Methodological Nationalism, The Social Sciences, and the Study of Migration: an Essay in Historical Epistemology - The three variants of methodological nationalism within the social sciences

12 important questions on Methodological Nationalism, The Social Sciences, and the Study of Migration: an Essay in Historical Epistemology - The three variants of methodological nationalism within the social sciences

What are the three variants of methodological nationalism within the social sciences?

- Ignoring or disregarding importance of nationalism

- Naturalization: taking for granted the boundaries of the nation-state define the units of analysis
- Territorial limitation: confining the study of social processes to the territory of the nation-state

What is important about the three variants?

The three variants may intersect with each other and can reinforce each other

In what fields of inquiry are the three variants prominent?

Ignoring - methodological nationalism

Naturalization - "normal" empirical social science
territorial limitation - study of nationalism and state building
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What is interesting in the first variance?

Ignoring or disregarding the importance of nationalism and the prevalence of the nation-state model as the universal form of political organization are neither problematised nor made objectives of the study in their own right

What is an example of the interesting thing in the first variance?

Modernization made it look if western states established on its own -> it was really due to colonialism

What have a host of scholars (Marx, Weber, Durkheim etc.) argued regarding this ignoring?

The classic theory of modernity has a blind-spot when it comes to understanding the rise of nation-states as well as of nationalism and ethnicity

Where were most grand theories constructed from?

Sociostructural types

What did even the most sophisticated forms of theorizing accept as a given?

Nationalist forms of inclusion and exclusion bind modern societies together

What did naturalization produce?

The container model of society, that encompasses culture, policy, economics and a bounded social group

What is the conception of world politics in naturalization?

Assuming that processes within a nation-states boundaries are different than those outside. The social sciences left no room for transnational and global processes that connected territories -> domestic conception of world politics

Which two things work well together in the works of modernization theory (Lerner or Rostow)?

Nation-building and state formation, since the nation-state model represented the only thinkable way of organizing politics

What do western states often forget regarding organizing politics?

Western states often forget that nationalism was a key factor in their establishment

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