Imagined communities against the tide? The questioned political projection of nationalism

Abstract

This article deals with the validity of Anderson’s definition of imagined
communities and the future of imagination typical of nationalism. It is
based on bibliographic review and research on the case of Cerdanya.
Three questions of Anderson’s definition are revised: the limitation of the
nation, its supposedly inherent sovereignty and the sense of community
among unknown people. In this last point, the text focuses also on
the consequences that imagined community is embodied for known
people every day. It concludes that the production of local identities
and dynamics in global, local and regional level represents a challenge
for the political projection of imagined communities. Nevertheless, that
production is not absolutely questioned. Denationalisation dynamics are
produced in sovereignty and delimitation becomes more porous but it
carries on the cultural production of community limits by education, army
and communications. In addition, some global alternatives to national
communities arise, but the nationalist grammar remains intact as a
base of community categories and identifications.