Description
Book SynopsisImagined Societies explores how images of 'society' and of national belonging have been forged by the media and politicians through the portrayal of immigrants and their 'failed integration'. Examining the experience of the Netherlands and other Western European countries, this book analyses how discussions of integration, culture, religion, and sexuality promote notions of national societies.
Trade Review'Willem Schinkel is one of the most interesting people writing on issues of identity, cultural difference and the policy responses (and exacerbations) that are making these issues so fraught in Europe today. His work on the moralization of citizenship and the implicit models of society in the discourse about immigrants is informed by wide knowledge and is very insightful.' Craig Calhoun, Director, London School of Economics and Political Science
'Schinkle offers an imaginative view of European identity and the immigration phenomenon at the center of current heated debates throughout Western Europe. His stimulating monograph underscores that what it has meant to be European has been both ephemeral and intangible for centuries.' P. Lorenzini, Choice
Table of Contents1. Immigrant integration imaginaries in Western Europe; 2. Imagining society: social theory and/as social imagination; 3. Measuring society: moral monitoring and the social science of 'immigrant integration'; 4. Transformations of racism: the rise of culturism; 5. Traditionally modern: contemporary frameworks of sexuality and religion; 6. The uses of citizenship; 7. Social science: between moral monitoring and public sociology.
