The Rhetoric of Nationalism
Craig Calhoun
Book chapter · 2017 · Palgrave Macmillan
Abstract
This paper assesses the contribution of Billig’s Banal Nationalism arguing that it moved us beyond the dichotomies of civic versus ethnic and patriotism versus nationalism to focus attention on the omnipresence of nations and the question of when they are flagged and unflagged. In acknowledging the importance of these insights, it is also suggested that an undue focus on ideology, interests and the political may not do justice to the strength of what might be better called the national or nationalist imaginary. The idea of social imaginaries speaks to a curious flatness to many accounts of everyday nationalism: they limit themselves to representations, not developing the way in which these representations are embedded and reproduced in action.
Citation
Calhoun, C. (2017). The rhetoric of nationalism. In M. Skey & M. Antonsich (Eds.), Everyday nationhood: Theorising culture, identity and belonging after banal nationalism. Palgrave Macmillan.