’ is constructed at the beginning of the process of developing nationhood and how the other is constructed within this new perspective.
From a historical background, I will relate how these two ‘us’ and ‘other’ are constructed. In addition, I will briefly relate to the effects of these periods to the contemporary identity issues in Turkey.

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The Role Played by Culture in Redefining the Indigenous Identity in the Process of Decolonizing Bolivia
Nieves Zunig
Department of Government, University of Essex, UK

This paper examines how the indigenous culture has been used to create a new political subject in the frame of a conception of the Bolivian State as plurinational. First, I analyse how culture has been used to contest and redefine the indigenous identity in the process of decolonizing Bolivia undertook by Morales´s government. Second, I examine how some indigenous discourses disagree and propose alternative views of the indigenous identity. The theoretical approach of this paper is based on Political Discourse Theory, treating the terms “culture” and “indigenous” as elements whose meaning is a product of political struggles and social practices. Inspired by the concepts proposed by Laclau and Mouffe, and the methodological proposals of Foucault and Derrida, my analysis addresses questions concerning the characterization of the government´ discourse of decolonization, the reactions from other indigenous movements, and how these political struggles have established a dichotomy between the “real” and the “symbolic” indigenous reshaping the importance of culture in politics.

After his election as the first indigenous president in December 2005, Morales undertook a process to re-found Bolivia as a Plurinational State ideologically based on a process of decolonization, from an understanding of the national state and the liberal categories as colonial institutions and in opposition to the indigenous cultures. This has involved the reconstruction of the indigenous identity and the inclusion in the new Constitution of a political subject: “indigenous originary peasant”. However, indigenous discourses criticize an image of the “indigenous” that does not correspond to reality.

It is considered that the case of Bolivia can contribute to the debate of the relevance of culture in politics, and how it gives shape to political articulations in a diverse society. The analysis is based on the fieldwork conducted in Bolivia from March to June 2010.

Play and Profession: Discourses of Masculinity and Violence
Sara Cole
University of Maryland, Baltimore County, USA

This case study explores the effect of play practices and conceptions of masculine identity on career choices of males that grew up in the 1980′s.  Use of language in describing traditionally male play activities as children may align with boys’ understanding or acceptance of similar activities in their work as adults.  Male participants of similar age and professional background completed in-depth interviews focusing on a linguistic analysis of the pragmatics of their shared thoughts on play and career choice.

This investigation provides insight into the influences of fantasy through play on later perceptions of reality.  Previous research has focused on the physiological and psychological impacts of desensitization to violence through entertainment such as games and film.  This study gives voice to the participants in play through a pragmatics of verbal discourse regarding the influence of childhood play on the pursuit of professions in careers that involve an expectation of violence.

Download Draft Conference Paper (pdf)