The imagined community is a concept coined by Benedict Anderson which states that a nation is a community socially constructed, which is to say imagined by the people who perceive themselves as part of that group. Benedict Richard O'Gorman Anderson (born August 26, 1936) is Aaron L A nation is a Human Cultural and Social Community. In as much as most members never meet each other yet feel a common bond it may be considered In biological terms a community is a group of interacting Organisms sharing an environment. Imagination is the ability to form Mental images/sounds/feelings or the ability to Spontaneously Generate images/sounds/feelings within one's own Mind An English Noun The English noun people has two distinct fields of application as a countable noun, a group of Humans [1]
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Overview
Benedict Anderson defined a nation as "an imagined political community [that is] imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign". [1] An imagined community is different from an actual community because it is not (and cannot be) based on quotidian face-to-face interaction between its members. In biological terms a community is a group of interacting Organisms sharing an environment. Instead, members hold in their minds a mental image of their affinity. As Anderson puts it, a nation "is imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion". [1]
These communities are imagined as both limited and sovereign. They are limited in that nations have "finite, if elastic boundaries, beyond which lie other nations". [1] They are sovereign insofar as no dynastic monarchy can claim authority over them, an idea arising in the early modern period:
. . . [T]he concept was born in an age in which Enlightenment and Revolution were destroying the legitimacy of the divinely-ordained, hierarchical dynastic realm. Coming to maturity at a stage of human history when even the most devout adherents of any universal religion were inescapably confronted with the living pluralism of such religions, and the [direct relationship] between each faith's ontological claims and territorial stretch, nations dream of being free, and, if under God, directly so. The gage and emblem of this freedom is the sovereign state. (pp. 6-7)
Finally, a nation is an imagined community because "regardless of the actual inequality and exploitation that may prevail in each, the nation is always conceived as a deep, horizontal comradeship. Ultimately it is this fraternity that makes it possible, over the past two centuries, for so many millions of people, not so much to kill, as willingly to die for such limited imaginings. "[1]
According to Anderson, creation of imagined communities became possible because of "print-capitalism". Capitalist entrepreneurs printed their books and media in the vernacular (instead of exclusive script languages, such as Latin) in order to maximize circulation. Vernacular refers to the Native language of a country or a locality Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. As a result, readers speaking various local dialects became able to understand each other, and a common discourse emerged. Anderson argued that the first European nation-states were thus formed around their "national print-languages. "
Context
Benedict Anderson arrived at his theory because he felt that neither Marxist nor liberal theory adequately explained nationalism.
Anderson falls into the "historicist" or "modernist" school of nationalism along with Ernest Gellner and Eric Hobsbawm in that he posits that nations and nationalism are products of modernity and have been created as means to political and economic ends. Historicism refers to philosophical theories that include one or both of two claims that there is an organic succession of developments a notion also Modernism describes an array of Cultural movements rooted in the changes in Western society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century The term nationalism can refer to an Ideology, a sentiment, a form of Culture, or a Social movement that focuses on the Nation Ernest André Gellner ( 9 December 1925 &ndash 5 November 1995) was a Philosopher and social anthropologist, cited as one Modernity is a term that refers to the Modern era. It is distinct from Modernism, and in different contexts refers to cultural and intellectual movements of the This school stands in opposition to the primordialists, who believe that nations, if not nationalism, have existed since early human history. Primordialism is the argument which contends that Nations are ancient natural phenomena Imagined communities can be seen as a form of social constructionism on a par with Edward Said's concept of imagined geographies. Social constructionism and social constructivism are sociological and psychological theories of Knowledge that consider how social phenomena develop in Edward Wadie Saïd MRSL ( إدوارد وديع سعيد,; 1 November 1935 &ndash 25 September The concept of imagined geographies has evolved out of the work of Edward Said, particularly his critique on Orientalism.
In contrast to Gellner and Hobsbawm, Anderson is not hostile to the idea of nationalism nor does he think that nationalism is obsolescent in a globalizing world. Anderson values the utopian element in nationalism. [2] According to his theory of imagined communities, the main causes of the nationalism are the declining importance of privileged access to particular script languages (such as Latin) because of mass vernacular literacy; the movement to abolish the ideas of rule by divine right and hereditary monarchy; and the emergence of printing press capitalism — all phenomena occurring with the start of the Industrial Revolution. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. The Industrial Revolution was a period in the late 18th and early 19th centuries when major changes in agriculture manufacturing and transportation had a profound effect on the
Anthony D. Smith states that even when nations are the product of modernity, it is possible to find ethnic elements that survive in modern nations. Anthony D Smith (born 1933 is Professor Emeritus of Nationalism and Ethnicty at the London School of Economics, and is considered one of the founders of the Ethnic groups are different from nations. Nations are the result of a triple revolution that begins with the development of capitalism and leads to a bureaucratic and cultural centralization along with a loss of power by the Catholic Church. Since Smith considers nations as the product of modernity, he falls into the "modernity" school.
Eric Hobsbawm argues that the nation is the product of nationalism, instead of nationalism's being an effect of the nation's mythical original existence. The word mythology (from the Greek grc μυθολογία mythología, meaning "a story-telling a legendary lore" The modern nation was created by the unification of various people into a common society or community, which takes the 19th century nation-state form, forged out of disciplinary institutions such as the school, the army or the factory. For the online game see Jennifer Government NationStates. The nation-state is a certain form of State that derives its legitimacy Disciplinary institutions ( French) is a Concept proposed by Michel Foucault in Discipline and Punish (1975 A school (from Greek σχολεῖον - scholeion) is an Institution designed to allow and encourage Students (or "pupils" An army (from Latin Armata "act of arming" via Old French armée) in the broadest sense is the land-based Armed forces A factory (previously manufactory) or manufacturing plant is an industrial Building where workers manufacture goods
See also
- Nation-building
- Ethnogenesis
- Nationalism
- Benedict Anderson
- Ernest Gellner
- Eric Hobsbawm
- Granfalloon
- Jean-Luc Nancy's The Inoperative Community (1983)
- Cyberspace
References
- ^ a b c d e Anderson, Benedict. For nation-building in the sense of enhancing the capacity of state institutions building state-society relations and also external interventions see State-building Ethnogenesis (From Greek: ethnos ( group of people nation and genesis ( a coming into being is the process by which a group of human beings comes The term nationalism can refer to an Ideology, a sentiment, a form of Culture, or a Social movement that focuses on the Nation Benedict Richard O'Gorman Anderson (born August 26, 1936) is Aaron L Ernest André Gellner ( 9 December 1925 &ndash 5 November 1995) was a Philosopher and social anthropologist, cited as one A granfalloon, in the fictional religion of Bokononism (created by Kurt Vonnegut in his 1963 novel Cat's Cradle) is defined as a Jean-Luc Nancy (born July 26, 1940) is a French philosopher. Nancy's first book published in 1973 was Le titre de la lettre Cyberspace &mdash from the Greek el Κυβερνήτης (el kybernētēs steersman governor pilot or rudder &mdash is the global domain of electro-magnetics accessed Imagined Communities. ISBN 0-86091-329-5, p. 6-7
- ^ Interview with Benedict Anderson by Lorenz Khazaleh, University of Oslo website
Anderson, Bendedict (2006). Imagined Communities, New, London, New York: Verso. ISBN 9781844670864.
External links
- Reimagined communities - A Marxist critique of Anderson's book by Neil Davidson in International Socialism journal
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