Text
French
ID: <
10.7202/015371ar>
·
DOI: <
10.7202/015371ar>
Abstract
The Politics of ldentityNationalisai, Patriotism, and MulticulturalismNationalism can best be understood as politicized ethnicity. This mobilization of culture and shared historical tradition correlates generally with increased economie competition and downward mobility. Political insecurity, status anxieties and doubts about individual identity are translated into a loss of collective worthiness. Nationalism promises to restore dignity and extinguish humiliation, according to specifie group histories. Racism is not a necessary ingredient of nationalism but ethnocentrism and exclusion of " the other " usually accompany the construction of imagined boundaries between " us " and " them ". Various theories of nationalism are reviewed, including primordial and sociobiological conceptualisations of ethnie solidarity as kinship nepotism. Political mobilization by nationalist elites and socio-historical causes of real or imagined grievances explains better why people attach themselves to ethnie groups in some situations but choose cosmopolitan individualism in other contexts. Inclusive patriotism based on citizenship, regardless of descent remains the only emotional glue that facilities both equality and loyalty in multi-ethnic states.