The city, substate nationalism, and european governance

Nationalism and Ethnic Politics

Volumn 14, Issue 2, 2008, Pages 189-222

  Bollens, Scott A ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ETHNIC GROUP; ETHNOPOLITICS; GOVERNANCE APPROACH; MODERNIZATION; NATIONAL IDENTITY; NATIONALISM; WESTERNIZATION;

BASQUE COUNTRY; BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA; EURASIA; EUROPE; SARAJEVO; SOUTHERN EUROPE; SPAIN;

EID: 46649107750     PISSN: 13537113     EISSN: 15572986     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13537110801984941     Document Type: Article

References (88)

1. Neil Brenner, New State Spaces: Urban Governance and the Rescaling of Statehood (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 2.
2. Patrick Le Gales, European Cities: Social Conflicts and Governance (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2002), pp. 99-108.
3. Hank V. Savitch and Paul Kantor, Cities in the International Marketplace: The Political Economy of Urban Development in North America and Western Europe (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002);
4. Saskia Sassen, The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991).
5. John Brueilly, Nationalism and the State (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1993), p. 9.
6. David Dunkerley, Leslie Hodgson, et al., Changing Europe: Identities, Nations, and Citizens, (London and New York: Routledge, 2002), p. 66.
7. Yash Ghai, "The Structure of the State: Federalism and Autonomy," in Peter Harris and Ben Reilly (eds.), Democracy and Deep-Rooted Conflict: Options for Negotiators (Stockholm, Sweden: International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, 1998), p. 155;
8. Ruth Lapidoth, Autonomy: Flexible Solutions to Ethnic Conflicts (Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace, 1996).
9. Janet L. Abu-Lughod, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles - America's Global Cities. (Minneapolis,MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1999), pp. 399-427;
10. Saskia Sassen, Cities in the World Economy, 2nd ed. (Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press, 2000), p. 11.
11. M. Goldsmith, "Local Government," Urban Studies, Vol. 29, No. 3 and 4 (1992), pp. 393-410.
12. Dunkerley et al., p. 72.
13. Stuart Wilks-Heeg, Beth Perry, and Alan Harding, "Metropolitan Regions in the Face of the European Dimension: Regimes, Re-scaling, or Repositioning?" in Willem Salet, Andy Thornley, and Anton Kreukels (eds.), Metropolitan Governance and Spatial Planning: Comparative Case Studies of European City-Regions. (London: Spon Press, 2003), p. 34.
14. Le Gales, pp. 97-108.
15. European Spatial Development Perspective, Towards a Balanced and Sustainable Development of the Territory of the EU (Brussels, Belgium: Committee on Spatial Development, 1999), p. 42.
16. Michael Keating, "Minority Nationalism in a Global Era," In Ferran Requejo (ed.), Democracy and National Pluralism (London: Routledge, 2001), p. 44.
17. In EU's 2004 enlargement to include central-east European countries, regional strategies and moves toward regionalization were encouraged during preparations for accession to the EU as ways to break up the legacies of communist centralist planning. Dunkerley et al., p. 72.
18. Le Gales, p. 8.
19. Michael Keating, The New Regionalism in Western Europe. (Cheltenham, UK: E. Elgar, 1998), p. 185.
20. Keating 2001, p. 52; Willem Salet, Andy Thornley, and Anton Kreukels (eds.), Metropolitan Governance and Spatial Planning: Comparative Case Studies of European City-Regions (London: Spon Press, 2003), p. 379.
21. Donald McNeill, New Europe: Imagined Spaces (London: Arnold, 2004), p. 88.
22. Tassiolo Herrschel, Governance of Europe's City Regions: Planning, Policy and Politics. (London: Routledge, 2002), p. 4.
23. This perspective is consistent with Milward's proposition that European integration has given member states more, not less, power. Alan Milward, The European Rescue of the Nation-State (London: Routledge, 1992).
24. Le Gales, p. 76.
25. Wilks-Heeg, Perry, and Harding, p. 36.
26. Brenner, pp. 25-26.
27. Guy Ben-Porat, Global Liberalism, Local Populism: Peace and Conflict in Israel/Palestine and Northern Ireland (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2006), p. 260.
28. The two other cities in the larger study were Barcelona (Spain) and Mostar (Bosnia). Scott A. Bollens, Cities, Nationalism, and Democratization (London: Routledge, 2007);
29. Scott A. Bollens, "Urban Planning and Peace Building," Progress in Planning, Vol. 66, No. 2 (2006), pp. 67-139.
