BASS Politics and Sociology

This course unit introduces students to the study of nations and nationalism from both an empirical and a normative perspective. We’ll  assess the advantages and disadvantages of nationalism in light of recent history and current political developments. We’ll explore Introduce students to contemporary normative debates on the political morality of nationalism and develop conceptual tools to engage in these debates in a theoretically sophisticated way. Students will be encouraged to employ their conceptual and theoretical knowledge to explore possible solutions to contemporary political problems involving nationalist claims. The course will deepen your understanding of the relationship between empirical and normative analyses of politics, and sharpen your critical thinking and analytical skills. 

Topic 1: A Brief History of Nations and Nationalism 
Topic 2: What are Nations? 
Topic 3: What is Nationalism ? 
Topic 4: National Partiality (the morality of in-group favouritism)
Topic 5: National Solidarity (the empirical basis for pro-social justice attitudes)
Topic 6: Nationalism, Self-Determination and Secession
Topic 7: Nationalism and Multiculturalism 
Topic 8: Nationalism and Migration 
Topic 9: Nationalism, Populism and Democracy
Topic 10: What Future for Nations and Nationalism? 
 

The main teaching and learning methods will be interactive lectures and tutorials. In lectures, questions and criticisms will be welcomed.  By encouraging students to critically engage with the material in lectures the hope is that they will be inspired to spend more time on preparing for further, more detailed discussion and debate in tutorials. Tutorials will involve a mix of open discussion, small group work, and structured debates. The emphasis in tutorials will be on helping students formulate arguments in defence of their views and objections to the views of those they disagree with. We will also discuss in detail how to approach writing the short mid-module essay and the longer end-of-module essay.

By the end of the course, students should

• Understand the main scholarly debates over what exactly nations and nationalism are.
• Understand different theories about the intrinsic and instrumental value of community and solidarity in contemporary politics.
• Understand the drawbacks and pitfalls of promoting or suppressing national identities.
• Understand what is at stake in the debates between cosmopolitans and nationalists over issues such as the content of the principles of social justice and the scope of democracy.
• Understand how (if at all) claims of national  identity and partiality may legitimately be invoked by contemporary political movements when debating issues such as immigration policy, and the threat of right wing populism.

• Develop historical knowledge and understanding of contemporary political debates.
• Develop critical thinking skills (in the course of critically analysing, as well as constructing your own arguments).
• Develop ability to manipulate empirical and normative material in order to formulate sophisticated arguments.

• Develop oral skills (by means of general discussion in lectures and tutorials)
• Develop written skills (by means of an assessed essay).
• Develop reading skills (by means of careful study of the empirical and theoretical literature in preparation for lectures, tutorials and while writing essays).

Transferable skills and personal qualities:  

• Develop team-work skills (by means of a small group work in tutorials)

1,400 word mid-module essay (35%)

2,600 words end-of module essay (65%)

David Archard, ‘Myths, Lies and Historical Truth: a Defence of Nationalism’, Political Studies 43 (1995): 472-481.

Raymond Breton, 'From Ethnic to Civic Nationalism: the Case of Canada’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 11 (1), (1988): 91-112.

Rogers Brubaker, Citizenship and Nationhood in France and Germany, (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1992).

Craig Calhoun, ‘Imagining Solidarity: Cosmopolitanism, Constitutional Patriotism, and the Public Sphere,’ Public Culture, 14 (1), (2002): 147–171.

Margaret Canovan, Nationhood and Political Theory, (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 1996).

Lior Erez, ‘Anti-Cosmopolitanism and the Motivational Preconditions for Social Justice’, Social Theory and Practice, Vol. 43, No. 2 (April 2017): 249–282

Joshua Greene, Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason and the Gap between Us and Them, (London: Atlantic Books, 2014).

Jonathan Glover, ‘Nations, Identity and Conflict’, in Robert McKim and Jeff McMahan (eds.), The Morality of Nationalism, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), pp.11-30.

Attracta Ingram, ‘Constitutional patriotism,’ Philosophy & Social Criticism, 22 (6), (1996): 1–18.

Justine Lacroix, ‘For a European Constitutional Patriotism,’ Political Studies, 50 (5), (2002): 944–958.

Andrew Mason, ‘Political Community, Liberal-Nationalism and the Ethics of Assimilation,’ Ethics, 109, (1999): 261–286.

Avishai Margalit and Joseph Raz, ‘National Self-Determination’, The Journal of Philosophy, 87 (9), (1990): 439-461.

Jeff McMahan, ‘The Limits of National Partiality’, in Robert McKim and Jeff McMahan (eds.), The Morality of Nationalism, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997): 107-138.

David Miller, ‘In Defence of Nationality’, Journal of Applied Philosophy, Vol.10, No. 1, (1993): 3-16.

Cecilia Hyunjung Mo and Katharine M. Conn, ‘When Do the Advantaged See the Disadvantages of Others? A Quasi-Experimental Study of National Service’, American Political Science Review, 112 (4), (2018): 721–741.

Margaret Moore, ed., National Self-Determination and Secession, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998).

Chantal Mouffe, For a Left Populism, (London: Verso, 2018).

Kai Nielsen, ‘Cosmopolitanism, Universalism and Particularism in the Age of Nationalism and Multiculturalism,’ Philosophical Exchange, 29, (1998–99): 3–34.

Kai Nielsen, ‘Cultural Nationalism: Neither Ethnic nor Civic’, in Theorizing Nationalism, ed. Ronald Beiner (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999): 119–30.

Efraim Podoksik, ‘What is a Nation in Nationalism?’ The Journal of Political Philosophy, 25 (3), (2017): 303-323.

Amelie Rorty, ‘The Hidden Politics of Cultural Identification’, Political Theory 22, (1994): 152-166

Anthony Smith, ‘National Identity and Vernacular Mobilization in Europe,’ Nations and Nationalism, 17 (2), (2011): 223–256.

Anna Stilz, Liberal Loyalty, (Princeton:

Tuition fees for home students commencing their studies in September 2027 will be £10,050 per annum. Tuition fees for international students will be £29,200 per annum.

For general information please see the undergraduate finance pages.

All students should normally be able to complete their programme of study without incurring additional study costs over and above the tuition fee for that programme. Any unavoidable additional compulsory costs totalling more than 1% of the annual home undergraduate fee per annum, regardless of whether the programme in question is undergraduate or postgraduate taught, will be made clear to you at the point of application. Further information can be found in the University's Policy on additional costs incurred by students on undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes (PDF document, 91KB).

Scholarships and bursaries, including the Manchester Bursary , are available to eligible home/EU students.

Some undergraduate UK students will receive bursaries of up to £2,000 per year, in addition to the government package of maintenance grants.

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