The Nursemaid of Nations
The Beginnings of Banal Nationalism in Childhood
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 24229909 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Katharine Throssell (0009-0008-3016-001X, UCLouvain Brussels France) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Publication date | 2026-10-16 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Nations and Nationalism (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1345-5078 • E-ISSN: 1469-8129 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/nana.70131 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 43 |
Thirty years ago, Michael Billig's book, Banal Nationalism , recast nationalism as the force that normalises the division of the world into nations through the process of unmindful reminders serving the political project of nationalism, a project that seems ever more salient today. This article argues for the importance of childhood learning in the foundations of this ideology, understood as a process of reality‐building. Childhood is therefore seen as a period that is fundamental for the constitution of the specific characteristics of this form of nationalism—its taken‐for‐grantedness, its affective charge and its elusiveness. This article draws on two different empirical studies to explore how this normalisation of the nation might be transmitted through cultural goods for children and what its implications look like for young children and their understandings of world in national terms. It argues that in the context of increasingly visible bellicose nationalism, it is more important than ever to pay attention to the beginnings of the banal.
Key Concepts in Childhood Studies
National Belonging and Everyday Life
Children and the Politics of Culture
The Wolf and the World
The national nature of globalization and the global nature of nationalism
The Rhetoric of Nationalism
Disclosing Childhoods
Self and Nation
Pedagogies of Space
Without Food Everything is Less than Nothing”
Banal and everyday nationalisms in children’s mundane and institutional lives
Affective practices of everyday nationalism in an Australian preschool
Water, earth, fire, air
Banal Nationalism, 30 Years On—A Review
Un berceau bleu, blanc, rouge
The Mediation of Nationhood
Thank god, I'm back!’
National Cultural Values and Their Role in Learning
Nationalism and Media
Affective nationalism
The edges of the nation
Introduction
Who's afraid of Banal Nationalism
Children and the Political Community
Learning Nation in Early Childhood Education
Us and them
Teaching nature and nation in the Swedish mobile preschool
Pedagogy of nation
Passive learning for successful nationalism
The nationalization of trivialities
| Highly cited | No |
|---|