Commissioned Book Review: Michaelangelo Anastasiou, Nationalism and Hegemony: The Consolidation of the Nation in Social and Political Life
| Published date | 01 May 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/14789299231191428 |
| Author | Jacopo Custodi |
| Date | 01 May 2024 |
Political Studies Review
2024, Vol. 22(2) NP5 –NP6
journals.sagepub.com/home/psrev
Commissioned Book Review
1191428PSW0010.1177/14789299231191428Political Studies ReviewCommissioned Book Review
book-review2023
Commissioned Book Review
Nationalism and Hegemony: The
Consolidation of the Nation in Social and
Political Life (Routledge Studies in Social and
Political Thought) by Michaelangelo Anastasiou.
London: Routledge, 2022, 230 pp., £104.00
(hardback); £31.19 (ebook), ISBN 9781032000824.
In the quest for the ‘true origin’ of nations and
nationalism, one might turn to the theories of
Tom Nairn, who cited the machinery of world
political economy, or Benedict Anderson, who
emphasized the role of print media, or even
Antony Smith, who traced it back to premodern
ethnic communities. But what if this quest is
misguided? What if there is no singular ‘true
origin’ to be found? Such is the provocative
proposition set forth in Michaelangelo
Anastasiou’s book Nationalism and Hegemony:
The Consolidation of the Nation in Social and
Political Life, which takes a fresh and illuminat-
ing approach to the topic.
Anastasiou embarks on a comprehensive
assessment of the scholarly literature on nation-
alism, uncovering certain theoretical tendencies
in seminal works. He argues that these texts,
in their unceasing search for the ‘root’ cause
of nations and nationalisms, often overlook
the inherent diversity and complexity of these
phenomena. Guiding the reader through a
meticulous ‘deconstruction’ of the literature on
nationalism, Anastasiou critiques their essen-
tialist views of human nature and positivist
interpretations of society.
Yet, his approach is not a wholesale rejection
of existing studies. Instead, it represents a call
to perceive them anew, without the constraints
of positivist broad generalizations. This fresh
perspective is anchored in a postfoundational
framework which Anastasiou develops incre-
mentally throughout the text, drawing largely
from Laclau and Mouffe’s theory of hegemony.
Anastasiou’s postfoundational lens leads to a
novel understanding of nations and nationalisms.
He conceives of a nation as a ‘a “privileged”
signifier of historically variable content that,
through its general and uneven dispersion, fuses
but unevenly privileges multiple identities into a
hegemonic bloc’. Correspondingly, nationalism
is seen as ‘the hegemonic fabric through which
“modern” communities are performatively exe-
cuted and politically constructed’. If these defini-
tions seem opaque or cryptic, it is important not
to be deterred. Their full meaning and implica-
tions can only be appreciated when one seriously
engages with the meticulous and complex pro-
cess of deconstruction and theoretical construc-
tion that Anastasiou outlines and navigates.
As the book asserts, the meaning of the nation
is configured differently in each context in which
it is situated. The nation possesses a ‘joker-like
character’, allowing it to operate as a hegemonic
signifier without any fixed or consistent content.
As a result, nations and nationalism are not
viewed as products of specific root causes, but as
phenomena that emerge through complex and
highly contingent processes of ‘aggregation’ of
diverse elements. ‘Aggregation’ plays a pivotal
role in Anastasiou’s theoretical exploration as it
illustrates the process through which national
hegemony is established. In Anastasiou’s terms,
aggregation is ‘a meaningful plan of contiguity
between overdetermined discursive objects’.
In my estimation, this conceptual complex-
ity represents both the primary strength and
potential weakness of this book. Anastasiou’s
approach to nationalism delves far deeper into
philosophical inquiry than is typical in similar
studies, marking this book as a unique contribu-
tion to the current discourse on the subject. This
text fills a gap in the literature by providing
a theory of nationalism that aligns with the
growing anti-positivist and post-foundationalist
approach in sociology and political science.
However, this complexity may also pose a
challenge for readers unfamiliar with the technical
language and epistemological foundations of this
approach, which could potentially affect readabil-
ity. Nevertheless, for those willing to grapple with
intricate political concepts and philosophically
oriented perspectives, even if it means slower and
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