Lecture 4 Context and Definition Nationalism studies debate * questions accompanying the definition of the terms `nation' and `nationalism' * attempts to identify the historical point when nations first emerged * how did nations and nationalism develop and how and why they are a part of our existence Nationalism and ethnicity * Debate about the origins and character of `the nation' * Nation: ancient or modern? * Are nations real or constructed? * `Do nations have navels?' Constructionist / anti-constructionist divide * Primordialist or perennialist / modernist accounts * Each of these views is internally differentiated and encompasses a range of positions * Yet, fundamental differences in their theoretical understanding of nations and nationalism Primordialists * 18th century German romantic nationalists (e.g. Herder, Fichte, Humboldt) * nations are one of the natural divisions of the human race (God's will) * differences stemming from old and deeply rooted ethnic, religious and/or linguistic distinctions * sociobiology Perennialists * the roots of modern nations are generated by pre-existing affiliations * nations seen as perennial (lasting a long time, constantly recurring) and immemorial Ethnicists * accept the modernity of nationalism as ideology and a political movement * ethnic communities and nations are related phenomena * analysing the origins and genealogy of nations * the need to study the process of nation-formation within and through a longer and more cyclical account of history Modernists * approach which has become widely accepted over the last decades ("Everyone agrees that nations are historically formed constructs." Brubaker) * the nation seen as a purely modern phenomenon * nations and nationalisms were constructed and generated by particular new historical circumstances and social and economic conditions, which occurred about two hundred years ago Are nations ancient or modern? * the modernists see the nation as a purely modern phenomenon; it is a product of capitalism or industrialism and bureaucracy, an outcome of modernisation -- nationalism comes before nations * in opposition, the primordialists see nations as `forever there' entities that have existed for centuries, if not for ever -- nations come before nationalism * somewhere in between stands the position of the ethnicists Nations and N are modern: * nation "belongs exclusively to a particular, and historically recent, period. It is a social entity only insofar as it relates to a certain kind of modern territorial state, the `nation-state', and it is pointless to discuss nation and nationality except insofar as both relate to it" (Hobsbawm) * "nations can be defined only in terms of the age of nationalism" (Gellner) * emphasis on the congruence between cultural and political units (Gellner, Hobsbawm, Breuilly, Hechter...) * states create `nation-ness' Not necessarily so ... * ethno-symbolic approach (the ethnicists) argues that the modernists put too much emphasis on the modernity: they exaggerate the impact of industrialism, capitalism and bureaucracy on the modern state and nationalism * the modernists fail to acknowledge the deep roots that nations have in ethnies, they do not see the earlier ethno-symbolic base of modern nations What matters * "... when analysing sociopolitical situations, what ultimately matters is not what is but what people believe is. And a subconscious belief in the group's separate origin and evolution is an important ingredient of national psychology" (Walker Connor) Theorising nationalism * the modern study of nationalism began with Ernest Gellner in the mid-1960s * most scholars (historians) agree that nationalism is a modern phenomenon: * as an ideology and discourse N became prevalent in North America and Western Europe in the second half of the 18^th century What do nationalists want? * nationalist doctrine has 3 main claims: * nations are distinct and unique * loyalty to the nation is more important than other interests and values * the nation should have its own state Nationalism * N is "an ideology which imagines the community in a particular way (as national), asserts the primacy of this collective identity over others, and seeks political power in its name, ideally ... in the form of a state for the nation" (Spencer & Wollman) Nationalism * nationalism is above all a social and political movement; sociological view should not reduce nationalism only to politics * Billig: `banal nationalism' -- everyday affirmation and perpetuation of national identity (cf. Bourdieu's `habitus', a set of social arrangements which have been internalised) * one can understand nationalism as an organising political principle that requires national homogenisation and gives absolute priority to national values and `interests' in aiming to achieve `national goals' Nationalism * N has 3 dimensions (Calhoun): * N as discourse * N as project * N as evaluation * Next lecture: civic/ethnic N, nation-building Readings for next time: * Craig Calhoun (1997) Nationalism pp. 86-92 * John Hutchinson "Cultural Nationalism and Moral Regeneration" in Hutchinson & Smith Nationalism (1994) * Hans Kohn "Western and Eastern Nationalisms" in Hutchinson & Smith Nationalism (1994) * Hugh Seton-Watson (1994): "Old and New Nations" in Hutchinson & Smith Nationalism (1994) * Smith, Anthony (1995) The Ethnic Origins of Nations pp. 134-144 * Weber, Eugen (1976): Peasants into Frenchmen: The Modernization of Rural France 1870-1914