Economic globalization undermines the nation as a coherent framework, fueling closed nationalist reactions

Evidence

Throughout Europe, the period which dates from the beginning of the 1970s has been one during which the open idea of the nation has lost ground in favor of closed, nationalist, and usually racist, antisemitic, and xenophobic versions. In the first instance, this development can be explained by the changes described above, the end of the social relationships specific to the age of industry and the crisis in the institutions. It also owes a lot to international change. The globalization of the economy - even if at times there is a tendency to exaggerate the extent to which this is the source of all our present social misfortunes, treating it as a myth or an ideology - does make it difficult to conceive of the nation as the symbolical and territorial framework for the main elements of economic activity. On the contrary, there is an increasing tendency for economic activity to take place outside the nation, or from abroad, and the nation then becomes not so much a framework as a sphere, which is subject to its consequences, and is not always able to withstand or to adapt to financial movements, commercial markets, or systems of international decisions. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3167

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader literature on globalization backlash and right-wing populism, e.g. Piketty’s work linking deindustrialization to nationalism. — connects to: Competing state-capitalist blocs destabilized the global economy and caused World War II. — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism: A Marxist…, 521; A genuine world economy would dissolve the nation state — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 241; Globalization’s eroding effect on state power is empirically overstated — Greta R. Krippner, The Financialization of the American…, 137 (+2 more)