Metamorphosis of Locality Cover Image

A lokalitás metamorfózisai
Metamorphosis of Locality

Author(s): Péter Niedermüller
Subject(s): Cultural Essay, Political Essay, Societal Essay
Published by: Replika Alapítvány
Keywords: nationalism; transnationalism; social order; modernity; identity; deterritoralization

Summary/Abstract: The author contrasts the concepts and approaches of methodological nationalism with those of transnationalism, in the context of changes in society and the social order. Territoriality and locality were central to the modern social order, as local continuity served as a basis for social solidarity, as well as a basis of legitimacy for the nation state. The fundamental organizing concept of modernity is the group refl ecting the idea of a singular identity, according to which cultural and social identity is linked to one single socio-cultural territory. In contrast, transnationalism breaks away from the concept of singular identity and acknowledges “deterritoralization”, that is, the separation of the locality of actual social existence from the locality of cultural belonging. The author points out that transnationalism does not claim to abolish the local context of identity, rather it proposes new models and forms of identities existing in and relating to at the same time diff erent localities that are not necessarily connected to territories and nations.

  • Issue Year: 2006
  • Issue No: 56-57
  • Page Range: 33-44
  • Page Count: 12
  • Language: Hungarian