Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Towards a Cultural Sociology of Re-Enchantment

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Re-enchanting Nationalisms

  • 624 Accesses

Abstract

This opening chapter explores the role of ritual in rejuvenating national attachment in an increasingly plural and global world. While the chapter draws on cultural sociology to provide a critique of postmodern assumptions about the death of the nation, it agrees that the second half of the twentieth century has seen a general demise in the West of the symbolic power of national historical narratives. The thesis forwarded in the chapter, however, differs from postmodernist scholarship in challenging the assumption that this cultural malaise will inevitably continue. It does this by introducing the idea of national re-enchantment and by outlining how this is facilitated by various new forms of national ritual that are broadly consistent with the highly aestheticized capitalism. Such cases highlight a type of globalization that is not antithetical to the nation but which encourage a counter-shift in national identities.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Alexander, J. C. (2003). The meanings of social life. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alexander, J. C. (2004). Cultural pragmatics: Social performance between ritual and strategy. Sociological Theory, 22(4), 527–573.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alexander, J. C. (2008). Clifford Geertz and the strong program: The human sciences and cultural sociology. Cultural Sociology, 2(2), 157–168.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alexander, J., & Smith, P. (2010). The strong program: Origins, achievements and prospects. In J. Hall (Ed.), Handbook of cultural sociology. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, B. (1983). Imagined communities: Reflections on the origins and spread of nationalism. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bakhtin, M. M. (1981). The dialogic imagination: Four essays. Austin: University of Texas Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bakhtin, M. M. (1986). Speech genres and other late essays. Austin: University of Texas Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barber, B. (1972). Place, symbol and the utilitarian function in war memorials. In R. Gutman (Ed.), People and buildings (pp. 327–334). New York: Basic.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baudrillard, J. (1983). Simulations. New York: Semiotext(e).

    Google Scholar 

  • Baudrillard, J. (1988). America. New York: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bauman, Z. (1995). Life in fragments. Essays in postmodern morality. Cambridge: Basil Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bauman, Z. (1997). Postmodernity and its discontents. New York: New York University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beck, U. (1992). Risk society: Towards a new modernity. London: Sage Publications

    Google Scholar 

  • Beck, U. (2002). The terrorist threat: World risk society revisited. Theory, Culture and Society, 19(4), 39–55.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bell, V. (2007). Culture and performance: The challenge of ethics, politics and feminist theory. Oxford: Berg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bellah, R. (1967). Civil religion in America. Daedalus, 96, 1–21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bellah, R. N. (1970). Beyond belief. London: Harper & Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • Billig, M. (1995). Banal nationalism. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Black, D. (2004). The geometry of terrorism’. Sociological Theory, 22(1), 14–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bloor, D. (1976). Knowledge and social imagery. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bodnar, J. (1992). Remaking america: Public memory, commemoration, and patriotism in the twentieth Century. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boltanski, L. (1999). Distant suffering: morality, media and politic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Brabazon, T. (2005). From revolution to revelation: Generation X, popular memory and cultural studies. Aldershot: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Calhoun, C. (2003). ‘Belonging’ in the cosmopolitan imaginary. Ethnicities, 3(4), 531–568.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Calhoun, C. (2012). The roots of radicalism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, C. (1989). The romantic ethic and the spirit of modern consumerism. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, E. (1992). Pilgrimage centres: Concentric and excentric. Annals of Tourism Research, 12, 5–29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collins, R. (2004). Interaction ritual chains. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Conway, B. (2008). Local conditions, global environment and transnational discourses in memory work: The case of bloody sunday (1972). Memory Studies, 1(2), 187–209.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cossu, A. (2010). Durkheim’s argument on ritual, commemoration and aesthetic life: A classical legacy for contemporary performance theory. Journal of Classical Sociology, 10(1), 33–49.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Du Gay, P. (1993). “Numbers and souls”: Retailing and the de-differentiation of economy and culture. The British Journal of Sociology, 44, 563–587.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Durkheim, E. (1915). The elementary forms of the religious life (trans: J.W. Swain). London: Allen & Unwin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Durkheim, E. (1915/1965). The elementary forms of the religious life. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Durkheim, E. (1915/1968). The elementary forms of religious life (trans: J.W. Swain). London: Allen & Unwin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Durkheim, E. (1975). Concerning the definition of religious phenomena. In Durkheim on religion: A selection of readings (trans: WSF Pickering). London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • Durkheim, E. (1893/1984). The division of labor in society. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Durkheim, E. (1912/1995). The elementary forms of the religious life. (trans: K. Fields). New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edensor, T. (2002). National identity, popular culture and everyday life. Oxford: Berg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edkins, J. (2003). Trauma and the memory of politics. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. (1973/1963). The birth of the clinic. London: Tavistock.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. (1991/1975). Discipline and punish. London: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fox, J., & Idriss-Miller, C. (2008). Everyday nationhood. Ethnicities, 8(4), 536–563.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Franklin, A., & Crang, M. (2001). The trouble with tourism and travel theory? Tourist Studies, 1(1), 5–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Furedi, F. (2007). From the narrative of the blitz to the rhetoric of vunerability. Cultural Sociology, 1(2), 235–254.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gane, N. (2002). Max Weber and Postmodern theory: Rationalization versus re-enchantment. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Gans, H. (1994). Symbolic ethnicity and symbolic religiosity: Towards a comparison of ethnic and religious acculturation. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 17(4), 577–592.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Geertz, C. (1964/1993a). Ideology as a cultural system. In Interpretation of cultures (pp. 193–233). London: Fontana Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Geertz, C. (1967/1993b). Religion as a cultural system. In Interpretation of cultures (pp. 87–125). London: Fontana Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Geertz, C. (1973) Interpretation of cultures. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Geertz, C. (1983). Art as a cultural system. In Local knowledge: Further essays in interpretative anthropology (pp. 94–120.I). New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giesen, B. (2006). Performing the sacred: A durkheimian perspective on the performative turn in the social sciences. In J. Alexander, B. Giesen, & J. Masy (Eds.), Symbolic performance: symbolic action, cultural pragmatics and ritual (pp. 325–367). New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Gilroy, P. (2000). Against race: Imagining political culture beyond the color line. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gitlin, T. (1995). The twilight of common dreams: Why America is wracked by culture wars. New York: Henry Holt.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glassner, B. (2010). The culture of fear: Why Americans are afraid of the wrong things. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gottdiener, M. (1997). The theming of America: Dreams, visions and commercial spaces. Boulder: Westview Press/Harper Collins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gray, J. (2006). Watching with the Simpsons: Television, parody, and intertextuality. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Habermas, J. (1989). The structural transformation of the public sphere (trans: T. Burger). Cambridge: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Halbwachs, M. (1941). La Topographie Legendaire des Evangiles. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.

