In a number of contemporary liberal democracies, governments from different sides of the political spectrum appear to be trumpeting ‘shared values’ as a remedy to social divisiveness and political disengagement. The public purpose of promoting the values that ‘we’ allegedly have in common gives ground to a series of state actions and public policies, such as: integration contracts, tests for immigrants, moral and civic education courses in schools, military and civic service (either compulsory or voluntary), ‘de-radicalisation’ programs as well as programs to enhance gender equality and combat violence against women, professional trainings in the management of cultural and religious diversity for public officials.

RC14 Politics and Ethnicity

Co-chairs

• Réjane Sénac and Janie Pélabay, Sciences Po, CEVIPOF

Convenor

• Émilien Fargues, EUI, RSCAS

Discussant

• Elke Winter, University of Ottawa, CIRCEM

Description

In a number of contemporary liberal democracies, governments from different sides of the political spectrum appear to be trumpeting ‘shared values’ as a remedy to social divisiveness and political disengagement. The public purpose of promoting the values that ‘we’ allegedly have in common gives ground to a series of state actions and public policies, such as: integration contracts, tests for immigrants, moral and civic education courses in schools, military and civic service (either compulsory or voluntary), ‘de-radicalisation’ programs as well as programs to enhance gender equality and combat violence against women, professional trainings in the management of cultural and religious diversity for public officials.

The objective of this panel is to analyse whether a specific kind of nationalism (or specific kinds) emerge(s) from the state promotion of ‘shared values’, and whether it/they can be qualified as new. So far, scholars have taken divergent views on this matter. Some argue that the collective identity defined through such policies is grounded on a set of universal principles and that this hardly qualifies as ‘nationalism’ understood as an exclusionary ideology. Should the concept of nationalism apply, this could only be a ‘thin’, ‘civic’ form of nationalism. By contrast, others argue that the promotion of a value-based collective identity develops new forms of nationalism (such as ‘femonationalism’ and ‘homonationalism’) that have exclusionary effects (notably on Muslims perceived as advocates of an opposite value-system legitimising male domination). This panel invites papers that investigate how political leaders and policy actors, at different levels and in different areas, use and implement the notion of ‘shared values’. The following questions may be explored: Which ‘values’ are considered as constitutive of the ‘national community’? On what grounds do states justify their promotion? What are the means used to convey and enforce these ‘values’ (discourses, curricula and trainings, soft/hard law, charters, constitutional provisions, etc.)? What are the consequences of these policies on their different targets (majority groups, ethnic minorities, students, immigrants, etc.)? Empirical contributions based on comparative and single case study as well as theoretical papers digging into contemporary public controversies are both welcome.

Submission guidelines

Papers should be submitted by October 10th

at the latest via the IPSA website.

Please follow this link: https://wc2020.ipsa.org/wc/panel/state-promotion-shared-values-new-nationalism