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ID: 098144

Empire and ethnicity / Darwin, John

Darwin, John	Journal Article
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Publication

2010.

Summary/Abstract

Historians and social scientists have typically assumed a conflictual or exploitative relationship between empire and ethnicity. On the one hand, empire might be seen (as perhaps Ernest Gellner saw it in Nations and Nationalism) as a superstructure of coercion to which a group of ethnic units were subject. On the other (according to an influential view), empire fabricated ethnicities (tribes or castes) to divide and rule. This article suggests that both of these views are too crude. In the British case at least (and in the modern history of empire, no generalisation that excludes the British case has much value), 'imperial ethnicity' was a much more subtle phenomenon. It existed 'at home' as one element in a more complex identity. It was a powerful force in British settler societies, where an indigenous identity could not be imagined. And, perhaps surprisingly, it was deeply attractive to some colonial elites in Asia and Africa - at least for a time.

Key Words

Ethnicity ; Nationalism ; Empire ; British Empire ; Ernest Gellner ; Imperialism

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ID: 115224

Nationalism chez Gellner / Meadwell, Hudson

Meadwell, Hudson	Journal Article
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Publication

2012.

Summary/Abstract

The central distinguishing feature of Ernest Gellner's most important treatment of nationalism is the proposition that nationalism is necessary for industrial society. Relatively little attention has been paid to the philosophical dimension of this proposition. The question of necessity in social explanation, however, is a complicated philosophical problem and must be dealt with directly if this proposition is to be endorsed. I argue that Gellner's argument is philosophically flawed. The 'ordinary prose' of Nations and Nationalism fails to deliver what Gellner claims to have delivered: the demonstration of a necessary connection between nationalism and industrial society. This result is of particular relevance given Gellner's philosophical interests.

Key Words

Nationalism ; Methodology ; Industrial Society ; Social Philosophy ; Ernest Gellner ; Philosophical Dimension ;
Necessity ; Ordinary Language ; Social Explanation

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