Nationalism and the Internet^*

Abstract

The territorial integrity of nations is often taken as the premise for a functioning, unifying national identity. Yet, the economic and technological developments of recent decades have made it necessary to question this assumption. It can no longer be taken for granted that the people who identify with a given nation inhabit the same space, nor can it be assumed that cultural homogenisation takes place at the level of the nation through mass media. When the Internet appeared, many social scientists and commentators predicted that it would threaten the cultural integrity of nations; that the non-territorial character of the Internet would lead to fragmentation and unprecedented cultural differentiation, making it difficult, eventually impossible, to uphold a collective sense of national identity based on shared images, representations, myths and so on. Although it is too early to draw any conclusions regarding the longterm effects of the Internet, experiences so far suggest that such predictions were mistaken. In fact, nations thrive in cyberspace, and the Internet has in the space of only a few years become a key technology for keeping nations (and other abstract communities) together. Nations which have lost their territory (such as Afrikanerled South Africa), nations which are for political reasons dispersed (such as Tamil Sri Lanka or Kurdistan), nations with large temporary overseas diasporas (such as Scandinavian countries, with their large communities in Spain during winter), or nations where many citizens work abroad temporarily or permanently (such as India or Caribbean island-states), appear in many sites on the Internet -from online newspapers and magazines to semi-official information sites and 'virtual community' homepages. In a 'global era' of movement and deterritorialisation, the Internet is used to strengthen, rather than weaken, national identities. Although many disagree with various elements of his theory, nobody contests Ernest Gellner's central place in the research on nationalism over the last few decades. His elegant theory, developed and refined over a period of several decades, from the early 1960s until his death in 1995, famously, and with a

(Il)Legitimisation of the role of the nation state: Understanding of and reactions to Internet censorship in Turkey

“…They point to the rise of anti-global protest groups as a transnational movement. Considerable scholarly debate concerns whether globalisation, including the rise of the Internet and globalisation of media, has blurred the boundaries between nation states -as theorised by Beck (2000), Castells (2009), Featherstone and Lash (1995) and Robinson (1998) -or whether nation states retain prominence and continue to be necessary to the existence of the transnational and the global (Billig, 1995;Eriksen, 2007). Mihelj (2011: 30) argues that… many processes that are currently seen as features of globalization can be understood as the global rise of the modern nation-state as a key unit of political power and action, and… global parallel spread of nationalism as the dominant discourse of political legitimacy and cultural identity.…”

Rethinking the Digital Divide: Smartphones as Translanguaging Tools Among Middle Eastern Refugees in New Jersey

“…; Berg ; Brinkerhoff, ; Everett, ; Gajjala, ; Horst ; Madianou and Miller ; Marino ; McKay ; Miller ; Vertovec ). How scholars have understood the nature of these ties has varied, from highlighting digital media as a force that strengthens and insulates ethnic identities (Christensen and Jansson ; Erickson ; Jansson ) to finding that digital technologies foster integration (Vermeulen and Elif Keskiner ).…”

Studi Komparatif Identitas Nasional Pada Remaja Generasi Z Ditinjau Dari Intensitas Penggunaan Internet

“…Kelompok remaja yang adiksi cenderung lebih memiliki identitas nasional yang lebih lemah dibandingkan dengan kelompok remaja yang tidak menggunakan internet. Temuan ini berbeda dengan temuan penelitian yang dilakukan oleh Eriksen (2007), dimana internet justru dipandang sebagai media yang efektif dalam memperkuat nasionalisme. Bangsabangsa yang kehilangan teritori secara de facto maupun de jure, kerap dapat menunjukkan eksistensinya melalui berbagai komunitas virtual yang dibentuk melalui internet.…”