天堂视频

Rethinking the relationship between nationalism and nation-state

My original work on nationalism and arguably most of the other key texts which formed the modern field of nationalism studies was centred on the question of how nationalism related to nation-state formation. There might have been arguments about how far back in time nationalism went and how it related to the concept of nation but (a) those arguments are well-worn, and (b) the political urgency for studying the subject had to do with nation-state formation. Now we live in a world of nation-states, and most of the “nationalism” that attracts interest is clearly not aimed at nation-state formation but, at most, reshaping nation-state constitutions and institutions. This raises the question not only of whether such nationalism must be understood in a different way from one centred on state formation (and its necessary condition: state destruction) but also whether such an understanding might profitably be projected upon that earlier period when the global world order was being reconstructed along nation-state lines. As an historian this question interests me more than trying to understand contemporary nationalism, although I think detaching of nationalism from nation-state formation has implications for that too.

Grounded Nationalisms

In this presentation I explore the complex and contradictory character of nationalism. I start with a few biographical remarks identifying how and why I became interested in the study of nationhood. I then look at what nationalism studies have achieved over the past forty years and in which direction this research field could develop further. The second part of my presentation focuses on the notion of grounded nationalisms. I explain the meaning of this concept and then analyse how it operates in the wider social context. More specifically I zoom in on the organisational, ideological and micro- interactional processes that underpin nationhood and nationalisms.