Social Exclusion and the New Nationalism: European Trends and their Implications for Ireland

The current wave of nationalism in Europe can be described as a fundamentally new kind of nationalism and therefore warrants the term ‘the new nationalism’. The new nationalism is essentially based on strategies of social exclusion in contrast to the old nationalism which was state-centred, integrative, and rested on totalizing ideologies. The new nationalism has emerged in the context of the end of the Cold War and is a product of the crisis of the nation-state itself as a medium of social integration. Unlike the old nationalism the new nationalism is not monolithic and political but is primarily social. Applied to Ireland, certain trends which depart in some respects from the wider European tendency can be observed, particularly in the context of the present movement towards peace in Northern Ireland, which point towards a reflexive post-nationalism. This, however, is ambivalent as there is also evidence of a nascent neo-communitarian ideology of the nation which is essentially cultural and a contrast to post-national reflexivity. Post-nationalism is therefore faced with the challenges posed by contemporary nationalism which can be seen as a struggle between political, social, and cultural codes.