Globalization and Identity Dialectics of Flow and Closure [Paperback]

Globalization and Identity are an explosive combination, demonstrated by recent outbursts of communalist violence in many parts of the world. Their varying articulations highlight the paradox that accelerating global flows of goods, persons and images go together with determined efforts towards closure, emphasis on cultural difference and fixing of identities. This collection explores this paradox of 'flow' and 'closure' through a series of detailed case studies in comparative perspective.Introduction. (Birgit Meyer and Peter Geshiere).

Nationalism and Transnationalism.

Cirassian Encounters: The Self as Other and the Production of the Homeland in the North Caucasus. (Seteney Shami).

Transnationalism in the Era of Nation-States: China, 1900-1945. (Prasenjit Duara).

The French Colonial Policy of Assimilation and the Civility of the Originaires of the Four Communes (Senegal): A Nineteenth Century Globalization Project. (Mamadou Diouf).

Enforcing the Human Rights of Citizens and Non-Citizens in the Era of Maastricht: Some Reflections on the Importance of States. (Jacqueline Bhabha).

Commodities and Fantasies.

Small Product, Big Issues: Value Contestations and Cultural Identities in Cross-Border Commodity Networks.

Commodities and the Power of Prayer: Pentecostalist Attitudes Towards Consumption in Contemporary Ghana. (Birgit Meyer).

Domesticating Diamonds and Dollars: Identity, Expenditure and Sharing in Southwestern Zaire (1984-1997). (Filip De Boeck).

Globalization and the Power of Indeterminate Meaning: Witchcraft and Spirit Cults in Africa and East Asia. (Peter Geschiere).

Theoretical Reflections.

Time and the Global: Against the Homogeneous, Empty Communities in Contemporary Social Theory. Jol31