Week 9: “Insecure Borders of the Nation”

In what sense is the community of a nation ‘imagined’ according to Anderson? Are any other communities imagined in this way? Explain.

Anderson proposes that nationalism is idiosyncratic and there is no ‘definite’ definition to it. He also says that nationalism should be treated as if it belonged with ‘kinship’ and ‘religion’, rather than with ‘fascism’ or ‘liberalism’. Therefore he puts forward his own definition of a nation: it is an imagined political community, and is imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign.

Anderson states that basically all communities are imagined. Some examples would be online social communities, on social media sites or even in online games. In accordance to Ernest Gellner’s claim, he says that communities are to be distinguished, not by their falsity, but by the way that they are imagined. Each of these imagined communities exist by sharing common interests, even without ever having any physical contact.

Anderson, B 1991, Imagined communities: reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism, Verso, London & New York, pp. 1-9