Contested Inclusion: States, Movements, and Transformations of Nationalism
ABSTRACT
Scholars have devoted major attention to the origins of nationalism. Yet, analysts lack a comparably sophisticated set of theoretical tools to understand the temporal dynamics of nationalism. This article develops an analytical framework for tracing and explaining how the contents and salience of official national discourses change over time. Transformations of nationalism are conceptualized as including three major processes: (1) the production of contending national categories, symbols, and myths, (2) their adoption in official ideologies, and (3) their institutionalization as reference points of daily life. A social process approach is proposed to explain transformations of nationalism as driven by the conflicts and alignments between state elites and social movements, and patterns of state infrastructural development. The leverage provided by this framework is explored through a comparative historical analysis of early and mid-20th century Mexico, Argentina, and Peru.