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SUMMARY:At Home With Strangers: Urban Life and the Moral Force of National
 ism - Thomas Blom Hansen (Anthropology and South Asian Studies\, Stanford 
 University)
DTSTART:20120210T170000Z
DTEND:20120210T193000Z
UID:TALK36151@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Ruth Rushworth
DESCRIPTION:Ben Anderson begins his canonical book on nationalism by descr
 ibing the crucial sentiment it produces as one of deep camaraderie with pe
 ople one has never met\, or will ever meet. Inhabiting the nation is thus 
 like inhabiting the city – living close to people who are perfect strang
 ers. However\, rather than seeking a functional and causal relationship be
 tween urban mass culture and nationalism\, as Ernest Gellner would have ar
 gued\, I propose that nationalism gave shape and institutional form to urb
 an life because it provided a medium and categorical schema through which 
 urban life could be interpreted: some were friends and allies (sharing lan
 guage\, color or religion)\, there were recognizable ‘others’ by way o
 f language\, class\, color or religion\, and there were the real strangers
  in Simmel’s sense\, people who could not be assimilated into known cate
 gories and therefore were regarded as dangerous and unsettling.\n\nDrawing
  on examples from India and Africa\, I argue that nationalist and ethnic s
 entiments often were mobilized against the perceived alienation and moral 
 corruption associated with city life.  National and cultural sentiments be
 came the moral force engendering a wide range of urban institutions – ho
 using colonies\, clubs\, associations\, recreational activities\, trade un
 ions\, political parties – that in various ways addressed and ameliorate
 d the problems and consequences of urban mass society. Unlike Lefebvre’s
  idea that the ‘right to the city’ is a sentiment and demand that emer
 ges from shared life circumstances in the city\, I argue that when ‘the 
 right to the city’ became an real collective sentiment it was always/alr
 eady captured within a nationalist imagination and attendant ideas of majo
 ritarianism and the rhetoric of autochthony. Nationalism flowered in the c
 ity but more often as a divisive factor than as a unifying force.
LOCATION:CRASSH\, Alison Richard Building\, 7 West Road\, Cambridge\, CB3 
 9DT
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