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Rethinking Nationalism

State Projects and Community Networks in 19th-Century Ottoman Empire

Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey

This article challenges the idea that a centralized administrative infrastructure, a common citizenship, and the resulting national belonging run in the same direction in state transformations. Comparing two Ottoman provinces of Edirne and Ankara, the author argues that community networks influence local responses to administrative centralization and national identity formation. In the province of Edirne, dense communal networks that bridged religious and ethnic boundaries maintained local cooperation with state centralization, whereas dense relations within religious and ethnic communities contributed to the failure of the formation of Ottoman national identity. In the province of Ankara, the lack of dense relations connecting different communities prevented reform success in both administrative and ideological dimensions.

Key Words: social networks • nationalism • state transformation • Ottoman Empire

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