Nationalism Flashcards
What is primordialist nationalism?
Nations are natural
Nations result of long historical processes
National identity is (or is perceived as) given
Herder main thinker
Fascinated by richness of cultures
Not linked to exclusivist ideology
An umbrella term used to describe te belief that nationalism is a “natural” part of human beings
This is the idea that nations or ethnic identities are fixed, natural and ancient. Primordialists argue that each individual has a single inborn ethnic identity independent of historical processes.
Primordial ties are very exclusive an immutable because no one can come from the side.
Attributes to the tie of blood.
Not a changeable social construction.
Kinship is tied to deep emotion that is uncontrollable rather than rational.
Name four types of primordialst theories
Sociobiological, Perennial, Culturalist and Nationalist
Nationalist approach to primordialism
Nationality is inherent.
Nationalist believe that humanity is divided into distinct, objectifiable identifiable nations. Human beings can only fulfil themselves and flourish if they belong to a national community, the membership of which overrides all other forms of belonging. The nation os the sole depository of sovereignty and the only source of political power and legitimacy. This comes with the host of temporal and spacial claims - to a unique history and destiny and a history homeland
Sociobiological approach to primordialism
Kin selection - Groups are socially constructed and changeable. We cooperate because it is mutually beneficial. The kin selection or mating with relatives is a powerful cement of sociality in humans. Ethnicity and race are extensions of kin selection.
How do you separate the us from them? Language in particular.
Culturalist approach to primordialism
Primordial attachments are given or natural rather than sociobiological. Primordial attachment have no social source.
The general strength of a primordial bond differ from person to person. Primordialism is essentially a question of emotion and affect.
Perennialist approach to primordialism
Refer to those who believe in the historical antiquity of the ‘nation’ and its immemorial and perennial character. Perennialist do not treat the nation as a ‘fact of nature’ but they see it as a constant and fundamental feature of human life throughout recorded history. Ethnicity is a group of people with a shared cultural identity and spoken language. The nation is a more self conscious community than ethnicity - formed from more than one ethnicities.
Social/cultural perspective in modernism
Social/cultural (Gellner, Anderson, Hroch)
Nationalism becomes a necessity only in the modern world - in pre-modern times, no need nor interest from the rulers to promote cultural homogenisation;
In industrial societies, culture plays crucial role:
industrialisation creates a need for social mobility and cohesion;
This requires a common culture expanded education system and a state administration (the census, the map, the museum)
Nationalism = to impose homogenous high cultures on the entire population
Nationalism = invention, fabrication, falsity (Gellner)
Political perspective in modernism
Political (Breuilly, Brass, Hobsbawm)
Political need to create a national unity
Nationalism’s emergence requires a political elite that can use nationalism as a resource in its own power
Political rulers “use history as a legitimator of action and cement of group cohesion”
Adaption of old traditions and institutions to new situation
Invention of tradition (Hobsbawm)
1870 – 1914: invention of tradition main strategy to counter threat of mass democracy
Transmitted through primary education, public ceremonies, historical monuments
Nationalism – new “secular religion”
Describe instrumentalism
Use nationalism as an instrument for the political elite to strengthen their power. A way to take control over territory and resources.
Economic perspective in modernism
Versions of modernism:
Economic (Nairn, Hechter)
Based on neo-Marxist and rational choice theories
Nationalism is a reaction to the unequal distribution of resources between the centre and periphery. A periphery reaction to the development and exploitation by the centre
‘Internal colonialism’ (Michael Hechter): a process of uneven exchange between territories of a given state
Describe modernist nationalism
Starting points:
Nationalism is a product of modernisation and industrialisation in the 1800s; it is not meaningful to speak of either nationalism or nations before this time.
Nationalism is about politics and power
Describe invention of tradition
Hobshawn
Both nations and national identity are products of social engineering . Invented traditions is practices that become rules.
Who are the biggest names in the modernist theory
Nairn, Hechter (Economic)
Breuilly, Brass, Hobshawn (Political)
Gellner, Anderson, Hroch (Social / cultural)
Describe ethnosymbolism
Existence of ethnies, pre-existing ethnic communities - ‘cores’, long before modern nations.
