Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables
- List of Figures and Maps
- List of Acronyms
- Note on Transliteration
- Acknowledgments
- Imagined Economies
- Introduction
- 1 Regionalism in the Russian Federation: Theories and Evidence
- 2 Imagined Economies: Constructivist Political Economy and Nationalism
- 3 Breaking the Soviet Doxa: Perestroika, Rasstroika, and the Evolution of Regionalism
- 4 To Each His Own: The Development of Heterogeneous Regional Understandings and Interests in Russia
- 5 Imagined Economies in Samara and Sverdlovsk: Differences in Regional Understandings of the Economy
- 6 Regional Understandings of the Economy and Sovereignty: The Economic Basis of the Movement for a Urals Republic
- 7 Regional Understandings, Institutional Context, and the Development of the Movement for a Urals Republic
- Conclusion
- Appendix Tables
- Index
- Cambridge Cultural Social Studies
2 - Imagined Economies: Constructivist Political Economy and Nationalism
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables
- List of Figures and Maps
- List of Acronyms
- Note on Transliteration
- Acknowledgments
- Imagined Economies
- Introduction
- 1 Regionalism in the Russian Federation: Theories and Evidence
- 2 Imagined Economies: Constructivist Political Economy and Nationalism
- 3 Breaking the Soviet Doxa: Perestroika, Rasstroika, and the Evolution of Regionalism
- 4 To Each His Own: The Development of Heterogeneous Regional Understandings and Interests in Russia
- 5 Imagined Economies in Samara and Sverdlovsk: Differences in Regional Understandings of the Economy
- 6 Regional Understandings of the Economy and Sovereignty: The Economic Basis of the Movement for a Urals Republic
- 7 Regional Understandings, Institutional Context, and the Development of the Movement for a Urals Republic
- Conclusion
- Appendix Tables
- Index
- Cambridge Cultural Social Studies
Summary
How are regional movements for greater sovereignty related to objective economic conditions? The findings in Chapter 1 suggested that the relationship is not simply reflective; that is, Russian regions with comparable economic conditions did not have similar levels of activism toward greater sovereignty. And, analysis of specific cases shows that many regional movements for greater sovereignty were motivated by economic demands. We therefore face the question of how similar economic conditions could produce different economic interests.
In this chapter, I outline and support the case for an imagined economies framework through a three-part analysis of the role of economic factors in the nationalism literature, by discussing in turn objectivist approaches to the economy, orthodox critiques of objectivism, and heterodox constructivist approaches to the economy. In the analysis of these approaches to the economy, I discuss economic-based theories of nationalism consistent with each approach. In the end, I combine insights from constructivist political economy – cognitive science, economic sociology, historical institutionalism, and social theory – to arrive at the imagined economies framework, which I argue productively expands the nationalism literature.
Objectivism
An analysis of objectivism begins with a particular model of cognition because cognition addresses the issue of how human beings, including economic actors, understand their surroundings. The classic view of cognition is of rule-based manipulation of symbols. In this view, thought is abstract and unconnected to the particularity of bodies, minds, or souls.
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- Imagined EconomiesThe Sources of Russian Regionalism, pp. 58 - 97Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004