As much of the world turns its attention to questions of the role and even survival of the nation-state formation in an increasingly globalized world, the authors of this interdisciplinary volume shift the focus of the debate by examining various sites of social action where the nation-state is still in a formative stage even as it is increasingly under threat. Including micro level ethnographies, local histories and a macro-theoretical overview of the world-system, this volume directly engages with the complexities of globalization in marginal and troubled states; complexities that are themselves typically marginalized in debates all too often obsessed with the plight of the most powerful and developed nations.