SCLG1001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Civilizing Mission, Nationstates, Imagined Community
1 Aug 2019
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Identities are made in relation to others: family, local community, nations/empire, the globe. State/nations: state is a legal political entity that exists to govern a set territory and the people (citizens) within it, traditionally a nation was understood to be made up of people with shared ethnicity. Your blood was what gave you citizenship. A common language was also a sign of ethnicity and belonging. Nation-states: emergence over the 19th -20th century of a new politico-cultural entity, the nation-state, nations form sovereign states and control their lives. Empires/imperialism: a strong nation/state expands it territory and takes over other territories. To expand into their land (settler: empires often justified in terms of a civilising mission. Claim to bring values and types of education that are superior to those that already existed. In reality few nations are ethnically homogenous: so the sense of belonging can be based on the biggest/powerful ethnicity or based on something other than ethnicity.
