Making Sense of Collectivity: Ethnicity, Nationalism and Globalisation

by Siniša Malešević (Editor)

We live in a rapidly changing world. The collapse of the Cold War, the development of new technologies and the globalisation of the world economy have all had a dramatic impact on societies across the globe. Migration, new types of wars and changing borders mean that even the stability and security of nation-states has become a thing of the past. New nationalisms, new social movements and the resurgence of identity politics all indicate that we are entering a new era where the very notion of collective identity -- through nation states or through transnational identity culture -- is challenged.This volume examines concepts of collective identity, how they are changing and what this means for our future. With contributions from distinguished sociologists including Jenkins, Eisenstadt, Rex, Bauman and Hall, it gives a radical new overview of collectivity theory -- a topic that lies at the heart of sociology, anthropology and political science.

232 pages, Hardcover

First published September 20, 2002

About the author

*Yugoslav born Irish Full Professor and Chair of Sociology at the University College, Dublin, Ireland.

Sinisa Malesevic is a Full Professor of Comparative Historical Sociology. He was appointed UCD Chair of Sociology in September 2011. Previously he held research and teaching appointments at the Institute for International Relations (Zagreb), the Centre for the Study of Nationalism, CEU (Prague) - where he worked with late Ernest Gellner -, and at the University of Galway. He also held visiting professorships and fellowships at NIAS/NIOD Amsterdam, Uppsala University, Universite Libre de Bruxelles (Eric Remacle Chair in Conflict and Peace Studies), the London School of Economics, the Institute for Human Sciences, Vienna and the Australian Defence College, Canberra. Prof Malesevic is a Member of the Royal Irish Academy (elected in 2010), Academia Europaea (The Academy of Europe, elected in 2014) and an Associated Member of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina (elected in 2012). He is also Senior Fellow and Associated Researcher at CNAM, Paris.

Prof Malesevic's main research interests include the study of war and violence, ethnicity, nation-states, and nationalism, empires, ideology, sociological theory and the comparative historical sociology. Recent books include: Nationalism as a Way of Life: The Rise and Transformation of Modern Subjectivities (Cambridge UP, 2025, in press), Why Humans Fight: The Social Dynamics of Close-Range Violence (Cambridge UP, 2022, winner of the 2023 outstanding book award from the American Sociological Association, PWSC section, shortlisted for the 2023 CRS book award), Comparative Sociological Theory (Sage 2021) + Classical Sociological Theory (Sage 2021), both with S. Loyal, Grounded Nationalisms: A Sociological Analysis (Cambridge UP, 2019, runner up/honourable mention, 2020 Stein Rokkan book award), The Rise of Organised Brutality: A Historical Sociology of Violence (Cambridge UP, 2017, winner of the 2018 Outstanding Book Award from the American Sociological Association, PWSC section), Nation-States and Nationalisms: Organization, Ideology and Solidarity (Polity, 2013), and The Sociology of War and Violence (Cambridge UP, 2010, reprinted in 2012), He has also authored over 140 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters and has given more than 200 invited talks all over the world. His publications have been translated into Arabic, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Albanian, Bosnian, Chinese, Croatian, Persian/Farsi, Turkish, Portuguese, French, Russian, Serbian and Spanish. In 2023 Prof Malesevic received Robin M. Williams, Jr. Award for Distinguished Contributions to Scholarship, Teaching, and Service, from the American Sociological Association.