Nationalism Lecture 4: Theories II Prof. Lars-Erik Cederman Swiss - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Nationalism

Lecture 4: Theories II

• Prof. Lars-Erik Cederman

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Center for Comparative and International Studies (CIS) Seilergraben 49, Room G.2 lcederman@ethz.ch http://www.icr.ethz.ch/teaching/nationalism Assistant: Kimberly Sims, CIS, Room E 3, k-sims@northwestern.edu

Summary: Gellner

• Gellner offers a constructivist critique of

essentialist theory that

– defines nationalism as principle stipulating political and cultural boundaries should coincide – is based on philosophy of history with nationalism as integrated part of modern world – stresses high culture supported by education – includes a theory of social conflict

Theories of nationalism: Main Debates

Nationalist primordialism Anti-nationalist ideology

Essentialism Constructivism Gellner

Critical reactions to Gellner

• Functionalism
• Materialism

– Politics? – Culture?

• Philosophy of history

– Nations before industrial society? – Prediction may be possible

Gellner’s functionalism

• “So the economy needs both the type of

central culture and the central state; the culture needs the state; and the state probably needs the homogenous cultural branding of its flock ... In brief, the mutual relationship of a modern culture and state is something quite new, and springs, inevitably, from the requirements of modern society.” (Nations and Nationalism, p. 140)

Functionalist explanation

beneficial effect

?

Nationalism Industrial Society

?

Amending Gellner’s theory

beneficial effect Pre-modern factors Nationalism Modern Society Causal mechanisms

Benedict Anderson: Imagined Communities

beneficial effect Vernacula- rization

• 1. Print-capitalism
• 2. Reformation
• 3. Admin. reforms

Nation-state as “imagined community” Nationalism

Michael Mann: Political institutionalism

Nationalism Modern, democratic society Religious phase beneficial effect Discursive literacy State policies, democratic movements Commercial/ statist phase

Other constructivists

• Eric Hobsbawm: Marxist interpretation
• f nationalism as “false consciousness”

and “invention of ideology”:

– Nationalism was emancipatory but then derailed – Nationalism will be surpassed: post-nationalism

• Karl Deutsch: social communication and

modernization

• Rogers Brubaker: Social closure of

citizenship and immigration policies

Essentialist critique

• Materialism: culture!
• Historical timing:

– nations before nationalism! – history more deterministic!

Nationalism Ethnic communities Nations

• A. D. Smith’s critique of

Gellner

• “Cultural functionalism”
• Nations have ancient roots

Ethno- genesis Nation- formation

Ethnic Communities

Nations Nationalism Modern Society need

Ethnogenesis (Nation Identity, Ch.

2)

• State-making
• Military mobilization
• Organized religion

Ethnic evolution:

• Religious reform
• Cultural borrowing
• Popular participation
• Myths of ethnic election

Nation-Formation

(National Identity, ch. 3)

• Def. nation =
• 1. homeland
• 2. myths
• 3. mass culture
• 4. legal rights
• 5. economy

Lateral ethnie Vertical ethnie

Other essentialists

• John Armstrong, Nations Before

Nationalism

• Liah Greenfeld, Nationalism: Five

Roads to Modernity

• Walker Connors, Ethno-Nationalism

Gellner’s response to his critics

• Functionalism
• Beyond industrialization: bureaucratic

centralization

• “Nations have navels”