North Africa's Spain: peripheral national identities and the nation-state as neo-empire

• Autores: Daniel Karell
• Localización: Nations and nationalism, ISSN 1354-5078, Vol. 21, Part 3, 2015, págs. 423-444
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • When ethno-cultural heterogeneity exists and thrives within a nation-state, social tension and ethno-nationalist sentiments are not considered surprising. Yet in many nation-states, various native-born communities have diverse and potentially contradictory national identities without the desire for self-determination. In this paper, I explore the circumstances in which ethno-culturally distinct, peripheral communities may develop variants of the dominant national identity � ensuring that they remain excluded from the national narrative � yet remain part of the nation-state. To do so, I conduct a comparative analysis of the native-born Muslim communities in Spain's two North African exclaves. I find that most Muslims are Spanish citizens yet understandings of �Spanish-ness� appear to vary between the exclaves. I use these findings to propose further steps for refining current conceptualisations of the nation-state, in an effort to better understand cases in which variations in the dominant national identity exist, but without ethno-nationalist sentiments.