Nationalism Lecture 4: Theories II

1. NationalismLecture 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

2. 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

3. Theories of nationalism:Main Debates Nationalist primordialism Anti-nationalist ideology Constructivism Essentialism Gellner

4. Critical reactions to Gellner • Functionalism • Materialism • Politics? • Culture? • Philosophy of history • Nations before industrial society? • Prediction may be possible

5. 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)

6. Functionalist explanation beneficial effect ? Nationalism Industrial Society ?

7. Amending Gellner’s theory beneficial effect Pre-modern factors Nationalism Modern Society Causal mechanisms

8. Benedict Anderson: Imagined Communities beneficial effect Vernacula- rization 1. Print-capitalism 2. Reformation 3. Admin. reforms Nation-state as “imagined community” Nationalism

9. Michael Mann: Political institutionalism Religious phase beneficial effect Modern, democratic society Discursive literacy Nationalism State policies, democratic movements Commercial/ statist phase

10. Other constructivists • Eric Hobsbawm: Marxist interpretation of 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

11. Essentialist critique • Materialism: culture! • Historical timing: • nations before nationalism! • history more deterministic! Ethnic communities Nations Nationalism

12. A. D. Smith’s critique of Gellner • “Cultural functionalism” • Nations have ancient roots Ethnic Communities Nationalism Nations Modern Society need Ethno- genesis Nation- formation

13. Ethnogenesis (Nation Identity, Ch. 2) • State-making • Military mobilization • Organized religion Ethnic evolution: • Religious reform • Cultural borrowing • Popular participation • Myths of ethnic election

14. Nation-Formation(National Identity, ch. 3) Def. nation = 1. homeland 2. myths 3. mass culture 4. legal rights 5. economy Lateral ethnie Vertical ethnie

15. Other essentialists • John Armstrong, Nations Before Nationalism • Liah Greenfeld, Nationalism: Five Roads to Modernity • Walker Connors, Ethno-Nationalism

16. Gellner’s response to his critics • Functionalism • Beyond industrialization: bureaucratic centralization • “Nations have navels”