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National Cultures Reconceptualized for the Social Sciences: Basic Elements for an Analytical Framework
Globalized state-societies in the twenty-first century are framed by national cultures. This cultural metaframe is insufficiently understood by sociologists and other social scientists. Yet national cultures are full of social mechanisms that shape domestic politics, economic success and failure, and the evolution of global society. To make use of this framework for explanatory purposes, it needs to be underscored that nationalizing mechanisms are sociocultural mechanisms that work in conjunction with better known political and economic mechanisms. Based on a novel conceptualization of national cultures, the contours of which this paper will lay out, it quickly becomes evident why and how in general terms nationalizing mechanisms operate in a broad range of social systems from small groups to large movements and organizations. Whether, where and to what extent the inclusion of nationalizing mechanisms can make a substantive contribution to explanation is an open empirical and theoretical question. The argument presented here reconceptualizes existing empirical and theoretical knowledge on nations and societies in order to open up a fresh perspective and sketch out a basic framework for one of the most misunderstood areas of social reality in the global age. The paper further develops the author’s previous foundational work on social systems and nationalizing mechanisms aimed at rehabilitating the central significance of nation for the sociological enterprise.