This document discusses the critique of methodological nationalism in social studies research. It summarizes Ulrich Beck's formulation of the critique, which presents a binary opposition between 'good' cosmopolitan research views and 'bad' nationalistic research views. However, the document also questions whether cosmopolitanism is truly superior and non-ideological. It argues that methodological nationalism is just one research ideology among others, and not all globalization research takes a cosmopolitan approach.

1. The struggle over globalisation in
social studies: cosmopolitanism vs.
methodological nationalism
Markus Ojala
doctoral candidate
Department of Social Research
University of Helsinki
markus.ojala@helsinki.fi
Power & Difference
Tampere, 27–29 August, 2012

2. Arguments
• critique of metholodogical nationalism is closely connected to
the rise of the globalisation paradigm in social studies
• critique of MN can be viewed as politicisation of research
• Ulrich Beck’s formulation of the critique of MN based on a
binary opposition between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ research
• the focus on ‘nationalism’ of research is ideologically
problematic in itself

3. Globalisation and the critique of
methodologicala nationalism
•Globalisation as an academic construction reshapes the
research imagination:
- eradication of distance, ”glocal” phenomena
- boundary-crossing forms of social (inter)action
- transnational structures and agents in politics
- ”deterritorialisation” of culture
•Globalisation politicises the status of the (nation-)state
>> critique of methodological nationalism

4. Critique of methodological nationalism (Beck)
• ”society = nation-state”; ”the world consists of societies”
• a guiding premise, manifest in material and interpretation
• based on the shared history of sociology and the nation-state:
the nation, state and society naturalised as reserach units
• prevents from understanding transnational phenomena and
activity

5. Methodological nationalism
vs. methodological cosmopolitanism (Beck)
The nationalistic view The cosmopolitan view
• society subject to the state • the nation-state a creation of social
• the national vs. the international forces
• the particular generalised as the • phenomena simultaneously “within”
universal, or inter-societal and “without”
comparison • the particular as part of the global
• cultural homogenisation, or (including the national) context
incommensurability of cultures • global pluralism, “multiple
modernities”

6. Politicising research
• struggle for the interpretation of society
• metodological nationalism is ’true’, but is cosmopolitanism
any better?
• cosmopolitanism as a normative outline for research:
cosmopolitan ideals vs. the negative implications of
metodological nationalism
• nationalism not the only research ideology
• all globalisation research is not cosmopolitan