Post-Nationalism

Drawing on archives preserved in the National Library of Ireland, Dublin, this article examines the history and significance of the Music Association of Ireland (MAI). During its sixty-year lifespan, from 1948 to 2007, the association contributed considerably to the musical life of Ireland, particularly in its educational initiatives and its efforts to influence national music policy and create an infrastructure for composers. Its voluntary efforts, especially its initiatives such as the Composers’ Group, Country Tours, Coming Out recitals, the Schools’ Recitals Scheme, the Irish Youth Orchestra and the Dublin Twentieth-Century Music Festival, grew into or influenced many of the independent, professional organizations prominent in Irish musical infrastructure today. At a time when government funding of the arts was limited, the MAI filled an important niche and acted as a voice for classical music, particularly in Dublin. The association’s initiatives, particularly the Schools' Recitals Scheme (1967) and the Irish Youth Orchestra (1970), thrived in a climate which experienced pioneering developments in the arts and increased educational opportunities and leisure time. The times were marked by remarkable transformations in cultural, social and pedagogical practices which resulted in the opening up of access to the arts from the 1970s. The MAI benefitted greatly from this surge in cultural activity and the association became the Arts Council’s model in its pursuit of professionalizing the arts in Ireland. However, the MAI was unable, or unwilling, to make the transition from a voluntary organization to a professional one, and gradually went into decline. The long-term nature of a number of its projects meant that the MAI’s six objectives could not be achieved by one voluntary organization. Some sixty years later, many of these objectives are only now being realized through professional, government-funded agencies. The evidence of the MAI archive shows that the association played a valuable role in developing music and music education in Ireland—a notable achievement that deserves to be remembered.

The European Union is, by far, the room for theoretical debates as well as for very concrete experiences, despite of the costs or of the evidences its member states already have, with regard to the efficiency and long term chances of each specific position. However, the (neo)functionalist approach supports very well both the nationalist and the liberal
reluctance towards a complete federation, therefore, they seem to have and gain more and more supporters, as time goes by. On the other hand, this method had been tested not as an aim in such, but as a tool to provide exactly the opposite, but on medium and long term. This
paper tries to outline the main stages in the evolution of the economic and monetary policy, from the (neo)functionalist perspective. It is not a final topic, but a part from a more general comparative research on the routes of integration in the European Union.

In July 1941, Stefan Zweig (1881-1942), finished the first draft of his memoirs, which he titled Blick auf mein Leben. One month later, in August 1941, he and his wife Lotte would leave for Brazil never to return. The last years of Zweig’s life were surrounded by an impending sense of doom. In this context, his autobiography, which was finally published posthumously in 1942 as Die Welt von Gestern, emerged as a farewell from someone—an Austrian, a Jew, a writer, a pacifist, and above all, a European—who wished to leave his testimony for posterity, who believed that he had the duty to bear witness, to pass down to the next generations his hopes and dreams and the story of how these had been shattered twice by the forces of nationalism and war. The current scenario of Zweigian Studies, marked by an incipient Zweig ‘revival’, coincides with a moment in history when the need to rethinking and redefine our common spaces of cohabitation has become an imperative. This dissertation examines the intellectual and committed dimension of Stefan Zweig’s oeuvre as it crystallizes around the idea of Europe. It seeks, above all, to question and problematize the understanding of Stefan Zweig as an ‘uncommitted’, ‘silent’ writer which has dominated a significant part of the critical reception of his works since the nineteen thirties. With Die Welt von Gestern as the point of departure of my reflections, given the text’s unique combination of Zweig’s life-story with the construction of a collective, historical account, the Introduction aims to reconstruct and assess the reception of Stefan Zweig’s works and figure, both from an aesthetic and a political perspectives. Especially, it addresses the question of Zweig’s ‘politics’ and ‘apoliticism’ as it is crucial in the configuration of his committed responses. Chapter I examines a selection of Zweig’s works in order to analyze how his commitment—to Europe, broadly speaking—informed the construction of his public, authorial persona and resulted in the articulation of a narrative of commitment. After considering the textual specificities of Zweig’s personal discourse in Die Welt von Gestern in an attempt to establish the parameters that inform Zweig’s self-writing, this chapter leads us through a succession of Zweigian intellectuals, from Émile Verhaeren, Jeremias and Romain Rolland to Erasmus, Castellio and Michel de Montaigne. In doing so, it aims to provide a critical assessment of the way(s) in which Zweig constructed his figures of intellectuality, that is to say, of how he negotiated through those figures his commitment to a set of values and, above all, to a vision of the world (Weltanschauung). In doing so, Chapter I reveals the difficulties, contradictions and limitations that emerge throughout Zweig’s articulation of his beliefs and ideas in the public sphere. Chapter II examines the construction of Zweig’s ‘European’ project and Weltanschauung as the main goal or enterprise towards which the Austrian writer orients the figures of commitment discussed in the previous chapter, their ‘intellectual’ efforts and responses. More specifically, I focus my analysis on three main valences or functions of Zweig’s ‘Europe’. On the one hand, in its potential to become an ‘identity’ paradigm and affiliation, I distinguish between Europe’s individual and collective dimensions. On the other, I conclude my reflections in Chapter II by considering the possibilities of discussing Zweig’s ‘Europe’ as an ethical program. In my reading, Zweig’s ethical (‘European’) program emerges as the core of Zweig’s commitment, the foundations of his utopian ‘Europe’, allowing us to consider the possibility of expanding the Austrian writer’s engagement beyond the fight for the ‘spiritual’ union of Europe. In this sense, it becomes the link between Zweig’s figures of commitment and his ‘European’ project. In sum, I argue that at the center of Zweig’s commitment lies an ethical program made up of four essential notions—human(ism), peace, freedom, and post-nationalism— that invites us to travel from the Zweig’s world of yesterday to the Europe of tomorrow.