30. Luis Moreno, "Federalization and Ethnoterritorial Concurrence in Spain," Publius - The Journal of Federalism, Vol. 27, No. 4 (1997), p. 65.
31. Euskobarometro, "Series Temporales" (Bilbao, Spain: University of Pais Vasco, 2005, May). There also has developed a strong plural Spanish/Basque identity (Francisco Llera, interview.) Sixty percent of survey respondents identify themselves as a mix of Basque and Spanish nationalities.
32. See Guardia Civil (Spanish military/police force) http://www.quardiacivil.org/terrorismo/accioneo/estadistica07.jsp [accessed 4 August, 2005].
33. Steven Burg and Paul S. Shoup, The War in Bosnia-Herzegovina: Ethnic Conflict and International Intervention (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1999), pp. 360-387.
34. Commission of the European Communities, "Stabilization and Association Report, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Commission Staff Working Paper COM (2003a) 139 final. (Brussels, Belgium: Commission), pp. 4-5.
35. Dankwart A. Rustow, "Transitions to Democracy," Comparative Politics, Vol. 2, No. 3 (1970), p. 337;
36. Georg Sorensen, Democracy and Democratization: Processes and Prospects in a Changing World, 2nd ed. (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1998), pp. 39-45.
37. McNeill, pp. 64-66.
38. European Commission, "Regional Policy - Inforegio: Basque Country Objective 2 Programme," http://ec.europa.eu/regional policy/country/ prordn/ [accessed June 20, 2007].
39. The EC aid program since 2001 is "Community Assistance for Reconstruction, Development and Stabilization"; it provided 72 million euros in 2002 and 63 million euros in 2003, well below earlier aid levels.
40. Basque regional politicians were debating in 2003 and 2004 a controversial "Ibarretxe Plan" to make the region a "freely associated state that would be able to negotiate a new relationship with the Spanish state and that would establish a direct relationship between the Basque Country and Europe.
41. European Commission. European Spatial Development Perspective (Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 1999).
42. H. van Houtum and A. Lagendijk, "Contextualising Regional Identity and Imagination in the Construction of Polycentric Urban Regions: The Cases of the Ruhr Area and the Basque Country, Urban Studies, Vol. 38, No. 4 (2001), p. 747.
43. Francisco Llera, Basque Polarization: Between Autonomy and Independence, Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, Vol. 5, No. 3/4 (1999), p. 101;
44. Jose Manuel Mata, Terrorismo y Conflicto Nacionalista: La Debilidad de la Democracia in el Pais Vasco, Unpublished manuscript. Universidad de Pais Vasco, Bilbao. 24 pages.
45. Llera, pp. 112-115;
46. Luis Moreno, Divided Societies, Electoral Polarisation and the Basque Country, Unidad de Politicas Comparadas Working Paper 01-07 (2001), p. 7.
47. Francisco Llera, "Franazo al Tren de Estella," Claves de Raźon Practica, No. 95 (1999), p. 24.
48. Gobierno Vasco (Basque Government), Euskal Hiria (Victoria, UK: Central Publishing Services, 2002).
49. Ibid., p. 49.
50. Ibid., p. 57.
51. Jan Mansvelt Beck, "The Continuity of Basque Political Violence: A Geographical Perspective on the Legitimisation of Violence," GeoJournal, Vol. 48 (2000), pp. 118-119.
52. Ibid., pp. 114-115.
53. Some claim that global connectivity will intensify greater ethnic selfconsciousness and more counter-responses by threatened radical groups. Samuel Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (London: Simon and Schuster, 1997).
54. In a further example of the link between urbanism and Europe, Basque leaders are utilizing cultural connectivity to cosmopolitan and European audiences as a key plank in the revitalization of Bilbao. This has facilitated a reimaging of Basque Country, from one of notorious political violence and severe industrial decline to a culture open and connected. Arantxa Rodriguez, Elana Martinez, and Galder Guenaga, "Uneven Redevelopment: New Urban Policies and Socio-Spatial Fragmentation in Metropolitan Bilbao," European Urban and Regional Studies, Vol. 8, No. 2 (2001), p. 168;
55. M. Gomez, "Reflective Images: The Case of Urban Regeneration in Glasgow and Bilbao," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Vol. 22 (1998), p. 106.
56. Cross-Border Agency for the Development of the Basque Eurocity of Bayonne-San Sebastian, "A New City for Living Without Borders," (Bayonne San Sebastian, Spain: Author, undated), p. 5.
57. i3 Consultants, IBK, and CODE. Bayonne-San Sebastian Eurocity's White Paper (Working Paper, 2000);
