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2. Global Citizenship and the European Milieu: Contested and Considered
- Author:
- Frank J. Lechner
- Publication Date:
- 11-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Macalester International
- Institution:
- Macalester College
- Abstract:
- The Dutch have long thought that they are an exemplary nation, a guide and a beacon to the world, or as they used to put it, a “gidsland” for others to follow. As early as the 1600s, they vaunted their commitment to freedom and tolerance; later, they displayed a special zeal for peace, especially international peace. Since the 1960s, they have claimed a place in the front ranks of progressive nations, building a caring welfare state and expanding the rights of citizens—including the right to shop for things other than coffee at numerous “coffee shops.” Of course, they were not always consistent in acting out these virtues, as the Dutch themselves are well aware, which is one reason why most would now use the term gidsland with a healthy sense of irony, as a way to skewer pretensions to moral superiority. These days, in fact, the Dutch have a relative low opinion of their influence.2 They may be right: the outside world has not necessarily taken much notice of the stellar example set in the low countries—and when outsiders paid attention at all, they did not always like what they saw. To Dutch regret, the City in the Polder was not quite as visible or inspiring as the City on a Hill.
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Dutch
3. Spinoza, Locke, and the Limits of Dutch Toleration
- Author:
- Geoffrey A. Gorham
- Publication Date:
- 11-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Macalester International
- Institution:
- Macalester College
- Abstract:
- The Netherlands' reputation as a bastion of religious and political toleration has been tested in the last decade by the rise of indigenous anti-immigrant political movements. These movements are fueled not only by simple xenophobia and racism, amplified in the wake of September 11, but also by the seemingly sincere sentiment that the Netherlands, the most densely populated nation in Europe, cannot sustain historical immigration levels: “Holland is full.” But another important component of anti-immigrant rhetoric is conceptual or ideological rather than practical, and trades on the tolerant self-image of the Dutch: toleration does not extend to the intolerant. Muslim immigrants are the usual target of this argument, who are accused of harboring theocratic, patriarchal, homophobic, and anti-Christian or anti-Jewish convictions and designs. Such rhetoric raises important and complex questions about how social and political ideals like toleration, freedom, and equality—as much as idolatry, infidelity, and heresy—are conditioned by the structures of social and economic power in which they historically emerge. That is to say, does the ideal of “toleration” in practice merely reinforce the boundaries of what is “tolerable” within the dominant culture?
- Topic:
- Islam
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Netherlands, and Holland
4. Bioracism, or, Spiritual Evolutionism
- Author:
- A. Kiarina Kordela
- Publication Date:
- 11-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Macalester International
- Institution:
- Macalester College
- Abstract:
- On November 10, 2004, eight days after the murder of the film director Theo van Gogh in Amsterdam, Etienne Balibar was invited to Radboud University in Nijmegen, the oldest city in the Netherlands, to offer that year's Alexander von Humboldt Lecture in Human Geography. The title of his talk, which was subsequently translated and published in several European languages, was “Europe as Borderland,” indicating that far from “being a solution or a prospect,” “the issue of citizenship and cosmopolitanism” in Europe must be based on the fact that “Europe currently exists as a borderland.” By this, Balibar means that “the question of 'borders'…is central when we reflect about citizenship and, more generally, political association”; and the question of borders itself in turn presupposes “address[ing] the issue of political spaces” as a means of representing specifically “European borders” (194).
- Topic:
- International Security
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Netherlands
5. Establishing Regional Integration: The African Union and the European Union
- Author:
- Sougrynoma Z. Sore
- Publication Date:
- 03-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Macalester International
- Institution:
- Macalester College
- Abstract:
- Whether they are world travelers, global citizens, slum dwellers, or farmers in remote villages, people all across the world have, in one way or the other, been exposed to the forces of globalization. Globalization has infiltrated all aspects of life, and as such, is now one of the ―catch‖ terms that has entered the daily jargon. Globalization seems to be everywhere, continuously influencing and affecting the individual. In international relations, these global forces have also shaped state behavior and the way states interact on the international scene. The rise of global capitalism and the emergence of non-state actors as influential borderless entities have distributed power to the most economically advanced of the world. Furthermore, the increasing interconnectedness of the world has progressively undermined borders, making them more and more illusory. Space has become trans-local. We now live in a world where the interests of small and big nations are ever more intertwined. Ulrich Beck describes globalization as ―the process through which sovereign national states are criss-crossed and undermined by transnational actors with varying prospects of power, orientations, identities and networks.‖1 In the history of state and empire formation, such international power dynamics have triggered desires to build coalitions and create strong ties that would grant more leverage in the global arena. This gave rise to regionalism.
