Siniša Malešević Do national identities exist?
Abstract
There is no doubt that an overwhelming majority of people in the world believe that national identities are real and perceptible entities. Although academics disagree over the questions such as whether national identities are modern or primordial, essential or socially constructed they too generally do not doubt their existence. Some scholars might focus on the plural and the multiple character of all identities, including the national ones, but they would seldom question the relevance of this concept and its empirical manifestations. In this paper the attempt is made to challenge such dominant understandings. More specifically it is argued that the contemporary belief in the existence of stable, omnipresent and durable national identities is in itself a contingent historical product of the specific organisational, ideological and the micro-interactional processes that have shaped the world over the last 300 years. In this context the paper emphasises that it is paramount to historicise the origins and the rise of the popular beliefs in the substance and universality of national identities. Building on author’s previous research the paper elaborates a theoretical framework for the study of such popular beliefs. In particular the focus is on the role the three long term historical processes have played in the formation of ‘national identities’ as they are understood today: the cumulative bureaucratisation of coercion, centrifugal ideologisation and the envelopment of micro-solidarity.
Source:
https://www.academia.edu/33374345/Do_National_Identities_Exist
Abstract
There is no doubt that an overwhelming majority of people in the world believe that national identities are real and perceptible entities. Although academics disagree over the questions such as whether national identities are modern or primordial, essential or socially constructed they too generally do not doubt their existence. Some scholars might focus on the plural and the multiple character of all identities, including the national ones, but they would seldom question the relevance of this concept and its empirical manifestations. In this paper the attempt is made to challenge such dominant understandings. More specifically it is argued that the contemporary belief in the existence of stable, omnipresent and durable national identities is in itself a contingent historical product of the specific organisational, ideological and the micro-interactional processes that have shaped the world over the last 300 years. In this context the paper emphasises that it is paramount to historicise the origins and the rise of the popular beliefs in the substance and universality of national identities. Building on author’s previous research the paper elaborates a theoretical framework for the study of such popular beliefs. In particular the focus is on the role the three long term historical processes have played in the formation of ‘national identities’ as they are understood today: the cumulative bureaucratisation of coercion, centrifugal ideologisation and the envelopment of micro-solidarity.
Source:
https://www.academia.edu/33374345/Do_National_Identities_Exist
Abstract
There is no doubt that an overwhelming majority of people in the world believe that national identities are real and perceptible entities. Although academics disagree over the questions such as whether national identities are modern or primordial, essential or socially constructed they too generally do not doubt their existence. Some scholars might focus on the plural and the multiple character of all identities, including the national ones, but they would seldom question the relevance of this concept and its empirical manifestations. In this paper the attempt is made to challenge such dominant understandings. More specifically it is argued that the contemporary belief in the existence of stable, omnipresent and durable national identities is in itself a contingent historical product of the specific organisational, ideological and the micro-interactional processes that have shaped the world over the last 300 years. In this context the paper emphasises that it is paramount to historicise the origins and the rise of the popular beliefs in the substance and universality of national identities. Building on author’s previous research the paper elaborates a theoretical framework for the study of such popular beliefs. In particular the focus is on the role the three long term historical processes have played in the formation of ‘national identities’ as they are understood today: the cumulative bureaucratisation of coercion, centrifugal ideologisation and the envelopment of micro-solidarity.
Source:
https://www.academia.edu/33374345/Do_National_Identities_Exist
Abstract
There is no doubt that an overwhelming majority of people in the world believe that national identities are real and perceptible entities. Although academics disagree over the questions such as whether national identities are modern or primordial, essential or socially constructed they too generally do not doubt their existence. Some scholars might focus on the plural and the multiple character of all identities, including the national ones, but they would seldom question the relevance of this concept and its empirical manifestations. In this paper the attempt is made to challenge such dominant understandings. More specifically it is argued that the contemporary belief in the existence of stable, omnipresent and durable national identities is in itself a contingent historical product of the specific organisational, ideological and the micro-interactional processes that have shaped the world over the last 300 years. In this context the paper emphasises that it is paramount to historicise the origins and the rise of the popular beliefs in the substance and universality of national identities. Building on author’s previous research the paper elaborates a theoretical framework for the study of such popular beliefs. In particular the focus is on the role the three long term historical processes have played in the formation of ‘national identities’ as they are understood today: the cumulative bureaucratisation of coercion, centrifugal ideologisation and the envelopment of micro-solidarity.
Source:
https://www.academia.edu/33374345/Do_National_Identities_Exist