La longue durée of collective identities and memories: ideas about golden ages, myths about national heroes and ancestors, ties to a ‘homeland’ in the creation and preservation of national identities.
Emphasizes the role of myths, symbols, memories, values and traditions in the formation, persistence and change of ethnicity and nationalism (Smith 2001).
Important thinkers: Anthony D. Smith, John Armstrong
First nation, then state
The nation defines the territory
Roots in romanticism
Blood and belonging
Particularities of cultures
Ethnosymbolism is a school of thought in the study of nationalism that stresses the importance of symbols, myths, values and traditions in the formation and persistence of the modern nation state.
As a critique of modernist theories of nationalism, ethnosymbolism defends the antiquity and la longue durée of nations while modernists believe nations are a purely modern phenomenon.
Exclusion of identities that do not fit into the official national identity.
Ethnic cleansing, genocide
Basis for claims for autonomy/independence for minorities and indigenous peoples
Who are the biggest names in the primordialist theory
Hastings, Geertz, Shils
Who are the biggest names in the ethnosymbolist theory
Anthony D. Smith, John Armstrong
Describe banal nationalism
Banal nationalism refers to the everyday representations of the nation which build a shared sense of national belonging amongst humans, a sense of tribalism through national identity. The term is derived from English academic, Michael Billig.
Examples of banal nationalism include the use of flags in everyday contexts, sporting events, national songs, symbols on money, popular expressions and turns of phrase, patriotic clubs, the use of implied togetherness in the national press, for example, the use of terms such as the prime minister, the weather, our team, and divisions into “domestic” and “international” news. Many of these symbols are most effective because of their constant repetition, and almost subliminal nature. Banal nationalism is often created via state institutions such as schools. It can contribute to bottom-up processes of nation-building.
Describe imagined communities
Benedict Anderson claim that Imagined Communities came about due to the printing press. After this people could read about their nation and its values daily. While members of a nation will never come to know one another there is a strong sense of community and solidarity among themselves.
They imagine a solidarity among themselves born out of a sense of shared past and present, as well as a perceived shared future.
People within a specific social context feel affinity, although they have no personal connections to each other
The reduced importance of the major religious communities left a spiritual void that nationalism could fill
The invention of the printing press (‘print-capitalism’)
Gender and nation
Gender and nationalism cannot be separated
It is through gendered production of power that nations come into being
The nation is a heteronormative project
Nations a natural extension of the family and kinship relations. The nation is our home (with traditional gender roles)
Gender perspective - Cultural / Ideological reproduction
Women are symbolic border guards - who to dress and behave, language, religion customs.
Main socializers of children
Signifiers of ethnonational difference through e.g. dress, teaching lullabies, folklore, food.
#Donottouchmyclothes
Gender perspective - Biological reproduction
Have more children - produce new members
Have less children – to ensure prosperity of future nation (infanticide, abortion of female foetus)
Control of women’s sexuality (do not cross boundaries)
Deny some women the right to reproduce
War rape as a weapon of war
Two discourses of the feminist approach
People as power - The Future of the nation is dependent on the continuous growth
The eugenics - Concerned about the quality of its members, immigration control or physical expulsion such as the holocaust.
Describe the feminist approach
Yuval Davis is saying that women are never absent from the nationalist discourse.
Wartime victims, mistresses and military prostitutes.
Nationalism is a male phenomenon and women are only a tool for reproduction.
Limiting the number of members of ‘undesirable’ groups take form of migration control or physical expulsion.
Changing nature of warfare by incorporating women in the military
What is globalisation
Globalization is the word used to describe the growing interdependence of the world’s economies, cultures, and populations, brought about by cross-border trade in goods and services, technology, and flows of investment, people, and information.
The engines
Technics – technological change, modern communications
Economics – Capitalism’s need for new markets
Politics – ideas, interests, power. Political leaders normative drivers
Actors of globalisation
States
TNCs
Media
Intergovernmental organizations (IGOs)
Nongovernmental organization (INGOs)
Experts and epistemic communities
Multinational corporations (MNCs)
High-profile individuals or activists (e.g. Bill Gates, Putin, Greta Thunberg)
