The present situation in the Ukraine and Russia imposes a threat to evaluation of nationalism as such. From the other side, neo-liberal globalization supporters see deep national feelings as a hindrance to their plans and further development. Can nationalism nowadays without extremism and populism be judged positively and in which aspects?
That's a very good question Arvydas!
Psychology researches show that when you belong to a group, you start to view other members of that group more positively. So you start helping them, you start caring for them, and more importantly you start to see them as equal. But the problem is, you start to see outsiders more negatively, and you can even treat them more aggressively just because they don't belong to your group.
That's why I would give the following answer to your question: Nationalism is a good thing, but only when it's used relatively to your peers. There is no place for it Internationally.
Hope that helps. ;)
Hi there,
This is a very interesting question indeed. There are different types and degrees of nationalism or nationalist attachments and socio-political supporting structures (whether base on ethnic, cultural, religious, civic or state-building grounds). Following Ali’s comment, I think that one of the key issues here is the interplay between the self-group consciousness, on the one hand, and the relationship with the out-group, on the other hand, a relationship that does not necessarily lead to opposition and conflict. I recommend the following references:
Beiner, R. (ed.) (1999) Theorizing nationalism. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Bonikowski, B. (2013) Varieties of Popular Nationalism in Modern Democracies: An Inductive Approach to Comparative Research on Political Culture. Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University.
King, Ch. (2010) Extreme Politics: Nationalism, Violence, and the End of Eastern Europe. London: Oxford University Pres.
Ozkirimli, U. (2000) Theories of Nationalism: A Critical Overview. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
Poole, R. (1999) Nation and Identity. London and New York: Routledgeth.
Best,
Dan
Hi there,
Very interesting question indeed. My own and other research suggests that different types of national pride relate differently to out-group attitudes, with patriotism often found to increase positive attitudes to out-groups and 'nationalism' (or the feeling that your ethnic or national group is culturally different and superior to others) often increasing negative attitudes to out-groups. You might find the following paper useful:
Testing the Relationship between Nationalism and Racism: Greek-Cypriot Students' National/Ethnic Identities and Attitudes to Ethnic Out-groups
Peter A.J. Stevens*, Panayiota Charalambous*, Athina Tempriou*, Evgenia Mesaritou* & Spyros Spyrou*pages 1736-1757
Published online: 06 Jan 2014
Article Views: 199
Abstract
This article builds on a growing body of research that shows an intrinsic but complex relationship between the concepts and the ideologies of nationalism and racism. In doing so, it investigates how different, meaningful national and ethnic in-group identifications of a dominant national/ethnic group (Greek-Cypriots) within a given national context (Cyprus) influence their perceptions of different, meaningful ethnic and racial minority out-groups. Logistic regression analysis of quantitative survey data with secondary school children (N = 738) in Cyprus shows that the relationship between national/ethnic in-group identifications and out-group perceptions varies according to the social and political relationships between particular national/ethnic in- and out-groups. The findings show that future research on the relationship between nationalism and racism should consider the overlap between and context specific nature of national and ethnic in-group identification processes and the historical, political relationships between different in- and out-groups.
Positively - as a type of human consciousness and cultural self-realization.
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