Icts and the Nation-State Dynamic

Marissa Christman

LIS505, As. 3

4/29/10

Information Globalization in Review:

ICTs and the Nation-state Dynamic

Introduction

The recent mushrooming of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has had significant impact on current neo-nationalist movements as global media weaken the locally imaginative bonds of nationhood (Poster, 2008, 700).Nationalism and globalization have collided in the theoretical and empirical realms for decades but many of those dialogues are beyond the scope of this paper. Thisliterature review focuses on the documented use of ICTs by neo-nationalist groups in support of the theory that information globalization disrupts the dynamics of the nation-state.

The Concept of Nation

It would be helpful to first clarify the concept of the state, which is a formal institution with the authority to create and enforce policy. Technological relevance of the state tends to be encapsulated by the term “techno-nationality,” but should be more precisely called “techno-statism.” It makes more sense to use techno-nationality to refer to the technological relevance of that nation as a socio-cultural entity. This ambiguity testifies to academia’stendency to muddle the concepts of nation and state.This perhaps signifies its reliance on their archaic affiliation embodied in the nation-state which empirical analysis shows is becoming less relevant to technological development (Montresor, 2001, 400-401). Chinese academics are particularly guilty of this ambiguity, perhaps owing to the enigmatic character of the Chinese nation-state, discussed below (Knight, 2006, 11).This paper attributesthis decreasing relevance to the recent global penetration of ICTsand its severingof the state from the cultural structure known as the “nation.”

Though it is common to refer to religious, ethnic or racial groupings as “nations” (i.e. “The Muslim Nation,” or “The African-American Nation”), the concept is most often associated with the country or nation-state (i.e. “nation of China”). Benedict Anderson defined a nation as “an imagined political community imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign” (Quoted in Poster, 691). Nations are “limited” in that their existent depends on their exclusivity; certain criteria must be met in order for a person to be accepted as part of the nation. A nation is “sovereign” in that its members claim separation and autonomy based on their member statuses, hence the plethora of nationalist political movements. Because the literature on this subject uses this definition, this paper will also use Anderson’s definition of a nation as an expression of culture that exists simply because its members imagine that it exists.

Why Information Globalization and ICTs Matter to the Nation-state

For the last century, nations or “imagined communities” worked to form governments along national lines but ICTs allow for the diffusion of imagination across national, social, and geographical boundaries (Poster, 699).The most important criterion for belonging to a nation before the globalization of informationwas geographic proximity, which usually meant administration by the same government, hence the dominance of the nation-state (Friedland, 2002, 391). But the widespread use of ICTs jeopardizes this organization.

The globalization of information and its cultural effects are owed almost exclusively to ICTs,“Peer-to-peer media technologies… detach the body from its location in space, loosening the binds to the local, and connect the writer with global culture. This shift involves an ‘intimacy’ with information machines that cannot be ignored” (Poster, 700).ICTs put the production of culture into the hands of anyone with connectivity, thus drastically redefining the criteria for nationhood (Poster, 699). The radical consumerism practiced by Chinese youth, for example, is a practice that goes against a national conception of behavior, even though it is in line with the emergent global capitalism (Knight, 10-11).People around the world are using alternative criteria for inclusion into high-tech imagined communities and the state no longer dictates the boundaries of the nation.

Before ICTs: State-controlled Nationalism

The New Order regime in Indonesia provides a great example of technology’s role in the operation of the nation-state before the proliferation of ICTs. Indonesia experienced profound technological growth during the 1970s and 1980s but the recent global economic crisis halted any progress made in the ICT sector in the 1990s (Satriya, 2005). Indonesia still suffers from underdevelopment in the ICT sector but its earlier rendezvous with technological development speaks volumes to the political importance of ICTs in particular.

The Indonesian state began a development initiative in 1976 with the formation of its aircraft industry, called Industri Pesawat Terbang Nusantara (IPTN). Through the use of nationalist rhetoric, public ceremony and ubiquitous symbolism, the state deliberately fused technological development and patriotic Indonesian nationalism (Amir, 2007, 287-290). The development of high technology became a source of national pride (Amir,283).The state’s deliberate manipulation of the Indonesian people nurtured a cultural obsession with high technology that united the divergent groups in Indonesia. In this sense, “technology becomes a medium of an imagined community” (Amir, 284). The idea, therefore, is not a new one but the nation-state was the agent responsible for creating this imagined community through the exploitation of the Indonesian people.

The fanaticism displayed within this imagined community by the Indonesian people in the 1970s and 80s is called technological nationalism. Technological nationalism allows the state to pursue its own interests under the banner of a people’s movementby creating the illusion of progress toward technological and economic independence(Amir, 284). Technological expenditures are justified as necessary for the success of the nation, and consequently, its people. But technological development becomes the foremost priority of the nation, completely disregarding poverty, environmental impact and traditional cultural values.Commoners suffer because resource allocation is unbalanced yet supported by the disillusioned masses. The state-created imagined community is a diversion so that the government may benefit from the sacrifice of the Indonesian commoners (Amir, 292).This phenomenon is only possible in a pre-ICT environment, wherein the state monopolizes culture through information control.

