Understanding Nationalism: Debates, Controversies and New Theories - Detailseite

The debates in the field of nationalism studies over the last thirty years have produced a rich body of literature that has attempted to deal with one of the fundamental problems of politics in the history of modern Europe. But the complex nature of these debates has not resulted in any consensus among academics. The main controversies in the field revolve around three issues that are almost impossible to resolve with a definite answer. Whether nations are present in every stage of history or are the product of modernity has resulted in a battle between primordialist and perennialists on one side versus modernists on the other. While both sides deploy a plethora of evidence to support their claims, seldom do they find any agreement. The matter is further complicated by the second main controversy about the subjective or objective nature of the concept of the nation itself. Once again, there is a lack of consensus on this issue and the very nature of the main concept that informs the debates is contested. Finally, whether nationalism is an end in itself or a proxy for other political interests completes the landscape of the intellectual debate. This seminar will survey the main theoretical paradigms of nationalism and will also focus on the controversies these debates have generated. Its objective is to guide the participants through a critical reading of the main texts and the suggestion of alternative approaches to the study of nationalism based on recent theoretical and empirical studies on the subject.