Essay Question
Nationalism can be a powerful engine for increasing civic participation and belonging, but when framed as ethnonationalism can only ever erect boundaries of us and them. True or false? Discuss with case studies.
Below are the instruction on how to approach in answering the question.
Identify and explicate all key analytical terms
In addition to identifying the key analytic categories within a text, you must explicate all analytic terms you use and not assume that your reader knows what they mean.
The first decision is to consider the role of nationalism in encouraging participation and belonging.
Then select and showcase a couple of examples of when a national project is framed in terms of ethnonationalism explicitly as in the sense of China, Israel or what is occurring in Ethiopia and then covertly as with “Brexit” or the United States’ “Make America Great Again” campaigns.
You would need to find anthropological texts (typically from ethnographies depicting education, resistance or social movements) to substantiate your claims.
Once you have explored the evidence you have collected you can finally discuss whether you believe irrespective of the various approaches used in national projects, they invariably erect or dismantle ethnic barriers.
There is no answer that is absolutely right or wrong in this assignment, hence the critical analysis is the most important aspect.
Introductions
The introduction should be concise, address the question and situate the problem. It should not be a list of all the things that you are intending to do in your paper. These things and your argument should rather be demonstrated throughout the paper through your developing analysis. The introduction should also not be taken as an opportunity to announce you’re going to address a different or subsidiary question, as you will still be evaluated on how fully you address the question that was asked.
