Regimes of Ethnicity and Nationhood in Germany, Russia, and Turkey by Sener Akturk

Regimes of Ethnicity and Nationhood in Germany, Russia, and Turkey by Sener Akturk

This is a book about what it meant to be German, Soviet, Russian, and Turkish in the twentieth century, and how that definition radically changed at the turn of the twenty-first century. Germany's ethnic citizenship law, the Soviet Union's inscription of ethnic origins in personal identification documents, and Turkey's prohibition on the public use of minority languages, all put in place in the early twentieth century, underpinned the definition of nationhood in these countries. Despite many challenges from political and societal actors, these policies did not change for many decades, until around the turn of the twenty-first century, when Russia removed ethnicity from the internal passport, Germany changed its citizenship law, and Turkish public television began to broadcast in minority languages. How did such tremendous changes occur? Using a new typology of regimes of ethnicity and a close study of primary documents and numerous interviews, Sener Akturk argues that the coincidence of three key factors counterelites, new discourses, and hegemonic majorities explains successful change in state policies toward ethnicity.

'Regimes of Ethnicity [and Nationhood in Germany, Russia, and Turkey] provides an important and exciting contribution to the existing literature on ethnicity, minorities, and nationalism … For scholars of nationalism and ethnicity, the book offers a robust theoretical framework for classifying regimes of ethnicity and explaining their persistence and change' Yoav H. Duman, Comparative Political Studies
'… a must-read for students of ethnicity and nationalism. [This book] is conceptually innovative, empirically rich, and theoretically inspiring. It is particularly timely for the case of Turkey where issues on ethnicity and nationhood are now at the centre of public debates.' Ahmet T. Kuru, Insight Turkey
'This ambitious work in comparative politics promises a lot and delivers a lot … An impressive feature … is the richly documented, parsimonious account of each of the three countries. The author skilfully parses German, Turkish, and Russian primary sources. The footnotes themselves constitute a wealth of information … Aktürk's general achievement is to have provoked political science specialists on nationalism and ethnicity with iconoclastic interpretations of recent developments in three major countries. In Turkey and Russia more than in Germany after its landmark citizenship law, state policies on the status and rights of minorities continue to be negotiated in many important ways. His voice seeking to make sense of these ongoing processes is one we need to listen to critically.' Raymond Taras, Perspectives on Politics
'Aktürk's most significant contribution to studies of recent changes in German citizenship laws is probably his focus on the role played by immigrants, especially Turkish immigrants, in bringing about those changes … One must recognize Aktürk's extraordinary skills, not least linguistic, and the care he has taken, through extensive interviews and research in primary and secondary sources, to cast light on a central question of the modern age.' Eli Nathans, American Historical Review
'Empirically, Aktürk's book is impressive. He does well at combining historical narratives from three different area-studies traditions and drawing comparisons between countries endowed with different constitutional arrangements.' Survival: Global Politics and Strategy
'Based on the data gathered from archival materials, interviews, newspapers, and electoral statistics, Aktürk provides a theoretically original, empirically deep, and methodologically strong argument on persistence and change in the regimes of ethnicity … One of the innovative approaches in [this book] is the intuitive blend of historical institutionalism - mostly associated with the studies of welfare regimes - and the studies of ethnicity and nationalism. Through this insightful combination, Aktürk also shows the endogenous dynamics of institutional change without any presence of exogenous shock that many new institutionalists refer to.' Serhun Al, National Identities
'… provides an in-depth explanation of ethnicity policy reform in Germany, Russia and Turkey … empirically well grounded and makes novel and useful contributions to the field that should guide future scholarship.' Alexander Caviedes, German Politics
'… a well-conceived and well-tested study … recommended to scholars interested in citizenship studies [and] institutionalists as well as to sociologists as a fine read.' Nur Bilge Criss, Turkish Studies

Sener Akturk is an Assistant Professor at Koç University in Istanbul. He holds degrees from the University of Chicago (BA, MA) and the University of California, Berkeley (MA, PhD). He has spent extended periods in Vienna, Berlin and Moscow for language study and doctoral research. Prior to his current appointment, he was a postdoctoral Fellow at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies and a visiting lecturer in the Department of Government at Harvard University. He is a recipient of a Marie Curie International Reintegration Grant from the European Commission. He has published more than thirty articles in international and national refereed academic journals including World Politics, Post-Soviet Affairs, the European Journal of Sociology, Middle Eastern Studies, Nationalities Papers, Ab Imperio, Turkish Studies, Insight Turkey and Theoria. He has authored chapters in various edited books published in Turkey, Russia, Hungary and the United States.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781107614253
ISBN 10	1107614252
Title	Regimes of Ethnicity and Nationhood in Germany, Russia, and Turkey
Author	Sener Akturk
Series	Problems Of International Politics
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Cambridge University Press
Year published	2012-11-12
Number of pages	321
Prizes	Winner of Joseph Rothschild Prize in Nationalism and Ethnic Studies, Association for the Study of Nationalities 2013
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.