Critique Of Methodological Nationalism Research Articles

Identity and the Demand for Inclusion: The Critique of Methodological Nationalism and the Political Theory of Immigration

ABSTRACT Political theorists of immigration who are critical of restrictive immigration policies generally rely on abstract, universal, cosmopolitan principles, while defenders of such restrictions focus on concrete identities. This status quo overlooks the ways attention to concrete identities can challenge restrictive immigration policies, and neglects important insights from the critique of methodological nationalism in social theory and migration studies. I first identify the strongest case for immigration restrictions, with attention to the exceptions to the right to exclude it demands, the “associative ownership” account, whose promise is due in part to avoiding over-reliance on nationalist justifications. This account has overlooked those whose identities have been coercively constituted by the actions of the state in question, who have a potentially justified demand for inclusion. The critique of methodological nationalism demonstrates the shortcomings of using national identity to determine who merits such an exception, and of abandoning judgment to states themselves.

Ideas of Ulrich Beck in the Сontext of Modern Methodological Searches in World Sociology

The article reconstructed the system and method of the German sociologist Ulrich Beck. The importance of this work in the methodological situation in modern sociology is shown. This situation is due to changes in the social world and the fourth scientific revolution, which takes place in science in general. A significant part of the concepts included in the conceptual networks of various paradigms of modern sociology were formed during the second scientific revolution. In addition, sociologists, who investigate the Modernity, face the impact of unscientific circumstances, such as global threats, pressure of the ruling classes, and others. Ulrich Beck influenced world sociology with concepts of risk society, Second Modernity, cosmopolitanism. His critique of methodological nationalism is important. His call for overcoming “zombie concepts” remains valid. At the same time, the German sociologist, calling for a new utopia, saw the path to a cosmopolitan federation of states with divided sovereignty in establishing cooperation between capital, states, and civil society. He could not offer any real mechanisms for this cooperation. For progressive shifts in the problems of modernity, the synthesis of the ideas of the Second Modern, the sociology of creative Marxism, the world-systems analysis and ecological sociology can be useful. By this time, these traditions are divided by barriers of incomprehension and competition for intellectual novelty. In the theory of the Second Modern, the disadvantage is also a strong contextual dependence on the current political situation. U. Beck created his texts as comments to current processes. For ideological synthesis, it is necessary not only to recreate the course of thoughts of sociologists, but to present their ideas in the form of coherent concepts in the context of the requirements of a new methodological situation. The Second Modern and its characteristics such as Globalization can be considered as a stage in the development of the world capitalist system. The idea of a Risk Society can resonate with the development of Environmental Sociology. Criticism of neoliberalism in the sociology of creative Marxism can provide greater objectivity to the idea of cosmopolitanism. But for this, it is necessary to reconstruct the conceptual series of these research directions, their methodological guidelines in connection with the philosophical foundations of their metasociological knowledge.

Diaspora construct in the focus of entity policies and different mobilities

Diaspora interpretations involve different approaches, policies, and perceptions, which problematize this phenomenon. The penetration and visibility of the phenomenon becomes a scientific and research challenge in shedding light and solving global and specific problems of human motion. Diaspora is an ideological, political and economic construct derived from academic and strategic developments in the domain of knowledge and interests. On the other hand, diasporas are shown to be diverse practices and perceptions that open the fields of sensibility and communication. In the paper I presented a brief theoretical cross-section of various approaches and critical analyzes (essentialism, critique of methodological nationalism, studies of ethnicity, historical paradigm, concept of long-distance nationalism) with the intention of problematizing the diaspora phenomenon, pointing to its general characteristics and dilemmas. Further analysis focuses on the specific features of diaspora constructs in zones of strategies (institutionalization), practices and perceptions through socio political and symbolic meanings.Key words: diaspora, entity policies, cultural mobility, paradigm, process

