Beyond the civic–ethnic distinction: Moral community and the sociology of nationhood as an analytical framework

Abstract

The civic–ethnic distinction has long structured debates on nationalism, yet its value has been questioned. This article revisits that framework through a comparison of Ernest Renan’s What is a Nation? and Ziya Gökalp’s What is Turkism? Despite their distinct contexts, both reject race and geography as foundations of nationhood and contest language and religion as straightforward ‘natural’ bases. Their key divergence lies in how national cohesion is generated and sustained. The article contributes to critiques of the civic–ethnic distinction by developing an original comparative framework for analysing nationhood, moral community and inclusion beyond classificatory labels, opening new lines of inquiry into the mechanisms through which nationhood is conceptualised and reproduced.