Nationalism and Multiple Modernities : Europe and Beyond

This book is the first to apply the theory of multiple modernities to the study of nationalism, examining the modernity of nationalism through three major case-studies: Anglo-British, Finnish and Japanese.

Nationalism and Multiple Modernities: Europe and Beyond explores new horizons in the study of nationalism by examining the modernity of nationalism with the theory of multiple modernities. The theory of multiple modernities has triggered a renewed debate on modernity by proposing a non-Western centric approach to the study of modernity. The volume applies the concept of multiple modernities to the study of nationalism and proposes a reformulation of nationalism as a form of cultural programmes that reflects enhanced human reflexivity. Three cases - Anglo-British, Finnish and Japanese - are investigated to examine the ways in which nationalism embodies an exercise of human agency. The volume commends the human-agency centred approach to nationalism as a way of avoiding Western-centricity in a social scientific investigation. Based on its examination of the three cases the volume suggests new directions in research into the relationship between nationalism and religion, non-Western cases of nationalism and ''Europe'' as a cosmopolitan orientation.