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1. Creating a Civic National Identity: Integration Through Immigrant Political Participation

Author:
Maars Beltrandy y Rudquist
Publication Date:
09-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Macalester International
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
State citizenship grants the citizen many rights, but the rights most fundamental to a democracy are the right to vote and the right to run for elected office. In the traditional formulations of the nation-state, it has been clear who possesses these rights, but over the last half-century, widespread international migration has complicated the definition of the citizen and has called into question the perceived unity between the nation and the state, between citizenship and nationality, and between civic participation and national identity. In this study, I will examine these complications in the specific case of the Netherlands, a country particularly well known for its recent history of cosmopolitanism. I will examine the effect of these debates on citizenship, and national identity on the ability of migrants to become involved in the Dutch political system as well as the nature of their civic participation. From the basis of this research, I will argue that immigrant political participation is a useful measure of civic integration and that the civic integration that comes with this participation can lead to an increased tolerance of difference within society, which can help to create a new civically, rather than culturally, based national identity. Furthermore, the presence of immigrants and ethnic minorities in local and national politics helps to maintain the relevance of the Dutch state to its population in today's globalized world. For this reason, research on the subject of immigrant political integration is important for understanding both the present and future situations of countries receiving immigrants.
Political Geography:
Netherlands and Dutch

2. Trapped by Narcissism: A Disillusioned Dutch Society

Author:
Anna-Kay Brown
Publication Date:
09-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Macalester International
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
The arrival of the well-celebrated and revered Sinterklaas on November 21, 2011, was marked by the brutal and cruel beating of a black man, Quinsy Gario of Curacao, who was forcefully dragged and thrown into the streets by the Dutch police for protesting the racist connotations of Black Pete. The man wore a stencilled T-shirt with the words “Zwarte Piet is racism” and, according to Dutch and Antillean newspapers and other media reports, he yelled “Zwarte Piet is racism” as the group of Black Petes passed by. The beating, videoed by a bystander and posted on YouTube, was both stomach turning and heart wrenching. It shows the police dragging Gario along the road, with the knees of two policemen pressed into his body. He cries, “It is my right to protest,” while “autochthones” Dutch stand by and watch. After all, it was they who had called the police in disgust at the protest of their beloved tradition. This image stands in stark contrast to the image of a liberal and cosmopolitan Netherlands. In particular, in the words of the director of Antidiscriminatie, Johan Dinjens, it depicts “a society in confusion,” and which I will also contend is a disillusioned society.
Political Geography:
Netherlands, Dutch, and Antilles

3. The Dutch Political Experiment: Phase Three

Author:
Omar El Zoheiry
Publication Date:
09-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Macalester International
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
In the past two decades, many Western liberal democracies have undergone fundamental political transformations. Faced with the challenges of adapting to globalization and the world's increasingly interconnected financial system, many of these democracies have found it necessary to implement a technocratic form of governance. The distance between the political elite and the people was allowed to grow under these regimes in order to achieve the much-needed efficiency in policy formulation and international integration. This article utilizes the case study of the Netherlands to analyze the implications of this gap, perhaps the most significant of which being the rise of “contemporary populism.” It attempts to make sense of seemingly random and unrelated events that have recently shocked Dutch society and politics within a framework of structural change instead of treating these events as temporal occurrences. It demonstrates how such a framework is necessary in understanding the true reason behind these events and why a temporal argument might lead to superficial conclusions.
Topic:
Democratization, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:
Netherlands and Dutch

4. Green Heart Attack: An Environmentalist's Eulogy for the Randstad, Dutch Grand Planning, and the Compact City

Author:
Kate Keleher
Publication Date:
09-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Macalester International
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
Beneath the drama of current events, a serious paradox, as old as civilization itself, steadily erodes the foundations of modern society: humans rely on Earth to survive, yet their way of life burdens it with increasingly taxing demands. Thus, as humans degrade Earth, they threaten the quality of their own existence. Globalization, the compression of time and space, both exacerbates and alleviates the burden of this environmental paradox. Perceiving time as accelerated and space as condensed alters the ways in which humans interact with their physical environment. For instance, globalization can promote behavior that improves environmental health by fostering creative environmental problem solving and cooperation among groups. It can also construct behavioral patterns that degrade the environment by encouraging resource consumption, waste, and pollution.
Topic:
Climate Change and Globalization
Political Geography:
Dutch

