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Is there Nationalism after Ernest Gellner? An exploration of methodological choices *
Author(s) -
Van den Bossche Geert
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
nations and nationalism
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.655
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1469-8129
pISSN - 1354-5078
DOI - 10.1111/1469-8219.00124
Subject(s) - nationalism , ideology , meaning (existential) , epistemology , feeling , sociology , identity (music) , politics , set (abstract data type) , function (biology) , philosophy , aesthetics , law , political science , computer science , evolutionary biology , biology , programming language
. This paper explores the advance of the study of nationalism with particular reference to hitherto neglected methodologies. After suggesting what might be the lesson to be learned from Ernest Gellner's critique of Wittgensteinian linguistic philosophy, I set out some of the considerations and questions which guide my own attempt at a definition of nationalism after Gellner. These are essentially concerned with the function of meaning for ‘real people’, that is, with the substantiation of the nation through the study of ideologies and feelings, links between interest and identity, conditions of responsiveness and the differential success of mass mobilisation. In the remainder of the paper, I explore the benefit that may be achieved from adopting the methodologies of the so‐called Cambridge school of the history of political thought and of social representations in social psychology.