Keeping doors open: transnational families and curricular nationalism

This paper reviews sociological literature to explore the challenge transnational populations pose for nation-based curriculum, and vice versa. With increasing access to dual citizenship and temporary migration, more people are living transnational lifestyles. This poses new challenges in raising the transnational child. Transnationalism has emerged ‘bottom-up’ from individualised choices and circumstances rather than ‘top-down’ through institutional strategy. As a result, education sectors are yet to respond with a reoriented curriculum that can accommodate polycentric lives. This paper adapts Beck’s critique of methodological nationalism and proposes a parallel concept in the curricular nationalism underpinning much official curriculum. It then reviews literature reporting on three curricular experiments that seek to cultivate citizenships above and beyond the nation. While such transcendent designs on citizenship unsettle curricular nationalism, they fail to address the specificities of transnational child’s memberships both here and there. The pedagogic principle of ‘connectedness’ is retooled as a pragmatic way forward.

Biographical Entanglements, Self-Reflexivity, and Transnational Knowledge Production

The critique of methodological nationalism in the social sciences has posed a theoretical and methodological challenge to qualitative social research. It has forced researchers to reflect on the possibilities and limitations of applying qualitative research methods in their research on transnational social phenomena. We underline the need to examine the influence of the biographical experiences of the researcher on the research process in transnational research settings. We argue that by inducing biographical self-reflection during the research process, it is possible to work out the possible biographical entanglements with the research topic and to reflect their influence on the further development of the research process. In consequence, it is possible to tackle methodologically the “invisible” role of the researcher in the narrative construction of transnational social fields and to show how transnational knowledge production is an intersubjective, relational activity.

National identity and otherness in Greek speakers’ talk about immigration: Methodological and transdisciplinary reflections

The aim of the paper is to present the potential contribution of using Critical Discursive Psychology to study national identity and immigration. It draws upon a study on Greek national identity negotiations in relation to immigration. The study was guided by the perspective of banal nationalism which treats national identity as a form of life in a world divided into nation-states (Billig, 1995). In terms of Greek national identity and immigration, the study drew similarities between the perspective of banal nationalism and the critique of methodological nationalism (Wimmer and Schiller, 2002).

Intersectionalizing European politics: bridging gender and ethnicity

This Dialogues section brings together research from two hitherto separate interdisciplinary strands of European scholarship on politics: Gender Studies, and Migration and Ethnic Studies. Combining theories, concepts, methods, and findings, the papers demonstrate what each field can learn from the other. By exploring various forms of citizenship and representation of ethnic minorities in Western Europe, this section addresses the key contributions of Gender Studies and Migration and Ethnic Studies: intersectionality and the critique of methodological nationalism, respectively. Intersectionality challenges scholars to cross gender with other categories such as ethnicity. Methodological nationalism refers to the naturalization of national categories; critics dispute the assumption that the nation/state/society is the natural social and political form of contemporary politics. Both approaches are far from mainstream in political science, and despite their potential they are rarely combined. This essay argues that central future challenges for political science are (1) to mainstream intersectional analysis; (2) to be critical of the construction of taken-for-granted categories and the way such “fixed” categories result from our focus on nation-states; and (3) to develop new mix-method toolkits to make this exercise feasible.

De-naturalizing the national in research methodologies: key concepts of transnational studies in migration

Building on the transnational approach to migration, this introduction outlines some elements of the programme of an emergent methodological transnationalism. This effort aims to de-naturalize the concept of the national within migration studies. First, the analysis identifies methodological challenges of migration studies, such as contextualization, the ethnic lens and the essentializing view on ethnicity. Second, it indicates the relevant conceptual elements which deal with these methodological challenges, such as the critique of methodological nationalism, cosmopolitanism and the relational concept of space. Third, it addresses the relevant methods, such as multi-sited ethnography, the mobile methods approach, as well as researchers' positionality and strategies of de-ethnicization, all of which correspond to the new epistemology of migration studies. Finally, it highlights the common characteristics of the contributions to this special issue, which go beyond the normative view of cross-border migration.