“Imagined Communities” Created by Ethnic Groups using ICTs

Sociologist Roger Friedland asserts, “As the state weakens and the public sphere empties of sense, other sources of solidarity… grow: ethnicity, on the one hand, and religion, on the other” (Friedland, 391). Imagined communities or “nations” based on alternative criteria, often ethnicity or religion are important to this discussion because they operate independently of the nation-state, robbing it of power and threatening it with obsolescence.

Since the 1990s, the sudden ubiquity of satellite television, the Internet and other ICTs has shaped the Arab world. Residing in North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and the eastern Mediterranean territories known as the Levant, Arabs are numerous and diverse. Previously divided by national boundaries, the Arabs’ integrated use of ICTs has resulted in a shared Arab consciousness or in other words, an imagined pan-Arab community. Scientific studies prove a correlation between television viewing and the espousal of pan-Arab stances (Pintak, 2009, 192). Moreover, satellite television has popularized Modern Standard Arabic and, some even say, encouraged the formation of a pan-Arab lingua franca(Pintak, 194).

A survey of Arab journalists indicated that despite religious, philosophical, geographical and socio-economic variance, they first identified themselves with a collective Arab public. They control the global media outlet in question which indicates that they act as gatekeepers to the Arabs’ imagined community, every day shaping the character of a new Arab collective. Arab journalists digitally transmit the pan-Arab imagination to Arabs near and far, creating a digital pan-Arab nation (Pintak, 207). Pan-Arabism has of yet failed to translate into political action. Nonetheless, broadcasting communally imagined (a.k.a. national) ideas via ICTs is done independently of the nation-state and one day it might be in opposition to it, demonstrating the nation’s ability to exist independent of state.

Likewise, Nigerian Tuareg nationalists have created an imagined community or nation by way of ICTs. Starting in 2007, Tuareg nationalists use extant forums and chat rooms or create their own to transmit nationalist doctrine. The Nigerian government uses the web similarly in attempts to counter the Tuareg brand of nationalism with an antithetical state-sponsored version (Alzouma, 2009, 483). Though Nigeria’s ICT development indicators are among the lowest in the world, their use of Internet cafes is considerable and the political elites tend be in the small portion that have access anyway. Also important is the presence of a young student population who serve as marks for online Tuareg nationalist agitators. The Tuaregs use ICTs to bridge the educational riffs within Nigerian society. Online radio, video and photos serve as nationalist propaganda for the illiterate. Tuaregs also use diasporic forums (discussed below) and chat rooms to transmit their nationalist ideas to Tauregs living abroad. They have inducted international non-government organizations, political parties and eminent Western personalities into the ranks of their imagined community using Internet activity (Alzouma, 490). Their influence extends even further via global media who report news sourced by Nigerian nationalist websites (Alzouma, 493).

The Building of Online Imagined Communities via Digital Documents

Language has always mediated culture through cultural object such as folklore and national anthems but ICTs allow cultural objects to be experienced by anyone in the world with access to the Internet (Poster, 698). The Zionist youth movement is particularly affected by the increased accessibility to cultural documents. The storage, transmission and discussion of folklore are made easier by ICTs. Groups like Ariel and Bnei-Akiva use forums to discuss such foundation documents with other Israeli nationalist youth. Ariel youths posted “Red Riding Hood—the Haredic Version!” in a forum maintained by a nationalist/religious TV station in Israel (Raufman & Ben-Cnaan , 2009, 44). This Zionist allegory probed important issues of faith and nation. One comment read: “the integrated land of Israel is our Israel and we won’t share it with anyone else.”

Ariel members bonded over the accordance of their values and identified the incompatible values of their enemies. The irony is that Ariel youths compromise their shared values, one of which is the segregation of genders into adulthood, by mixing through the use of ICTs (Raufman & Ben-Cnaan , 52). Ariel youth are, in effect, participating in an online imagined community wherein their religious nationalist sentiments are strengthened. But by doing so, they expose their shared values, and consequently, the nation-state, to the degenerative effects of globalization.

ICTs, the Nation-state and Diasporic Populations

The studiesof diasporas, which are the mass relocations of people of a common origin, do not augur well for the longevity of the nation-state dynamic. Diasporas have been shown to slacken the bond between the nation and the state. Critical analyses have recently been discovered that the massive Chinese diaspora in Thailand, for example, does not find Chinese culture or Thai culture to be their primary identifiers. The most important part of their identities is, instead, “the propensity to seek opportunities elsewhere” (Callahan, 2003, 485). Studies point to an altogether separate diasporic culture among relocated populations. ICTs are instrumental in this development. The World Huaren [Chinese] Federation’s Web Site for displaced Chinese represents imagined diasporic communities wherein members of the Chinese diaspora bond based on cultural objects in the global space of the Internet. Chinese diasporic websites even interact with domestic websites to foster support for the rights of the diasporic Chinese regardless of where they live (Callahan, 485). Again, the creation of a transnational imagined community among diasporic Chinese suggests that nation no longer requires the presence of state.

