Transnational and Supranational Identities: Space, Imitation and Mobilization of Identity

Abstract

This panel explores contemporary transformation processes of transnational and supranational identities as well as their different forms and challenges. The panel is interested in making and unmaking of collective identities in various socio-political contexts including revolutions, break-ups of states, imitation processes and religious mobilization. The panel aims at discussing the shifts of socio-political boundaries and the re-definition of collective identities with regional and transnational range as well as their impact on states, societies, and transnational social groups. Furthermore, the papers within the panel engage with various forms of identity politics that generate transnational and supranational answers to demands for identity generation. The panel starts with the subject of nationalism and revolution in Latin America, where the cases of Bolivia and Venezuela serve as examples of nationalist transformation processes rooted in shared legitimacy of revolution. Next, the panel deals with the “imperial imitation identity” in Russia, which as opposed to other non-Western civilizational entities, such as Confucian China or Persian Iran, has no set of values of its own outside of the Western civilization and is thus based on a specific mode of imitation. The issue of imitation or application of nationalism “lite” plays also a role within the European Union. That is why the panel will deal with the question of identity technologies in the EU. In particular, the respective paper will explore “cracks” between the identity claims and political reality of the EU. Moreover, the panel will raise the question in how far the EU, as a post-modern polity, is capable of developing a collective identity without defining its own territory. Finally, the panel will explore cases of contemporary Islamic extremism and their identity building power. In particular, the paper will argue that extremist Islamic movements might have nationalist grounds, where religion is applied as an instrument of nation-building.

Title	Details
Nationalism and Revolution in 21st Century Latin America	View Paper Details
Political Union Without Territory? Space Representation as Identity Deficit in the EU	View Paper Details
Underneath Contemporary Islamic Extremism	View Paper Details