Tudor and Mylonas - Varieties of Nationalism

In this LUNN talk (18 October 2023), Maya Tudor (Oxford University) and Harris Mylonas (George Washington University, USA) present their recently published book "Varieties of Nationalism" (Cambridge University Press, 2023).
Abstract: Nationalism has long been a normatively and empirically contested concept, associated with democratic revolutions and public goods provision, but also with xenophobia, genocide, and wars. Moving beyond facile distinctions between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ nationalisms, we argue that nationalism is an empirically variegated ideology. Much like the proverbial blind men who each hold a different part of an elephant, nationalism scholars have a similar experience. Definitional disagreements, Eurocentric conceptualizations, and linear associations between ethnicity and nationalism have hampered our ability to synthesize insights. We propose that nationalism can be broken down productively into parts based on three key questions: Does a nation exist? How do national narratives vary? When do national narratives matter? The answers to these questions generate five dimensions along which nationalism varies: elite fragmentation and popular fragmentation of national communities; ascriptiveness and thickness of national narratives; and salience of national identities.
Maya Tudor is an Associate Professor of Politics and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford. She researches the origins of effective and democratic states with a regional focus on South Asia. She is the author of two books, The Promise of Power: The Origins of Democracy in India and Autocracy in Pakistan (2013) and Varieties of Nationalism (with Harris Mylonas, 2023 ). She writes for the media on a regular basis, including in Foreign Affairs, Washington Post, New Statesman, The Hindu, India Express, and The Scotsman.
Harris Mylonas is Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University and editor-in-chief of Nationalities Papers. His work contributes to our understanding of states’ management of diversity that may originate from national minorities, immigrants, diasporas, or refugees. He is the author of the award-winning The Politics of Nation-Building (Cambridge University Press, 2012), and the co-author of Varieties of Nationalism: Communities, Narratives, Identities (Cambridge University Press, 2023; with Maya Tudor). He has also co-edited Enemies Within: Fifth Column Politics in Comparative Perspective (Oxford University Press, 2022; with Scott Radnitz) and The Microfoundations of Diaspora Politics (Routledge, 2023; with Alexandra Délano Alonso). Mylonas is currently working on his next book tentatively entitled Diaspora Management Logics.