The emergence of conflicting Taiwanese and Chinese nationalisms coincides with the rise in religious pilgrimages across the Taiwan Strait. Historically, Chinese worshippers of the goddess Mazu have established a network of temples along the Taiwan Strait, reaching across to the Taiwan coast and establishing an early Chinese Diaspora. Now at a time when Taiwan has declared itself independent and China stakes its claim to it even more rigorously, the advent of ICTs threatens the sovereignty of the fragile state of Taiwan through the strengthening of the Mazu cult’s imagined ties to the mainland. The Mazu have, since the proliferation of ICTs, established a transnational imagined community that crosses the Taiwan Strait. For example, the Chinese Diaspora in Taiwan made religious pilgrimages to the mainland which were covered extensively via live satellite broadcasts. To Taiwanese citizens, many of whom also belonged to the Mazu cult, this broadcast was another cultural object around which the Mazu could base their transnational imagined community. This endangers the fragile relationship between the nation of Taiwan and the self-proclaimed Taiwanese state (Yang, 2004, 229-231).

Religious Nationalism as the Savior of the Nation-state Dynamic

As the example of the Mazu cult signifies, the greater use of ICTs coincides with an increase in religious nationalist movements. This is due to globalization’s severing of the nation from the state. As people build multi-ethnic, international relationships through the widespread use of ICTs, nationality becomes increasingly insignificant and they search for other ways to identify themselves (Friedland, 391-396). Disaffected citizens seek alternative criteria for their imagined communities. Religious nationalism pairs the nation with religion to create a nation-faith, a suitable alternative to the decaying nation-state.

For example, saving the ailing nation-state is the primary concern for Buddhist Sinhala nationalists in Sri Lanka. Sinhalese Buddhists defend the nation-state against globalization, which their leader, the Venerable Soma, perceives to be a destructive external force (Berkwitz,2008, 73-4). Soma used ICTs to propagate recycled anti-colonial ideas in response to recent problems (ironically caused by the same ICTs) within the Sri Lankan state (Berkwitz, 75-6, 81).The commoditization of ICTs has been embraced by the Sri Lankan nation-state, resulting in its conversion to a market economy, World Bank membership, occupational outsourcing, mounting foreign debt, and intrusion by foreign developers. The state is not the only entity whose use of ICTs contributes to the perceived globalization problem. Sri Lankan industries use ICTs to institute foreign TV programming, engage with Norwegian peace mediators, and worsen their reliance on imports. They promote foreign movies, foreign fashion, and the principal of multiculturalism. Adding insult to injury, Sinhala Buddhists have recently been at odds with Tamil separatists and Sri Lankan Muslims (Berkwitz, 82-3, 95, 97-8).

Soma’s Buddhist nationalism privileged local history and traditions, which were perceived to be threatened by the global spread of ideas by ICTs (Berkwitz, 79). The Sinhala people, fearing the extinction of their national culture in the face of economic and cultural globalization, flocked to Soma’s message but his popularity would not have been possible without his use of ICTs. He used the imported technologies of satellite TV, radio, and Internet news agencies to publicize his local, religious, nationalist views.

Even more importantly, his use of ICTs transmitted his message to local and diasporic Sinhalese (residing internationally). The same tactic was employed by Tamilnet.com nationalists to gain global support for its movement despite the Sri Lankan media monopoly;ironically it is a Sinhalese media monopoly (Whitaker, 2004, 489). The extensiveness of the Sinhala diaspora and Soma’s use of ICTs to include them in his movement guaranteed his success. Nonetheless, he was able to position himself against global culture because he addressed only Sinhalese Buddhists, thus providing the exclusive criteria necessary to the formation of an imagined community (Berkwitz, 77, 80, 92, 103). ICTs created the need for Soma’s localist brand of Buddhist nationalism while, at the same time, they assured its success.

Revision of Nationalism after Information Globalization’s Deterioration of the Nation-state

The institution of the nation-state arose as a result of and in concert with nationalist ideology. The deterioration of the nation-state by information globalization therefore makes ideological revision a necessity. There is no place where this is more accurate than in Turkey. The Turks boast of a long history of statism. Before the advent of the Turkish Republic, the multi-ethnic Ottoman Empire stressed citizenship, rather than cultural elements, as the its primary identifier. This political feature made the Turks particularly predisposed to nation-state models. Thus, official Ataturk Nationalism, upon which the state of Turkey was founded, is culturally ambivalent and completely reliant on the nation-state(Bora, 2003, 434-437).