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The cachet dilemma: Ritual and agency in new Dutch nationalism
Author(s) -
VERKAAIK OSKAR
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1111/j.1548-1425.2010.01242.x
Subject(s) - ceremony , criticism , nationalism , naturalization , agency (philosophy) , sociology , dilemma , citizenship , embarrassment , government (linguistics) , aesthetics , media studies , gender studies , political science , law , politics , epistemology , social science , social psychology , psychology , philosophy , linguistics , theology , alien
In 2006, the Dutch government introduced a naturalization ceremony for foreigners wishing to become Dutch citizens. Local bureaucrats who organize the ceremony initially disapproved of the measure as symbolic of the neonationalist approach to migration. I analyze how their criticism is undermined in the process of designing the ritual, the form of which continues to express a culturalist message of citizenship, despite organizers’ explicit criticism or ridicule. Using the concept of “cultural intimacy,” I show how nationalism builds on a shared embarrassment among local bureaucrats, from which the new citizens are excluded by way of the ceremony.