Abstract
Understanding Collective Pride and Group Identity is an edited collection offering an interdisciplinary approach to collective pride and its relationship to group identity, bringing together contributions from philosophy, sociology, and psychology. The book is divided into two parts: the first, consisting of Chapters 1–6, is predominantly theoretical; the second part, Chapters 7–14, offers a range of empirical studies.
The first two chapters of Part I share a philosophical concern for the nature of collective emotions and collective pride. For example, Gebauer argues, in Chapter 2, that there is something about collective emotions that is important not only for the collective, but also in terms of the individual’s feeling of the self. According to Gebauer, “[o]ur first and most basic self-relation is that of feeling the self” (p. 34). By this he means that we come to ascertain through certain sensations that we exist. Gebauer suggests that certainty that one’s self exists is derived from the presence and actions of others: each member of a group gains certainty of their own self because of the felt certainty of their experience of the group. However, somewhat paradoxically, Gebauer also states that our first feelings of certainty that the world and the self exist are individual feelings, which only become collective emotions when experienced together with other people. Gebauer’s chapter speaks to debates around collectivity and individuality: are groups merely an aggregate of individuals or, as some would suggest, are collectivities more than the sum of their parts (e.g., Elder-Vass, 2012)? It also points to the issue of the extent to which feelings and emotions are shared and whether they start with the individual or group (cf. Ahmed, 2004).
There are several chapters that draw on the work of eminent sociologist Emile Durkheim. In Chapter 3, Knottnerus draws on Durkheimian structural ritualization theory to consider the role of reflexive ritual practices (RRPs) in the formation of collective pride. From this perspective, RRPs can have both positive, constructive outcomes for the group and more negative or destructive outcomes for one’s own group and other groups. According to Knottnerus, genuine collective pride is a positive outcome, whereas collective hubris and the demeaning and coercive treatment of others are negative outcomes of RRPs. The final two chapters of Part I also take Durkheim as their inspiration. In Chapter 5, Beyer, von Scheve, and Ismer explore collective emotions in relation to national symbols and national identification (particularly group solidarity and out-group derogation), and Sullivan and Hollway close the first part by exploring collective pride and collective hubris in organizations. They give a multilevel account of interactions between individual, group, and collective experiences and expressions of pride and hubris, in order to account for the role these have in maintaining social organization. These chapters are reminiscent of arguments recently put forward by Margaret Wetherell (2012) and Ian Burkitt (2014)—albeit from very different starting positions—that social practices and relations are key components of emotions; that emotions emerge within shared social practices and from relations within and between groups. However, Burkitt and Wetherell both go further in concluding that emotions cannot be separated from these social practices and relationships, rather than merely being produced by them.
In Part II, the empirical chapters encompass both quantitative and qualitative approaches. There are several chapters that take major international sporting events as contexts within which collective pride emerges in relation to national identity. For example, Sullivan and Dumont use a range of quantitative measures to study the effects of group pride versus individual pride on attitudes to migrants in Chapter 7. They conclude that collective pride was expressed and intensified following a national team victory during the UEFA Euro 2008 soccer tournament. This raises the question of whether there can be a difference between the expression and feeling of collective pride. In Chapter 8, Møller presents evidence from a 2010 survey that hosting major sporting events can bolster national pride and increase social cohesion. In Chapter 9, Sullivan uses television broadcasts and their consumption in community groups to explore how the events of the 2006 FIFA World Cup led to euphoria, unity, and pride in Germany. Similarly, in Chapter 10, Ismer analyses a 30-minute German pre-match television report in the lead-up to the FIFA World Cup quarter-final between Germany and Argentina. Ismer suggests that the German report glorifies Germany while denigrating Argentina through a “dichotomous comparison that is discursively, as well as visually, constructed” (p. 146). These chapters raise the issue of how it is that collective pride passes between people (e.g., how does collective pride increase? Does this increase in collective pride affect people uninterested in the sporting events?).
Two further chapters examine collective pride in relation to issues of national identity more generally. Kühn presents a case study of national narratives of pride in Chapter 12. He focuses on the construction of belongingness in relation to social inequalities in Brazil. He presents two narratives as particularly significant in the development of Brazilian national pride and an ambivalent national identity: Brazil as special, unique, and potentially powerful and Brazil as a country gone wrong. This points to how collective pride and other collective emotions are shaped by narratives and discourses, which raises the issue of the role of power in collective emotions (i.e., what is the role of power in collective emotions?). This might be considered particularly pertinent in relation to the topic of social inequality. Sullivan and Ruto-Korir explore the “inherent complexity of the group-based and collective emotional experience of Kenya’s post-election violence (PEV) of 2007 and early 2008” (p. 173). They find that collective (national) pride in Kenya is bound up with ethnicity-based collective identities and experiences. It is also clear from their analysis that any collective pride over multiculturalism in Kenya is balanced by experiences of collective guilt and shame stemming from the PEV. In the final empirical chapter, Sullivan explores how children develop the capacity to share in collective emotion: “Thematic analysis of group interviews revealed expected changes in the complexity of children’s discussions of feelings about national events and examples of collective emotion with age” (p. 201). Such consideration of collective pride in relation to national identity raises the question of the universality (as opposed to the particularity) of collective pride. For example, do German collective pride, Brazilian collective pride, and Kenyan collective pride amount to the same collective emotion or are there differences in pride’s discursive/narrative construction and meaning, its rhetorical deployment, the expression or display of collective pride, or the way that collective pride affects relationships in these various cultures?
Whereas individual emotions and individual pride have been the focus of research for many years, their collective counterparts are comparatively recent topics of interest. Therefore, Understanding Collective Pride and Group Identity is a welcome contribution to the literature because it offers fresh insights into these phenomena. In this way, the book has achieved its aim of opening up collective pride as an area of research (p. 203). The book also should be commended for being more interdisciplinary and theoretical than most work on social identity theory. Importantly, it also shows the relevance of qualitative approaches to the study of emotion and social identity. Another achievement of the book is to show how emotions can be as much collective phenomena as they are individual. Furthermore, this book also inspires questions about the nature of emotion and its relation to cultural influences (e.g., how is collective pride shaped by culture?); whether or not there can be a distinction between feeling collective emotions, displaying collective emotions, and the rhetorical deployment of collective emotions in talk/texts (e.g., what are the differences and what is their significance?); whether it is possible to have collective pride if some members of the group do not and how such differences might affect the internal dynamics of the group; the role of power in collective emotion, and so on. Thus, while Understanding Collective Pride and Group Identity offers a significant contribution to the literature in drawing attention to an under-researched topic, there is still important work to be done in this area.