CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020
| Author | Koritár, Réka |
|---|---|
| Title | The Banal Nationalism of Civic Integration: A Case Study of an Orientation Course in Leipzig |
| Summary | Contrary to the extensive academic literature on civic integration, the programs have been until now mostly overlooked as an object of nationalism research. In order to address this problem, I undertook a case study research of a specific, especially understudied segment of civic integration programs, orientation classes in Germany. Through the qualitative methods of participants observation and document analysis, I identified the underlying mechanisms of external comparison, humanization and moralization to be the main tools of how the positively connotated, homogenized picture of Germany is constructed in the first module of the class. I also found that in sharp contrast to the homogenization of the first module, in the second module on history, the German nation is constructed as divided. Based on the above, I noted the resilience of nationalism and its ability to change its shape and form according to the context. Asking the question of how, along which categories difference, belonging and non-belonging to Germany are constructed, I found that belonging to the German nation is constructed as a permeable legal category, falling in line with the characterizations of civic nationalism as liberal, voluntarist and inclusive. The value attached to national belonging, however, was extensively contested by some participants. Finally, I found elements of the integration discourse to be of special significance in the process of constructing Muslims as different, and non-belonging to Germany. |
| Supervisor | Kovács, Mária M. |
| Department | Nationalism Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2020/koritar_reka.pdf |
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