NISE – Creating an instrument for the comparative study of national movements
Research into national movements at universities and other scientific institutions has resulted in an immense number of publications. However, although national movements are in fact pre-eminently transnational, researchers often remain unaware of results from studies of other national movements. Case studies are therefore often carried out without a contextual or comparative dimension. Moreover, theory formation often is unsufficiently based on the results of comparative empirical research. The language barrier, the unavailability of controlled and systematically presented data and the fact that comparative studies tend to be complicated, all contribute to the problem.
This explains the setting up of NISE, a research, heuristic and archival project. It collects, checks and structures data about the intermediary structures (political parties, organisations, societies and the people involved) of national movements in Europe. NISE presents the data in English through ‘authority files’ in a database, in order to enable comparative studies on the subject. This information is linked with four other kinds of data: bibliographical, archival, institutional and contextual.
NISE is an initiative of the ADVN, a government funded archives, documentation and research centre in Antwerp (Belgium) which has more than twenty-five years experience in data management, research and archival collection regarding the Flemish movement and Flemish nationalism. The ADVN acts as the coordination centre for the project.
However, this project can only be carried out successfully with the help of sustained cooperation between academics and institutions at a European level. Therefore, a Scientific Council is established. Also, a network of research and heritage institutions carries the project.
You will find here:
- the raison d’être for the project > Justification;
- an outline of the actual situation > Context;
- a list of the goals > Objectives .
A full account of the context, aims and framework of the project is published. The publication is available in Dutch and English:
L. Boeva, Rien de plus international. Naar een comparatieve en transnationale historiografie van nationale bewegingen, Antwerpen, ADVN, 2009.
L. Boeva, Rien de plus international. Towards a comparative and transnational historiography of national movements, Antwerp, ADVN, 2010.
Order the Dutch edition
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