National identity in France: a blind spot

Résumé En

This chapter deals with the way French social scientists study their fellow citizens’ national identity. The development of nations and nationalism studies at the international level opened up a new research agenda regarding the way citizens take part in their own emotional commitment to their nations, an agenda went quite unnoticed in French social sciences. France was a central case in the debates on nation building; it is less central now that attention has shifted to the issue of how nations are maintained. French work on the issue is mainly limited to three areas: European integration and the development of multiple identities; national feeling of citizens with immigrant backgrounds; and the analysis of French answers to comparative survey data. The heat of political debates partly explains why French social scientists resist looking into national identity, as governments, media and political parties have succeeded in linking national identity issues almost exclusively with immigration policies. In line with the traditional intervention of intellectuals in public debates, researchers avoid using a notion that tends to be interpreted in essentialist terms, whatever care they may take to underline how nations and emotions attached to them are political and social constructions. However, citizens’ attachments to their national political community, in France as elsewhere, no doubt remain powerful, in spite or because of globalisation. The time has come now to open our eyes to this blind spot and implement the agenda of everyday nationalism research within French social sciences.