The Marginalizing Rhetoric of Nationalism

Abstract

popular culture, about how music with preindustrial roots got reworked to give voice to urban, industrial experience. We learn here about the potential of mass media as a resource for mobilization, thereby complicating our sense that such media are simply resources for corporate hegemony. At the same time, we see how much potential for local democracy has been lost by the capturing of broadcasting by national structures. This observation is of more than historical interest: We are once again in the midst of struggles for local autonomy in a variety of media spheres. The textile workers story transforms our understanding of the functions of organization and leadership in social movements. This case suggests that opening up channels of communication and freeing the initiative of indigenous leaders can be far more effective than the work of professional organizers and established organizations in enabling collective action. The story told here ought to stimulate a research agenda aimed at specifying the conditions that encourage self-organization and bottom-up creativity. Finally, this story asks us to reexamine conventional wisdom about southern white