This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Chernilo, D. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Social Theory’s Methodological Nationalism

Myth and Reality

University Alberto Hurtado, Santiago, Chile, dchernil{at}uahurtado.cl

The equation between the concept of society and the nation-state in modernity is known as methodological nationalism in scholarly debates. In agreement with the thesis that methodological nationalism must be rejected and transcended, this article argues that we still lack an understanding of what methodological nationalism actually is and, because of that, we remain unable to answer the substantive problem methodological nationalism poses to social theory: how to understand the history, main features and legacy of the nation-state in modernity. The first section of the article reconstructs the origins of the critique of methodological nationalism in the 1970s and differentiates between its logical and historical versions. It then critically reviews the most salient critique of methodological nationalism in contemporary social theory, that of Ulrich Beck. The final part of the article assesses the thesis of social theory’s immanent methodological nationalism by demonstrating how social theory’s equivocations towards the nation-state only mirror the nation-state’s own ambivalence within modernity. It is shown that social theory’s ambivalent attempts at conceptualizing the nation-state reflect the actual ambivalence of the position of the nation-state in modernity: its historical opacity, its sociological uncertainty and its normative ambiguity.

Key Words: cosmopolitanism • globalization • methodological nationalism • modernity • nation-state • social theory

European Journal of Social Theory, Vol. 9, No. 1, 5-22 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/1368431006060460


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				V. Roudometof Gusts of Change: The Consequences of the 1989 Revolutions for the Study of Globalization European Journal of Social Theory, August 1, 2009; 12(3): 409 - 424. [Abstract] [PDF]

				A. S. Krossa Conceptualizing European Society on Non-Normative Grounds: Logics of Sociation, Glocalization and Conflict European Journal of Social Theory, May 1, 2009; 12(2): 249 - 264. [Abstract] [PDF]

				G. Kendall, Z. Skrbis, and I. Woodward Cosmopolitanism, the nation-state and imaginative realism Journal of Sociology, December 1, 2008; 44(4): 401 - 417. [Abstract] [PDF]

				B. Hutchins Signs of meta-change in second modernity: the growth of e-sport and the World Cyber Games New Media Society, December 1, 2008; 10(6): 851 - 869. [Abstract] [PDF]

				S. Mihelj National media events: From displays of unity to enactments of division European Journal of Cultural Studies, November 1, 2008; 11(4): 471 - 488. [Abstract] [PDF]

				D. Inglis and R. Robertson The Elementary Forms of Globality: Durkheim and the Emergence and Nature of Global Life Journal of Classical Sociology, February 1, 2008; 8(1): 5 - 25. [Abstract] [PDF]

				D. Chernilo Classical Sociology and the Nation-State: A Re-interpretation Journal of Classical Sociology, February 1, 2008; 8(1): 27 - 43. [Abstract] [PDF]

				R. Fine and V. Boon Introduction: Cosmopolitanism: Between Past and Future European Journal of Social Theory, February 1, 2007; 10(1): 5 - 16. [PDF]

				D. Chernilo A Quest for Universalism: Re-assessing the Nature of Classical Social Theory's Cosmopolitanism European Journal of Social Theory, February 1, 2007; 10(1): 17 - 35. [Abstract] [PDF]