Typologies and phases in nationalism studies: Hroch's A-B-C schema as a basis for comparative terminology

Abstract

The study of nationalism encompasses so many themes that scholarly communication between different subfields has become difficult. Scholars might facilitate comparison by acknowledging different types of nationalism, but an overview of various taxonomies of nationalism shows that binary taxonomies have a problematic normative subtext, while most non-binary taxonomies have failed to reach a broad audience. Miroslav Hroch, who intended his A-B-C phases to schematize non-state national awakening, also devised a taxonomy of nationalism. Hroch's work has influenced nationalism scholars mostly through its phase theory of how individual national movements develop over time. While other phase theorists have proposed similar schema, Hroch's work has attracted such a wide audience that it provides scholars with a solution to the problem of inter-disciplinary communication: it offers a useful terminology for classifying and describing various sorts of nationalism.

Keywords:

• Miroslav Hroch
• theories of nationalism
• historiography of nationalism
• types of nationalism

Notes

According to John Hall (6), who earned his doctorate at the London School of Economics during Gellner's tenure, Gellner frequently commented “that the publication of [Hroch's] Social preconditions of national revival in Europe made it difficult for him to open his mouth for fear of making some mistake” (6). Despite subsequent disagreements between the two scholars, Gellner and Hroch held broadly compatible views of nationalism.

Is Northern Cyprus independent? What about Abkhazia? When did New Zealand become independent of Great Britain: when it achieved Dominion status in 1907, when the British parliament granted it the right of independence in 1931, or when it exercised that right in 1947? Does Bosnian independence date from the 1992 declaration of independence, or the 1995 Dayton agreement? Might not skeptics argue that a state requiring such intensive foreign support has yet to achieve true independence?” Readers will no doubt be able to provide further examples, both historical and contemporary.