Event overview
The Unit for Global Justice at Goldsmiths College, University of London, presents a paper by Daniel Chernilo, University Alberto Hurtado Santiago
This paper is part of a larger research project which aims at the reconstruction of ‘a social theory of the nation-state beyond methodological nationalism’. Methodological nationalism can be defined as the all-pervasive equation in social theory between the theoretical concept of society and the historical development of the nation-state - the nation-state as the natural and necessary representation of society in modernity. In opposition to the widespread claim that social theory as such has fallen under the trap of methodological nationalism, this paper discusses the way in which three leading theorists in the 1950s and 1960s theorised the problematic position of the nation-state in modernity. I thus review: (1) how Talcott Parsons’ emphasis on the democratic rule of law arises out of the experiences of its sudden breakdown in Weimar Germany; (2) how Hannah Arendt’s understanding of the rise of totalitarianism results from her assessment of the nation-state’s inability to resist the disintegrative forces that pull modernity apart and (3) how Raymond Aron’s depiction of industrialism overtakes the differences to be found between Communist regimes, recently de-colonised nation-states and Western states. The conclusion is that - even at the time when the faith in the nation-state was seemingly at its peak - the nation-state’s position looked much less secure and stable than is usually assumed. If analysed in relation with its current threats, the nation-state cannot be thought of as the organising principle around which the project of modernity coheres but rather as one of modernity’s most ambivalent structural developments.
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Jun 2006 | 2:00pm - 4:00pm |
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