It is commonly assumed that we live in an age of unbridled individualism, but in this important new book Montserrat Guibernau argues that the need to belong to a group or community – from peer groups and local communities to ethnic groups and nations – is a pervasive and enduring feature of modern social life.
The power of belonging stems from the potential to generate an emotional attachment capable of fostering a shared identity, loyalty and solidarity among members of a given community. It is this strong emotional dimension that enables belonging to act as a trigger for political mobilization and, in extreme cases, to underpin collective violence.
Among the topics examined in this book are identity as a political instrument; emotions and political mobilization; the return of authoritarianism and the rise of the new radical right; symbols and the rituals of belonging; loyalty, the nation and nationalism. It includes case studies from Britain, Spain, Catalonia, Germany, the Middle East and the United States.
This wide-ranging and cutting-edge book will be of great interest to students and scholars in politics, sociology and the social sciences generally.
Table of Content
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction 1
Outline of the book 2
1 Identity as a Political Instrument 7
Conflicting identities 7
The role of boundaries 10
Traditional versus modern societies 15
The construction and meaning of identity 16
The consequences of globalization 19
Summary 24
2 Belonging by Choice 26
Belonging and emotion 26
The conditions of belonging 32
Collective identity and the power of symbols 35
Belonging to the nation 43
Collective identity and political mobilization 44
Summary 48
3 Freedom and Constraint 50
Immanuel Kant 51
Michel Foucault 55
Erich Fromm 58
The freedom to belong 61
Alienation, fear of irrelevance and group membership 64
Escaping into new dependencies: addiction 65
Summary 69
4 The New Radical Right and the Resurgence of Authoritarian Politics 71
The rise of authoritarianism 71
The new radical right versus traditional fascism 75
Who votes for the new radical right? 79
‘White resistance’ as a transnational movement 80
The rise of ethno-politics 83
On racism 84
The nation: conflicting views 86
From biological to cultural exclusion 88
Summary 90
5 The Rituals of Belonging 92
The power of symbols 92
The meaning of symbols 97
Ritual and power 98
Ritual and emotions 103
Rituals of ‘inclusion’ and ‘exclusion’ 105
Rites of belonging in modern society 108
Rites of passage 110
‘Exclusive’ and ‘inclusive’ groups and associations 112
Summary 116
6 Loyalty, Citizenship and the Nation 118
On loyalty 118
Three types of loyalty 120
Loyalty, the nation and nationalism 123
National loyalty in peacetime and wartime 128
Loyalty programmes in the USA 130
Scapegoating and dissent 134
Freedom versus conformity 135
‘Authoritarian’ versus ‘democratic’ loyalty 137
The great challenge: turning immigrants into Americans 140
Summary 142
7 Emotion and Political Mobilization 144
Emotion and social action 144
Emotion and the rational imperatives of market capitalism 147
‘Taming’ emotion and the construction of ‘healing spaces’ 153
Emotion and political mobilization 154
Summary 170
Conclusion 172
Notes 181
Bibliography 200
Index 211
About the author
Montserrat Guibernau is Professor of Politics at Queen Mary, University of London, where she works on national and ethnic diversity.
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