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Europe
6. The Co-Evolution of the Washington Consensus and the Economic Development Discourse
- Author:
- Ravi Kanbur
- Publication Date:
- 08-2010
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Macalester International
- Institution:
- Macalester College
- Abstract:
- The 1980s were a hell of a decade. They began with the reverberations of the second OPEC oil shock and ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall. In between, we had the Reagan-Thatcher-Kohl economic policy era in North America and Europe, the Volcker interest rate shock, the Latin American debt crisis, economic collapse in Africa, the start of rapid growth in China and India, and on and on. Oh, and by the way, in 1989 John Williamson coined the term “Washington Consensus.”
- Political Geography:
- Africa, China, Europe, Washington, India, Latin America, and North America
7. Israel's Mizrahim: "Other" Victims of Zionism or a Bridge to Regional Reconciliation?
- Author:
- Franklin Hugh Adler
- Publication Date:
- 05-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Macalester International
- Institution:
- Macalester College
- Abstract:
- It may come as a surprise to those unfamiliar with Israeli society, and especially those who have been led to believe it primarily composed of European Jews who settled in the Middle East, that roughly half of Israel's Jewish population is made up of Jews who for millennia were deeply rooted in the region and summarily expelled from Arab states after Israel was founded in 1948. In fact, this Arab Jewish population exceeds in number those Palestinians who were displaced, and it possessed substantially greater property that was confiscated without compensation upon expulsion.
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Middle East, and Israel
8. Identities in Migrant Cinema: The Aesthetics of European Integration
- Author:
- Jalene Betts
- Publication Date:
- 01-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Macalester International
- Institution:
- Macalester College
- Abstract:
- Although much progress was made in Europe over the last half century with regard to the integration of markets and the near-vaporization of national borders, recent years show that, contrary to the illusion of an “enlightened” continent free from the racism of the past, ethnicity continues to play a role in European culture. As demonstrated by disputes in the Balkan region over Kosovo's independence, debates on the acceptance of new member states into the European Union (in particular Turkey's application for admittance), and growing concerns over immigration in the Netherlands and France, ethnicity seems to prove itself as a thing of the present, not the past. Media coverage of the “problems” of Islam—unemployed “Arab” youths roaming the streets, young girls forced to wear head-coverings by their “sexist” relatives—is a reality, whether or not the claims made by such representations are valid.
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Turkey, France, and Netherlands
9. Lingering Borders in the European Union: Migrant Workers in Spain and the Netherlands
- Author:
- Andra Bosneag
- Publication Date:
- 01-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Macalester International
- Institution:
- Macalester College
- Abstract:
- With the two European Union (EU) Enlargements of 2004 and 2007, an understanding of the antiquated and modern challenges, fears, and contradictions surrounding the inclusion of accession countries, as well as the respective rights of the “old” member states, has become essential to any contemporary analysis of current EU dynamics. This work incorporates my two semesters abroad in Barcelona, Spain, and Maastricht, the Netherlands, with the intended approach of further clarifying the Program's mission: “intensive interrogation and observation of globalization in comparative perspective.” Before embarking on my study abroad, I was profoundly marked by an incident that solidified my resolution to study Eastern and Central Europe. In an effort to skip the bureaucratic visa process, I attempted to use my Romanian passport instead of my American passport to enter Europe. After inquiring at five different Spanish embassies as to whether my Romanian passport, after EU accession, would eliminate the need for a visa, I left the country still not knowing if my passport was yet functional in the realm of the European Union. Upon entering Spain, a border patrol officer enthusiastically informed me that the EU required no entry papers (besides a passport) for its citizens studying abroad; my Romanian passport had ceased to be just a sentimental souvenir. This incident was one of many that attested to the lack of general knowledge surrounding the new EU members and it contributed to my decision to study the interactions between the old and new member states. Furthermore, both Spain and the Netherlands have generally been viewed as “different.” While Franco's authoritarian regime emphasized the popular slogan, “España es diferente,” it is currently employed as a tactic to garner tourists. In contrast, the political and cultural dynamics of the Netherlands have traditionally been perceived as anomalous in their liberalism, compelling many to label the country as “different.”
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Spain, Netherlands, and Barcelona
10. From Neo-Enlightenment to Nihonjinron: The Politics of Anti-Multiculturalism in Japan and the Netherlands
- Author:
- Jack Eisenberg
- Publication Date:
- 01-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Macalester International
- Institution:
- Macalester College
- Abstract:
- On September 6, 2007, politician Geert Wilders addressed the Dutch Parliament, boldly proclaiming that “multiculturalism” was destroying European civilization: Madam Speaker, the Islamic incursion must be stopped. Islam is the Trojan Horse in Europe. If we do not stop Islamification now, Eurabia and Netherabia will just be a matter of time. One century ago, there were approximately 50 Muslims in the Netherlands. Today, there are about one million Muslims in this country. Where will it end?...No Islamic tra-dition must ever be established in the Netherlands: not now and also not in a few centuries' time.
- Political Geography:
- Japan, Europe, and Netherlands