The unseen presence: a theory of the nation-state and its mystifications

Abstract

Primary nation-state formation took place in Europe between the 12th and 19th centuries, along with the emergence of a system of industry-based international relations. These processes kept mostly in step with changes in the cultural consciousnesses of their citizenries. The institutional pattern so produced was then imitated throughout the rest of world in more than 160 secondary nation-states. Unlike the primary nation-states, the secondary nation-states were declared into being overnight by political entrepreneurs concerned to ensure that their own territories could deal equally under international law with other such states. These rapid, externally generated processes generated a gap in consciousness between the statesmen and the rest of their populations that had to be closed before the secondary states could begin to fulfil their (mainly economic) international roles. The gap has been bridged by the deliberate engineering of concern for ethnic, gender, linguistic, class, cultural and religious “identity.” An abstract, outward-looking, gesellschaftlich mode of consciousness could now be taken for granted by the people as the unspoken terms on which they must live their lives. This process has been aided by the widespread employment of functionalist and systems-based approaches in the social sciences and humanities, which properly apply only to the nation-state. Consequently, a politically constructed institution has been made into the “natural” archetype against which all other phenomena are to be measured.     

Research ethical guidelines and anonymity1

That researchers should give anonymity to research sites and to the individuals involved in research is usually taken as an ethical norm. Such a norm is embodied internationally in most of the ethical guidelines and codes of practice of the various educational, sociological and psychological research associations and societies. This paper challenges this assumption on the basis that it is usually impossible to ensure anonymity and that it is often undesirable to try to do so.     

The Scottish Assisted Places Scheme: a comparative study of the origins,nature and practice of the APSs in Scotland,England & Wales

In 1981 two separate Assisted Places Schemes were launched. One was introduced for England & Wales, and another for Scotland. This paper examines the differences between the two schemes. It shows that they can be seen to be related to the differing educational systems of the countries, and to differences between the grant‐aided and direct grant schools which the schemes were designed, in part, to replace. It is shown that the Assisted Places Scheme is more important to the independent sector of Scotland than to that of England & Wales, for the scheme established in Scotland has been structured in such a way that it gives greater flexibility and greater funding to individual schools in that country.