58. Basque Study Society, "Deliberation Sessions on the Basque Bayonne-San Sebastian Eurocity," Azkoaga, Cuadernos de Ciencias Sociales y Ecońomicas, Vol. 11 (2001).
59. Bray describes a contradiction between attempts to mobilize a common Basque identity through populist rhetoric and efforts to de-politicize such cooperative ventures by focusing on legal/rational and technical aspects.
60. Zoe Bray, Living Boundaries: Frontiers and Identity in the Basque Country (Brussels, Belgium: Peter Lane, 2004), p. 210.
61. Bray (p. 210) opines that few citizens outside European projects relate personally to Europe as an identity. I assert that it can still be a useful institutional tactic toward increasing regional nationalism.
62. Reimaging is a significant part of the Eurocity project. Its stunning digital orthophoto map of the Spanish-French coastline (with no international border designated) was hanging in almost every office I visited at the offices of the Diputacion and is on the cover of many public documents.
63. Declaration, "To Ensure Peace in BiH by Further Annexing of the Dayton Agreement," 16 Dec. 2003.
64. European Union, "The Thessaloniki Agenda for the Western Balkans: Moving Toward European Integration," General Affairs & External Relations Council, 16 June 2003, p. 1.
65. European Council, European Security Strategy - Bosnia and Herzegovina/ Comprehensive Policy (Adopted 17/18 June by the Council, 2004), p. 1.
66. Ibid., p. 2.
67. Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, "More Population Displacement in 1996," (Oslo, Norway: Norwegian Refugee Council, 1996).
68. Office of the High Representative, Mission Implementation Plan (Sarajevo, OHR, 2003), pp. 1-2.
69. Commission of the European Communities, 2003a, pp. 1-2;
70. Office of the High Representative, p. 2;
71. World Bank Group, "Bosnia and Herzegovina Country Brief 2004," www.worldbank.org [accessed 31 May 2005].
72. European Union (and Sarajevo Economic Region Development Agency), Regional Economic Strategy for Sarajevo Economic Macro Region (Sarajevo: SERDA, 2004), p. 4.
73. Ibid., pp. 20-21.
74. Office of the High Representative, OHR Sarajevo Region - Plans 2003 (Sarajevo, OHR, 2002), p. 1.
75. Ibid., p. 3.
76. The OHR is not alone. The World Bank views "local-level institutions as critical actors in conflict resolution, effective public service delivery, and sustainable development." World Bank, "Bosnia and Herzegovina: Local Level Institutions and Social Capital Study" (Washington, DC: World Bank, June 2002), p. 4.
77. Dunkerley, pp. 109-125.
78. Commission of the European Communities, The Western Balkans and European Integration (Brussels, Belgium, Brussels Commission, 2003b), p. 2.
79. European Union, p. 2.
80. This EU initiative is similar to the "rescaling" process as described by Brenner (p. 7). However, whereas Brenner concentrates on economic competition, rescaling in the Balkans case is being catalyzed due to its perceived utility in addressing intrastate intergroup conflict.
81. This effort to dampen internal conflict as a means toward EU membership is similar to the failed effort to link an accord between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots to the EU ascension process.
82. Commission of the European Communities 2003b, p. 2. The Western Balkans states referred to are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia, and Montenegro.
83. Commission of the European Communities 2003a, p. 4.
84. Ibid., p. 4.
85. Ibid., p. 21.
86. A November 2005 agreement by Bosnian political leaders to strengthen state governance was viewed as an important step in reconnecting Bosnia to the EU ascension process.
87. A companion case study in Spain of Barcelona shows a similar robust collective agency of local and regional leaders. Nationalist and socialist leaders have operated nimbly and effectively within a Europeanizing and globalizing context through active engagement in EU activities, Mediterranean regional programs, and internationally sponsored events (most notably, the 1992 Olympic Games) (Bollens 2007).
88. The companion Bosnian case - Mostar - displays the IC's direct regulation at the city-level scale. Policies included the demarcation of a "central zone" in the city that would be an area of joint and neutral use, and the planned transfer of local functions of the six ethnically pure municipalities to a central city administration. Despite such oversight in the first 10 postwar years, there has been the solidification of a "parallel city" of ethnically divided institutions. Facing continued frustration, the IC imposed a city unification decree in 2004 (Bollens 2007).