Durkheim and the Nation

Abstract

This article elucidates key elements of the Durkheimian framework that bear specifically on studies of nations and nationalism. Durkheim’s theory of collective representations and his general theoretical view of the nature of human experience and the constitutive forces of social life are shown to offer leverage on problems of contemporary general interest to sociology. A Durkheimian approach to the study of nations and nationalism centers on three key elements: i) the definition of the form of collective consciousness characterizing the putative national unit; ii) a focus on the historical or genealogical development of the national unit; and, iii) the analysis of this unit in its theoretical aspect as a set of collective representations. Seeing nations and nationalism from a Durkheimian standpoint affords an understanding of these phenomena in terms of what they suggest about the nature of human social order as such. The contributions of Anthony Smith and Liah Greenfeld are discussed in light of this framework so as to make manifest the enduring significance of Durkheim’s thought.