Titel: Nationalism at Eurovision: how is it demonstrated? Naam: Herben het Lam Studentnummer: 11149841 Begeleider: Patrick Weir Tweede lezer: Aslan Zorlu Opleiding: Sociale Geografie & Planologie E-mailadres:
[email protected] Datum: 17 augustus 2018 UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM Nationalism at Eurovision: how is it demonstrated? A new approach to the old east-west distinction of Hans Kohn and others. Herben het Lam 17-8-2018 1 Abstract The supposed distinction between eastern and western European countries based on civic and ethnic nationalism has got many scholars busy, but still there is no consensus on the actual existence of this distinction. The initiator of this idea is Hans Kohn. He dug into the history of nationalism to point out many events that created a distinction between western and eastern Europe. Yet he has been criticised by many later scholars, especially for the judgmental flavour Kohn added to his theory. The present study aimed to find out whether nationalism at the Eurovision Song Contest, which is regarded in science as a platform for geopolitics and nationalism, indicates the existence of an east-west distinction. Time limitations affected this study and its findings, making further research necessary. With a lot of reservation, this study found that there may be an indication for a distinction. 2 Content Introduction 3 Chapter 1: Theoretical framework 4 Chapter 2: Methodology 9 Chapter 3: Analysis 13 Chapter 4: Conclusion 20 Sources 21 Introduction The Eurovision Song Contest is an inter-European popular cultural phenomenon; an annual gathering of musicians and audience from all over Europe for a competition over something that doesn’t seem 3 suitable for competition: music.