5. The Last Frontier of Globalization: Asylum and Citizenship in the Netherlands

Author:
Danait Teklay
Publication Date:
09-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Macalester International
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
Alla Sarkisyan and Ibrahim Mohammed are Dutch citizens who came to the Netherlands seeking asylum less than fifteen years ago. Today, they have accepted the Netherlands as their new home and their adopted country. Yet, indicative of their transnational journey, they continue to harbor strong feelings for their places of origin and culture. As Alla most poignantly stated, “the Netherlands is my home, but Russia and Armenia are in my blood.” Her sentiment reflects the shift towards a transnational conception of identity and moreover illustrates the changing nature of citizenship within this era of globalization. The mixed identity that she and countless others express poses a challenge to the traditional notion of citizenship espoused by the Dutch state. Alla and Ibrahim are just two examples of the thousands of recently arrived refugees and asylees who are reshaping the political and social landscape of the Netherlands. The stories of their integration into Dutch society exemplify the challenges and achievements of redefining citizenship in this time of globalization.
Topic:
Globalization
Political Geography:
Russia, Armenia, Netherlands, and Dutch

6. The Dutch Golden Age and Globalization: History and Heritage, Legacies and Contestations

Author:
Joop de Jong
Publication Date:
11-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Macalester International
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
In 1579, seven of the seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands unenthusiastically declared their independence from the Habsburg King of Spain, to form the United Provinces, also known as the Union or the Dutch Republic. The new country achieved full international recognition in 1648, even though many states recognized its sovereignty much earlier.
Topic:
History
Political Geography:
Spain, Netherlands, and Dutch

7. 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

8. Nongovernmental Organizations and Muslim Queer Communities in the Netherlands

Author:
James Hoppe
Publication Date:
11-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Macalester International
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
The Netherlands offers a particularly interesting case study of what it means to incorporate a changing sense of values toward sexual freedom while maintaining a strong sense of national culture and context. During the height of the Dutch system known as “Pillarization,” daily life was defined by religion. Every town and village not only consisted of Protestant and Catholic churches, but also separate schools, butchers, grocers, doctors, and shops, in a sort of “separate but equal” society that did not require much interaction between people perceived as different.
Topic:
Culture
Political Geography:
Netherlands and Dutch

9. Dominicus as Global Citizen: An Oral History of the Journey of a Dutch Resister

Author:
Erik Larson
Publication Date:
11-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Macalester International
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
The end of the Second World War witnessed the growth of enduring, formal international institutions as well as the intensification of decolonization. Together these events shaped the contemporary nation-state system and the concomitant rise of the ethos of global citizenship. The rapidity of these changes speaks to the profound effect of the lived experience of the Second World War on global leaders. The experience of the populace during the Second World War, however, also offers insight into the emergence of a philosophy of global citizenship.
Topic:
War
Political Geography:
Dutch

10. The Dutch Connection: The European Court of Human Rights and the Pursuit of Global Citizenship in the Netherlands

Author:
Erik Larson and Patrick Schmidt
Publication Date:
11-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Macalester International
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
For centuries, the Netherlands, seen by many as an island of toleration and liberal values, has drawn those escaping intolerance and repression. It remains as attractive a destination today as it was (at least initially) for the Puritans fleeing England. Recognizing the differences among nations, the abiding questions of political life search for normative prescriptions: What obligations do governments have toward individuals and what limitations to their authority must governments observe? The idiosyncrasies of the Dutch case provide well-trodden ground for the study of civil liberties and rights, most famously the libertarian approaches to drugs and prostitution. However, those arrangements, inflected with a voyeurism for cultural understandings of deviance, tell us relatively little about the most important development in the debate about government over the past century, namely, the problem that any attempt to answer fundamental political questions cannot reside solely within the Netherlands or the boundaries of any nation, but is shared across national boundaries in the search for unifying values and settlements.
Political Geography:
England, Netherlands, Island, and Dutch