Carlo Ruzza - Università di Trento 1 Social Movements Theories and Nationalism Three theories of Nationalism: (a) Primordialist (b) Modernist (c) Ethnicists 1. Two approaches to Collective Behaviour: Symbolic Interactionist Functionalist 2. Resource Mobilization 3. Political Opportunities 4. Identity Theories Insights from theories of social movements can be applied to Nationalist Movements, and can help to frame theories of nationalism

Carlo Ruzza - Università di Trento 2 1. Collective Behavior (CB) Although a preoccupation with political unrest is immemorial, typically the beginning of a concern with social movements is put at the end of the nineteenth-century with Gustave LeBon (LeBon 1960). LeBon’s concern with crowd behaviour was based on a negative assessment of the danger of phenomena that he considered essentially irrational.

Carlo Ruzza - Università di Trento 3 Symbolic Interactionism and Social Movements Among symbolic interactionists, Blumer focused on individuals’ motivation to join social movements and on social-psychological dynamics of activism. In this tradition (Ralph Turner, Louis Killian, Joseph Gusfield). The original assumptions have then been modified, whilst the concern for interaction has remained. The assumption of an abnormality of protest has been abandoned. The stress on grievances as an explanation for the emergence of a movement has been expanded to include a wider array of factors.

Carlo Ruzza - Università di Trento 4 Symbolic Interactionism and the Creativity of Movements The early Collective Behaviour tradition was not univocally negative in identifying the role of movements. There was also, the acknowledgement of the creativity of social protest. Blumer stressed the emergence of new norms in movements and hence their contribution to cultural change.

Carlo Ruzza - Università di Trento 5 Structural Functionalist and Social Movements Parsons and Smelser, from a macro perspective, looked at social movements in functionalist terms as an answer to social strains. Although employing very different approaches, both SI and SF assumed that social movements are the result of a breakdown of social integration.

Carlo Ruzza - Università di Trento 6 Smelser The Parsonian model, applied to social movements by Smelser, assumed an integrative role of values. Institutions translate values into articulated social functions, and institutionalization implies the codification of general values into specific norms and reciprocal expectations. This absence of conflict and assumption of integrative dynamics has been criticised by social movement researchers.

Carlo Ruzza - Università di Trento 7 Theories of Nationalism The rise of the nation is often dated to the time of the French Revolution However, there is a debate on what is its relation to the state and to modernity Some see it as mainly the outcome of elites’ instrumental attempt to shape social change Others see this instrumental use as based on persisting pre-modern ethnic sentiments

Carlo Ruzza - Università di Trento 8 (a) Primordialists Historians like Frantisek Palacky, Eoin Mac Neill and Nicolae Iorga saw nations as evolving primordial entities. They recognised that before the 18 th century nationality was subordinated to religion and dynastic principles, but still thought that nations existed before the emergence of the idea of popular sovereignty.

Carlo Ruzza - Università di Trento 9 (b) Modernists Since the 60’s primordialists have been criticised by various authors such as Carl Deutsch, Ernest Gellner, E. Hobsbawm and Benedict Anderson. They see the nation as a modern institution, and argue that the raise of the nation as a widespread political model is only two centuries old.

Carlo Ruzza - Università di Trento 10 (c) Nations and Nation-States For modernists the nation can only be understood in relation to the nation-state. The nation-building process is a political one and is rooted in the interests of state-builders. “Nationalist elites invented nations” (Breuilly). Historically, nations are significantly different from previous units They are artefacts of new print technologies, territorial integration through transports, the bureaucratic state, industrialisation

Carlo Ruzza - Università di Trento 11 Ethnicist Approaches Some theorists (i.e.Anthony Smith, John Armstrong) accept the recent and political manufacture of nations but argue that it was only possible on a pre-existing basis – a body of myths and symbols which persist over long time. They argue that states require more than citizenship to sustain emotional commitment and solidarity.