    Google Scholar 

  • Halbwachs, M. (1950). The collective memory. New York: Harper & Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall, S. (1992). Our mongrel selves. New Statesman and Society, 5, 6–8

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall, D. (1994). Civil war reenactors and the postmodern sense of history. Journal of American Culture, 17(3),7–10.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hobsbawm, E., & Ranger, T. (Eds.) (1983). The invention of tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hunter, J. D. (1991). Culture wars. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hunter, J. D. (2006). The enduring culture war. In J.D. Hunter & A. Wolfe (Eds.), Is there a culture war? (pp. 10–40) Washington DC: Brookings Institution Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Inglis, K. S. (1987). Men, women, and war memorials: Anzac australia. Daedalus, 116, 35–59.

    Google Scholar 

  • Inglis, D. (2007). The warring twins: Sociology, cultural studies, alterity and sameness. History of the Human Sciences, 20(2), 99–122.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jacobs, R. (2000). Race, media and the crisis of civil society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Jacobs, R. (2012). Entertainment media and the aesthetic public sphere. In J. Alexander, R. Jacobs, & P. Smith (Eds.), Oxford handbook of cultural sociology (pp. 318–342). New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jameson, F. (1991). Postmodernism, or, the cultural logic of late capitalism. Durham: Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, P. (2007). Beyond the semantic “Big Bang”: Cultural sociology and the aesthetic public sphere. Cultural Sociology, 1(1), 73–95.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaufman, W. (2006). The civil war in american culture. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kellner, D. (2000). Habermas, the public sphere, and democracy. In L. E. Hahn (Ed.), Perspectives on habermas. Puru: Open Court.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kertzer, D. (1988). Ritual, politics, and power. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kurasawa, F. (2004). Alexander and the cultural refounding of american sociology. Thesis Eleven, 79(1), 53–64.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lash, S. (1988). Discourse or figure? Postmodernism as a “Regime of Signification”. Theory, Culture & Society, 5, 311–336.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levy, D., & Sznaider, N. (2002). Memory unbound: The holocaust and the formation of cosmopolitan memory. European Journal of Social Theory, 5(1), 87–106.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lowenthal, D. (1985). The past is a foreign country. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Luckmann, T. (1967). The invisible religion: The problem of religion in modern society. New York: Macmillian.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lukes, S. (1975). Political ritual and social integration. Sociology, 9, 289–308.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maffesoli, M. (1996). The time of the tribes: The decline of individualism in mass society. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • McGuigan, J. (2005). The cultural public sphere. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 8(4), 427–443.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McLennan, G. (2005). The New American cultural sociology: An appraisal. Theory, culture and society, 22(6), 1–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Melucci, A. (1996). The playing self: Person and meaning in the planetary society. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Merton, R. (1968). Social structure and anomie. In R. K. Merton (Ed.), Social theory and social structure. Glencoe: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, V. J. (2005). Consuming religion: Christian Faith and Practice in a consumer culture. New York: Continuim.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nash, K. (2008). Global citizenship as showbusiness: The cultural politics of make poverty history. Media, Culture and Society, 30(2), 167–181.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nora, P. (1996). Between memory and history. In P. Nora (Ed.), Realms of memory: Rethinking the french past (pp. 1–20). New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Olick, J. K. (1999). Collective memory: The two cultures. Sociological Theory, 17(3), 333–348.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Possamai, A. (2003). Alternative spiritualities and the logic of late capitalism. Culture and religion, 4(1), 31–45.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ritzer, G. (1993). The McDonaldization of society. Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Samuel, R. (1994). Theatres of memory. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schudson, M. (1997). Cultural studies and the social construction of “social construction”: notes from ‘Teddy Bear Patriarchy’. In E. Long (Ed.), From sociology to cultural studies: New perspectives (pp. 37–61). Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schudson, M. (1989). The present in the past versus the past in the present. Communication, 11, 105–113.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schwartz, B. (1996). Memory as a cultural system: Abraham Lincoln in World War II. American Sociological Review, 61(5), 908–927.