Review:
"Blum's focus is how the state and various nonstate actors go about distinguishing healthy from unhealthy values and then promoting the right ones among the young. Blum has produced a tightly argued and empirically rich yet succinct comparative portrait -- one deeply conversant with the immense literature on social and political identity."
Robert Levgold, Foreign Affairs
"This process-based explanation of national identity creation in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Russia is different from other works in several different aspects, making Blum's work a welcomed addition to the existing literature not only in the subject of national identity creation, but also in area studies. There are several reasons that make Blum's book a good read...[Blum] explores this process of national identity making using the tools of sociology as well as anthropology, which makes National Identity and Globalization: Youth, State and Society in Post-Soviet Eurasia an interdisciplinary book that fuses area studies with the subject of national identity creation."
Lerna K. Yanik, Bilkent University, International Studies Review
"This is a theoretically wide-ranging and methodologically ambitious study of the ways states and societies mediate the effects of cultural globalization. Blum incorporates insights from diverse literatures and regions to create a useful three-fold typology of absorption, rejection, and assertion. It serves well to explain how cultural entrepreneurs help fashion a hybrid identity from the confrontation between the hegemonic influences associated with the United States and invented or adapted local and national traditions. Blum combines methods of discourse analysis, interviews, and focus groups conducted during his field research to produce a convincing analysis of youth culture and national identity in Russia, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan. His study contributes to our understanding not only of the post-Soviet space but of the process of globalization more broadly."
Matthew Evangelista, Professor of Government, and Director, Peace Studies Program, Cornell University
"In this empirically rich and theoretically wide-ranging exploration of national identity construction in Baku, Astrakhan, and Almaty, Blum shows how states and societies struggle to come to grips with the imperatives of globalization while using the same to advance their own constructed interests in maintaining their fundamental uniqueness. Far beyond the former Soviet space, Blum's arguments will help readers reflect upon globalization and its discontents."
Ted Hopf, Senior Research Fellow, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University
"In one of the first works that in crisp detail makes concrete what has been argued by identity theorists, Douglas Blum illustrates the complex, interactive process in which social identities are constructed. Looking at yound people comparatively in three post-Soviet republics - Russia, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan - he shows how identities created by adults become those consumed by the next generation. Based on extensive field work and deep knowledge of the theoretical literature, this study looks at the various actors who imagined new national identities in the face of the challenge of globalization. Blum moves the investigation of identity formation at a moment of radical transformation a giant step forward."
Ronald Grigor Suny, Charles Tilly Collegiate Professor of Social and Political History, University of Michigan, and Professor Emeritus of Political Science and History, University of Chicago
Product Description
Is globalization in danger of diluting national identities and 'transnationalizing' cultures? How can societies attempt to manage globalization and become developed while maintaining a viable national identity? In a study of three globalizing states and cities in post-Soviet Eurasia - Russia (Astrakhan), Kazakhstan (Almaty), and Azerbaijan (Baku) - Douglas W. Blum provides an empirical examination of national identity formation, exploring how cultures, particularly youth cultures, have been affected by global forces. Blum argues that social discourse regarding youth cultural trends - coupled with official and non-official approaches to youth policy - complement patterns of state-society relations and modes of response to globalization. His findings show that the nations studied have embraced certain aspects of modernity and liberalism, while rejecting others, but have also reasserted the place of national traditions.
Book Description:
Is globalization in danger of diluting national identities and cultures? This book studies three states and cities in post-Soviet Eurasia to examine how they respond to globalization. The author explores how cultures, particularly youth cultures, attempt to embrace aspects of modernism and liberalism without losing their sense of national identity.
Douglas W. Blum is Professor of Political Science at Providence College, and Adjunct Professor of International Studies at the Thomas J. Watson, Jr, Institute of International Studies at Brown University. His general research interests center on cultural globalization, as well as the connections between globalization, identity, and security in the former USSR. He has also published and spoken on a number of related themes, including Russian and American foreign policy, the politics of youth socialization and official patriotism, and energy security in the trans-Caspian region. His most recent work is as editor of Russia and Globalization: Identity, Security and Society in an Era of Change (The Johns Hopkins University Press and Woodrow Wilson International Center, forthcoming). He received his PhD in Political Science from Columbia University in 1991.
