Class, Nation and Identity by Jeff Pratt

Class, Nation and Identity by Jeff Pratt

Political movements across the world have such diverse characteristics and aims that it is difficult to examine them as a collective group. Movements that are class-based are usually portrayed as formed by economic categories of people driven by material interests. By contrast the study of ethnic or nationalist movements has concentrated on the complexities of identity formation within culturally defined groups driven by strong passions. In this unusual book, Jeff Pratt argues for the need to set up a new analytical framework that extends the study of identity formation, and the ethnographic analysis of economic and social processes, to all political movements. Setting up a new analytical framework, he argues that political processes involve two linked components: a 'discourse' (an identity narrative which positions us within social history) and a 'movement' (the process of organization whereby local social divisions are transformed by their incorporation into a wider movement). He illustrates his arguments with a vivid mix of case studies from across the last century including Basque nationalism, Andalusian anarchism, Italian communism, the break-up of Yugoslavia, to the 'newer' political movements in Europe, in French Occitania and the Italian Lega Nord.

Jeff Pratt is Senior Research Fellow in Anthropology at the University of Sussex. He is the author of Class, Nation and Identity (Pluto, 2003) and Food for Change (Pluto, 2013).

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780745316710
ISBN 10	0745316719
Title	Class, Nation and Identity
Author	Jeff Pratt
Series	Anthropology Culture And Society
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Pluto Press
Year published	2003-01-20
Number of pages	222
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.