This panel is organized by TRANSIT – Research Centre on Transnational and Transformation hosted by the Faculty of Education and Culture.
The panelist are: Professor Jouni Häkli, doctoral researcher Attila Kustán Magyari and professor Zsuzsa Millei.
The discussion will be chaired by Professor Nelli Piattoeva – academic leader of TRANSIT.
Professor Jouni Häkli will look at the critiques of methodological nationalism and whether or not these remain justified. Whereas national societies have become more porous, it is timely to explore how to study nationalism in ways that acknowledge the complex de- and re-nationalizing tendencies. Attila Kustán Magyari will consider the differences and similarities between (neo)nationalism and populism related to the hierarchical and antagonistic understandings of ‘the people’ and the political/economic ‘elite’. Moreover, there is a specific form of decolonial argument that is deployed by right-wing populists and conspiracy theorists in the name of national sovereignty. While the link between nation-building and (post)colonial sentiments is not new, the right-wing branch of the political elite in Hungary uses decoloniality to justify nationalistic policies in the media. Another important arena where (neo)nationalism is reproduced is education and early childhood policies. Professor Zsuzsa Millei will address the shift from welfare state’s values of solidarity and equality as the glue of national societies in the Nordics to virulent forms of exclusionary nationalism. Nationalism is on the rise and is taking spectacular forms often supported by the misinterpretation of scientific evidence. Welfare policies including early childhood education are enlisted to react to the growing diversity of societies as a threat to normative cultural homogeneity and associated status quo – a product of nation-building processes itself. These policies may take spectacular, virulent forms.
More information on the ETMU Days conference here https://events.tuni.fi/etmu2024/program/