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schwartz, B. (2000). Abraham Lincoln and the forge of national memory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schwartz, B. (2008). Collective memory and abortive commemoration: Presidents’ day and the american holidays calender. Social Research, 75(1), 75–110.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shils, E. (1995). Nation, nationality, nationalism and civil society. Nations and Nationalism, 1(1), 93–118.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Skey, M. (2011). National belonging and everyday life. London: Palgrave MacMillian.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, P. (1999). The elementary forms of place and their transformations: A durkheimian model. Qualitative Sociology, 22(1), 13–36.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, P. (2005). Why war? The cultural logic of Iraq, the Gulf War, and Suez. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, P. (2008). Punishment and culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, P., & Alexander, J. (2005). The new durkheim. In J. Alexander & P. Smith (Eds.), The cambridge companion to durkheim (pp. 1–40). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, P., & West, B. (2001). Cultural studies. Encyclopedia of Nationalism (Vol. 1, pp. 81–99). San Diego: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, P., & West, B. (2003). Cultural studies, australian studies and cultural sociology. In I. McAllister, S. Dowrick, & R. Hassan (Eds.), Cambridge handbook of the social sciences in Australia (pp. 638–653). Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spillman, L. (1997). Nation and commemoration. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Spillman, L. (Ed.) (2002). Cultural sociology. London: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sturken, M. (2007). Tourists of history: Memory, kitsch, and consumerism from Oklahoma City to ground zero. Durham: Duke University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Trondman, M. (2008). To locate in the tenor of their setting the sources of their spell: Clifford geertz and the strong program in cultural sociology. Cultural Sociology, 22(2), 201–222.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tucker, K. H. (1993). Aesthetics, play and cultural memory: Giddens and Habermas on the postmodern challenge. Sociological Theory, 11(2), 194–211.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turner, V. (1967). Forest of symbols. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turner, V. (1969). The ritual process. Chicago: Aldine.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turner, V. (1973). The center out there: Pilgrim’s goal. History of Religions, 12(3), 191–230.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turner, V. (1974). Drama, fields and metaphors: Symbolic action in human society. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turner, V. (1979). Process, performance and pilgrimage. New Delhi: Concept.

    Google Scholar 

  • Verba, S. (1965). The Kennedy assassination and the nature of public commitment. In B. S. Greenberg & E. B. Parker (Eds.), The Kennedy assassination and the american public (pp. 348–360). Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wagner-Pacifici, R. (2000). Theorizing the standoff: Contingency in action. Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wagner-Pacifici, R., & Schwartz, B. (1991). The Vietnam veterans memorial: Commemorating a difficult past. American Journal of Sociology, 97, 376–420.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weber, M. (1968). Economy and society. New York: Bedminster Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • West, B. (2004). Synergies in deviance. Electronic Journal of Sociology, 7(4), 19. ISSN: 11983655.

    Google Scholar 

  • West, B. (2008). Collective memory and crisis: The 2002 Bali bombing, national heroic archetypes and the counter narrative of cosmopolitan nationalism. Journal of Sociology, 44(4), 337–353.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • West, B., & Smith, P. (1996). Drought, discourse, and durkheim. Journal of Sociology, 32(1), 93–102.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, R. (1977). Maxism and literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Woods, E., & Debs, M. (2013). Towards a cultural sociology of nations and nationalism. Nations and Nationalism, 19(4), 607–614.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zerubavel, E. (1985). Hidden rhythms: Schedules and calendars in social life. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, T., & Schwartz, B. (1997). Confucius and the cultural revolution: A study in collective memory. International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, 11(2), 189–212.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sociology, University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

    Brad West

Authors
  1. Brad West
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Brad West .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media New York

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

West, B. (2015). Towards a Cultural Sociology of Re-Enchantment. In: Re-enchanting Nationalisms. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2513-1_1

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation