Revision:Anthony D. Smith's Theory of Nationalism

TSR Wiki > Study Help > Subjects and Revision > Revision Notes > Sociology > Anthony D. Smith's Theory of Nationalism

Smith's theory is based on "ethno-symbolism". Smith was a student of Ernest Gellner and as such attempts to overcome the key flaws and inconsistencies in the modernist perspective.

One of the key problems of the modernist perspective was that it fails to account for the passions generated by nationalism. Why should so many have "fought and died" for their nation, when nationalism was only a tool created by the elites for the sole purpose of economic gain and economic cohesion?

Smith argues that nationalism draws on the pre-existing history of the "group" an attempts to fashion this history into a sense of common identity and shared history. This is not to say that this history should academically valid or cogent - indeed, Smith asserts, many nationalisms are based on historically flawed interpretations of past events and tend to overly mythologise small, inaccurate parts of their history.

Nationalism, according to Smith, does not require that members of a "nation" should all be alike, only that they should feel an intense bond of solidarity to the nation and other members of their nation. A sense of nationalism can inhabit and be produced from whatever dominant ideology exists in a given locale. Nationalism builds on pre-existing kinship, religious and belief systems.

Criticisms of Smith

Smith asserts that nationalism is something "real"

Social Constructionists attack Smith for overestimating the permanence of nationalism and failing to recognise that nationalism is an embedded discourse help up by a mutually supportive set of theories arising from Northern enlightenment culture.

Nationalisms do not have to have a base at all

Some suggest that many nationalisms are based on an entirely illusory, constructed sense of history.

Comments