Beyond the technology of power: Foucault and nationalism today

Foucault's intellectual legacy is vast, spanning a wide range of fields and analytical concerns. However, he has very little to say about one of the most important phenomena that has shaped modern world – nationalism. This article argues that the social dynamics of modernity and the transformation of collective subjectivities cannot be adequately understood without addressing processes of nation-formation. Since nationalism operates as the dominant organisational, ideological, and micro-interactional infrastructure of late modernity, the article examines what Foucault's fragmentary reflections on nationhood can contribute to understanding the contemporary social world. The article offers a critical assessment of poststructuralist approaches that conceptualise nationalism primarily as a grand metanarrative and it traces how Foucauldian analytical tools have been adapted and extended to engage with the realities of a deeply nation-centred global order. The article identifies key strengths and limitations of Foucauldian perspectives on nationalism and advances an alternative theoretical framework to explain its enduring potency. This framework emphasises the expanding coercive capacities of social organisations, their intensifying ideological penetration, and their increasing envelopment of micro-level solidarities.