The Royal Republic of Ladonia, the brainchild of artist Lars Vilks, is a micronation that advocates freedom of expression, supporting art and creativity. This article outlines Ladonia as the physical territory claimed in the Kullaberg peninsula in Sweden and the online community, where the government, nobles, and citizens gather. Ladonia coexists as both a physical territory and as a large and active online community, distinguishing itself from other micronations, which are either active online communities or claim small physical territories. Using Ladonia as the context, this article extends the concept of aislamiento (insularity/islandness) to show how a micronation can have coexisting and interrelated states of aislamiento.

The 'conflicts law approach' reconstructs the potential of primarily, but not exclusively, European law to address the threat to democracy that is posed by the concern that citizens would increasingly be subject to the effects of laws which they themselves had not authored. This structural democratic deficit calls for consideration of 'foreign' demands. It also calls for cooperation and mutual respect between political constituencies. The normative basis for understanding conflicts law as a constitutional form with democratically grounded validity claims stems from the proposition that states must acknowledge or establish a law that provides a forum for foreign demands and manifests deference through transnational rules. The approach sets out to examine three types of conflict constellations—horizontal, vertical and diagonal legal conflicts—and three types of law-mediated responses, layered as the scheme of a 'three-dimensional conflicts law'.

This Independence Day, most people will not want to reflect on the triumph of the Nationalist movement as it defeated  British Imperialism, but will rather be planning a pleasant day at the beach. Is this a problem? What does it mean? Are we ungrateful? Is Independence anything to celebrate?
Reflecting on their own country’s experience, Michael Witter and Omar Davies (1989) have bemoaned that Jamaica is more dependent today than it was at the beginning of Independence. While I agree, I do not find it necessarily lamentable. For this situation is not particular to Jamaica, the Caribbean, or “the South”. It is the condition of the entire contemporary world. And while not all good, it is not all bad either. As Peter Drucker noted in 1986, all countries of the globe have become more dependent on the world economy -- including the United States, England and Japan. Not just our Nation-States, but all Nation-States are crumbling. A story on CNN (which I gladly receive through my cable subscription) related that a child was asked the question, “Do you know why we have a holiday on Independence Day?” The answer was given, “That’s the day we defeated the aliens.” Well. The idea that somehow we in the West Indies are more prone to forgetting our history than others, or that the Third World been spellbound into abandoning patriotism by cunning imperialist overlords is both inadequate and small-town. Our situation of weakened Nation-States and waning National sentiment is not the result of imperialist designs. It is the condition of the contemporary world. And not only is this true of economics. It is true of politics and culture as well. Farewell to age of  the Nation and Independence.

¿Es posible una democracia posnacional? ¿Sobre qué se podría articular/cohesionar el demos que la sostendría? ¿Desde qué marco teórico-normativo debe ser imaginada? El presente artículo se aproxima a los tres interrogantes planteados a partir de una revisión crítica de dos debates entablados al respecto: los que mantiene el modelo deliberativo habermasiano con el “nacionalismo funcional” y con el modelo agonístico de democracia. Se concluirá que la postura de Habermas nos permite atisbar la posibilidad de una democracia posnacional, pero que, si su propuesta ha de resultar convincente, deberá considerar los problemas relaciones con la formación de ciertos tipos de subjetividades.

In this commentary piece, I combine insights gained from the various contributions to this special issue with my own research and understanding to trace the (dis)connections between, on the one hand, (post-)nationalism and its underlying concept of belonging and, on the other hand, cosmopolitanism and its underlying concept of becoming. I pay special attention to the human (im)mobilities mediating these processes. This critical thinking exercise confirms that the relationship between place, collective identity and socio-cultural processes of identification is a contested aspect of social theory. In the discussion, I suggest four points to be addressed in the future if we want to make existing theories about post-national formations and processes of cosmopolitanization more robust against the huge and complex challenges humankind is facing.