The return of the national in a mobile world

Abstract

Nations are faced today with a new set of social and economic challenges: economic globalisation has intensified bringing with it a more intense phase of cultural interconnectedness and political interdependence. Globalisation has also further driven and multiplied international flows not only of capitals, goods and services but also of people. National states have seen their capacity to govern undermined by these processes. However, in Europe, the nation continues to be a powerful source of identity and legitimacy. This chapter offers a reflection on the centrifugal and centripetal forces that challenge the nation today and the kind of analytical tools that we need to connect wider socio-economic transformations with nationalism theories. The chapter is organised as follows. I first briefly review globalisation as a socio-economic phenomenon and the changes it brings at the identity level, leading to what Bauman has termed liquid modernity. In section three I am arguing however that the increased and diversified types of international migration and mobility that globalisation brings, lead to the re-emergence of the nation as a relevant point of reference for identification as well as a relevant political community that can protect people and tame the forces of globalisation. Last I am surveying developments in several European countries showing how citizens seek refuge from the social and economic challenges of globalisation and international mobility in the warm embrace of the nation that offers both the promise of political sovereignty and legitimacy and that of a feeling of shared destiny – something that for instance regional formations like the European Union cannot offer.