Jennifer Todd – författare

Unions and unionisms are important because they offer an alternative form of politics to that of nation-states and nationalisms. They allow a wider variety of relations between a plurality of peoples, opening prospects of resolving territorial politics. But unionisms, as state- or polity-centred perspectives, are also typically power-centred, often using the resources of the polity to resist assertion by their members, thereby turning democratic challenges into secessionist ones.

Unionisms in Times of Change: Brexit, Britain and the Balkans focusses on these two faces of unionisms: the flexible alternative to the nation state, and the assertor of central power. This book is particularly timely at a period when the unions of the British Isles and of Europe have been disrupted by the process of British exit from the European Union, creating new dilemmas and options for unionisms in Northern Ireland. The chapters in this volume map the conceptual structure of unionisms; the ways unions are defined and defended in Northern Ireland, the United Kingdom, the European Union, the Balkans and Moldova; the ways they deal with challenge, conflict and change; the prospects of negotiation; the ways unionisms move from flexibility and accommodation to repression and back; and the opportunities for agreement and conflict resolution.

The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the Irish Political Studies.

Unions and unionisms are important because they offer an alternative form of politics to that of nation-states and nationalisms. They allow a wider variety of relations between a plurality of peoples, opening prospects of resolving territorial politics. But unionisms, as state- or polity-centred perspectives, are also typically power-centred, often using the resources of the polity to resist assertion by their members, thereby turning democratic challenges into secessionist ones.

Unionisms in Times of Change: Brexit, Britain and the Balkans focusses on these two faces of unionisms: the flexible alternative to the nation state, and the assertor of central power. This book is particularly timely at a period when the unions of the British Isles and of Europe have been disrupted by the process of British exit from the European Union, creating new dilemmas and options for unionisms in Northern Ireland. The chapters in this volume map the conceptual structure of unionisms; the ways unions are defined and defended in Northern Ireland, the United Kingdom, the European Union, the Balkans and Moldova; the ways they deal with challenge, conflict and change; the prospects of negotiation; the ways unionisms move from flexibility and accommodation to repression and back; and the opportunities for agreement and conflict resolution.

The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the Irish Political Studies.

The major socio-political changes of the last decades have led to changing ways of being national, changes in the content of national identity if not in the national categories themselves.

This comparative social scientific volume takes examples of transitions to democracy (East Europe, Spain) to peace (South Africa, Israel, Northern Ireland) and to territorial decentralization (the United Kingdom, France, Spain), showing in each case how socio-political change and identity change have interlocked. It defines a typology of national identity shift, tracing the changing state forms which provoke national identity shift, and analyzing the process of identity change, its motivations and legitimations. Collecting together a wide range of examples, from South Africa to the Czech Republic from the Basque Country to the Mexican and Irish borders; the book brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars, from world figures in the study of globalization and social identity to young researchers, to provide a much needed theoretical clarification and empirical evidence of types of national identity shift.

The major socio-political changes of the last decades have led to changing ways of being national, changes in the content of national identity if not in the national categories themselves.

This comparative social scientific volume takes examples of transitions to democracy (East Europe, Spain) to peace (South Africa, Israel, Northern Ireland) and to territorial decentralization (the United Kingdom, France, Spain), showing in each case how socio-political change and identity change have interlocked. It defines a typology of national identity shift, tracing the changing state forms which provoke national identity shift, and analyzing the process of identity change, its motivations and legitimations. Collecting together a wide range of examples, from South Africa to the Czech Republic from the Basque Country to the Mexican and Irish borders; the book brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars, from world figures in the study of globalization and social identity to young researchers, to provide a much needed theoretical clarification and empirical evidence of types of national identity shift.

Religion has regained political prominence in the twenty first century and not least for the manner in which it intersects with ethnicity. Many ethnic conflicts have a strong religious dimension, and religion appears as a powerful force for mobilisation, solidarity and violence. Religion and ethnicity can each act as a powerful base of identity, group formation and communal conflict. They can also overlap, with ethnic and religious boundaries coinciding, partially or completely, internally nested or intersecting.

This volume maps the different forms of intersection: cases where religion is prioritised in private life and ethnicity in public, where each coexists in tension in political life, and where the distinctions reinforce each other with dynamic effects. It maps the different patterns with case studies and comparisons from Ireland, Northern Ireland, France, Zimbabwe, Ghana and Malaysia. It shows how ordinary people construct their solidarities and identities using both ethnic and religious resources. This opens up analysis of the socially transformative, as well as politically antagonistic, potential of religion in situations of ethnic division.

This book was published as a special issue of Ethnopolitics.

Religion has regained political prominence in the twenty first century and not least for the manner in which it intersects with ethnicity. Many ethnic conflicts have a strong religious dimension, and religion appears as a powerful force for mobilisation, solidarity and violence. Religion and ethnicity can each act as a powerful base of identity, group formation and communal conflict. They can also overlap, with ethnic and religious boundaries coinciding, partially or completely, internally nested or intersecting.

This volume maps the different forms of intersection: cases where religion is prioritised in private life and ethnicity in public, where each coexists in tension in political life, and where the distinctions reinforce each other with dynamic effects. It maps the different patterns with case studies and comparisons from Ireland, Northern Ireland, France, Zimbabwe, Ghana and Malaysia. It shows how ordinary people construct their solidarities and identities using both ethnic and religious resources. This opens up analysis of the socially transformative, as well as politically antagonistic, potential of religion in situations of ethnic division.

This book was published as a special issue of Ethnopolitics.

This book explores everyday identity change and its role in transforming ethnic, national and religious divisions. It uses very extensive interviews in post-conflict Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in the early 21st century to compare the extent and the micro-level cultural logics of identity change. It widens comparisons to the Gard in France, and uses multiple methods to reconstruct the impact of identity innovation on social and political outcomes in the 2010s. It shows the irreducible causal importance of identity change for wider compromise after conflict. It speaks to those interested in Cultural Sociology, Politics, Conflict and Peace Studies, Nationalism, Religion, International Relations and European and Irish Studies.