Imaginary Community

Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism is a book published in 1983 by the American political scientist Benedict Anderson. Anderson focuses on the stage before the establishment of the nation-state to discuss the historical origins of nationalism, pointing to the role that religious communities and kingdoms played in the organization of society. The nation is the new community that emerged as these systems declined, Anderson argues, and this was propelled by the establishment of the capitalist economy and the development of information technology through printing. The publishing industry provided the basis for the national consciousness and made possible new forms of imagined community, because it was the only way to create a new form of community.

• Imagined community - Wikipedia

• Hong Kong Ethnology - Imagined communities are cited many times in the process of examining the subjectivity of Hong Kong people.

• Liu Zhongjing - contrasts Chinese culture with an imagined community.

Benedict Anderson's notion of "imagined communities" ([[Imagined Communities]]) explains how the concepts of [[nation]] and [[nation]] are formed. Anderson states that a nation or state is "imagined" and consists of individual people believing that they are part of the same community, even though they never actually see each other or know each other.

Here are the main points

• print capitalism: The development of printing technology and capitalism contributed greatly to the formation of the modern state. With the spread of newspapers and books, people began to share common information and language, which led to the development of a national consciousness.
• [Common Narrative: Through education and the media, a common history and culture is communicated and people come to recognize that “we are of the same people.
• LIMITEDNESS AND SOVEREIGNTY: Imagined communities have a limited scope and share a sense of “we” only within that scope. The community is also independent and has sovereignty that excludes outside interference.

Thus, Anderson’s “imagined community” is an important concept for understanding the formation of nation-states and the mechanisms of their survival.

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