这本书的装帧设计简直是一场视觉盛宴,那种厚重却又不失典雅的质感,让人爱不释手。初次翻阅时,我立刻被其排版布局的精妙所吸引。字体选择既有学术的严谨,又不失阅读的舒适度,行距和边距的把握恰到好处,使得即便是面对大量的引文和注释,读者的眼睛也不会感到疲劳。尤其值得称赞的是,作者似乎非常注重图表的运用,那些复杂的理论模型被转化成清晰、直观的图形,极大地降低了理解门槛。我记得有几处关于跨文化交流阻碍的讨论,如果仅仅依靠文字描述,恐怕会显得晦涩难懂,但书中配的那张区域文化差异矩阵图,瞬间就点亮了我的思路。而且,书中的纸张质量上乘,油墨的印制非常均匀,翻页时的沙沙声都带着一种高级的韵味,让人在阅读之余,也享受着拥有一本实体书的纯粹乐趣。这种对细节的执着,体现了出版方对知识载体的尊重,也让这本书不仅仅是一份知识的传递工具,更像是一件值得珍藏的艺术品,即便是随手放在茶几上,也能为空间增添一份沉静的书卷气。
评分阅读完这本书后,我最大的感受是它所带来的思维冲击远超预期,它成功地在宏大叙事与微观个体经验之间架起了一座坚实的桥梁。作者没有将复杂的社会结构视为抽象的符号,而是通过对大量鲜活案例的剖析,揭示了结构性力量是如何渗透并重塑个体身份认同的。我特别喜欢其中关于“边缘人群的自我叙事”的章节,那里的分析充满了人文关怀,既有冷静的社会学洞察,又不失对个体尊严的尊重。它迫使我反思自己对许多既定概念的默认接受,那些我们习以为常的“常识”,在这本书的审视下,都变得值得推敲和怀疑。这本书不是提供即时满足的快餐读物,它更像是一剂需要时间消化的强效药剂,读完后,你会发现你看待世界的方式已经发生了微妙但不可逆转的改变,那种被拓宽的视野和被挑战的认知极限,是阅读最珍贵的馈赠。
评分这本书的语言风格是极其克制而内敛的,充满了那种老派英式幽默的韵味,尽管主题严肃,但偶尔闪现的措辞却能让人会心一笑。我注意到作者极少使用华而不实的形容词,所有的描述都精准地服务于其论证的需要,但这种克制之下,蕴含着强大的力量感。比如,当他描述某一社会变迁的不可逆转性时,所用的词语虽然简单,但组合在一起,却营造出一种宿命般的沧桑感,让人读后久久不能平静。更令人赞叹的是,作者在引用外国文献时,其翻译的质量达到了近乎完美的境界,既保留了原文的学术精度,又确保了在中文语境下的流畅自然,这绝非普通译者的能力所及,显然背后有深厚的跨文化理解为支撑。阅读过程中,我感觉自己仿佛正在聆听一位博学多识的长者,用最优雅的语言,为我讲述这个世界运行的深层法则,那种娓娓道来的气定神闲,让人极度信服。
评分这本书的文献综述部分,简直是教科书级别的范本,对于任何一个希望深入研究相关领域的学者来说,都是一份无价的宝藏。作者并非简单地罗列前人成果,而是将这些文献如同棋盘上的棋子一样进行布局和分析。他清晰地勾勒出了该领域的主要流派、尚未解决的核心矛盾,以及新兴的研究热点。我发现,许多我原本以为是该领域最新发现的观点,实际上早已有学者提出,只是被作者巧妙地放置在了历史的脉络中,展示了其思想演变的轨迹。尤其是对于那些边缘化或被主流学术界忽视的理论,作者给予了充分的关注和公正的评价,展现了一种开阔的学术胸襟。这种梳理工作是极其繁琐且耗费心力的,但正是这扎实的地基,使得全书的论述显得坚不可摧,它不仅教会了我“是什么”,更教会了我“如何去思考”一个领域的发展方向。
评分这本书的叙事逻辑和论证结构之严密,简直像是一件精密的瑞士钟表,每一个齿轮都咬合得天衣无缝。作者在开篇提出的核心论点,虽然宏大,但并非空泛的口号,而是通过一系列精心挑选的历史案例作为基石,层层递进,直至将读者引入一个全新的理论框架。我特别欣赏它在处理复杂概念时的那种“慢工出细活”的态度。例如,在探讨社会记忆的建构时,作者并没有急于给出结论,而是先回顾了十几种主要的社会学派观点,然后不动声色地指出了它们各自的盲区,最后才提出自己的综合性解释。这种将“辩论”过程透明化的写作手法,极大地增强了说服力。读起来,丝毫没有那种“被灌输”的感觉,反而更像是一场智力上的深度对话,你仿佛能看到作者在字里行间与那些重量级的学者进行着激烈的思想交锋。这种高质量的学术写作,需要读者投入相当的专注力,但其带来的知识回报,绝对是成倍的。
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