Complexity and Nationalism How complexity permits ethnic nationalists and multiculturalists to rub...
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Transcript of Complexity and Nationalism How complexity permits ethnic nationalists and multiculturalists to rub...
Complexity and Nationalism
How complexity permits ethnic nationalists and multiculturalists to rub along together
Eric Kaufmann, Birkbeck College, University of [email protected]
Complexity Theory
• Complexity from simplicity: higher level coordination emerges from uncoordinated lower-level actions. Self-organising. Emergence
• Feedback loops• Small changes big effects and vice-versa, i.e. tipping points
• ‘Wisdom of crowds’: knowledge is distributed among individuals rather than centralised in the state
• Examples: market, forest, city
1.Emergence
Classic v Complex Diffusion
• ‘State’ – top down diffusion. Gradual, out from centre to peripheries and down social scale
• ‘Market’ – bottom-up. Peer-to-peer emergence. Erratic, subject to tipping points and ideas can go ‘viral’
Consumers, towns,associations, families
• ‘Everyday nationalism’ (Deloye, Edensor, Fox, etc)
• Popular nationalism (Sidel on Philippines; Kammen/O’Leary on USA)
• Local nationalism: ‘Heimat’ version of nation (Confino, Applegate, Zimmer, Leersen 2014)
2. Feedback Loops
Supply of QWERTY
Demand for QWERTY
Supply of an idea like nationalism makes it more prestigious, people imitate, makes it more prestigious, people imitate…. NOT JUST PASSIVE DIFFUSION
CC — People who cooperate with everyoneCD — People who cooperate only with people of the same typeDD — People who do not cooperate with anyoneDC — People who only cooperate with people of different types
Tipping Points in Epidemics
Role of rumour and spontaneity in nationalist violence
4. The Wisdom of Crowds
Poll of Polls?
Multiple Perspectives on the Nation
• Zones of conflict (Hutchinson 2005)• Lenses of nationhood (Kaufmann 2008)• Multivocality (Eriksen 2014)
National Identity and Multiculturalism
• In most western societies, issues around immigrant incorporation are symbolic rather than material
• Official discourse• School curriculum• Very little power/money allocated to ethnic group bodies
Multivocal, not multicultural
Multicultural, with white peripheries
English ethnic nation, multicultural cities, Celtic periphery
Multivocalism/Multi-Nationalism
• Current vogue for integrationist civic nationalism alienates multiculturalists and ethno-nationalists
• Why not establish a common minimum and fill in the blanks?
• Wide range of lenses on the nation tolerated and validated
• Tailor-made nationalism, multivocal symbols
Constructive Ambiguity
• Wording is ambiguous• Sold differently to each side
• Leaders allow each side to believe the deal favours them
• No problem if ethnic Englishman identifies with Britain through her ethnicity