학술논문
The resentful undergrowth of nostalgia: Ontological insecurity, relative deprivation and powerlessness
Document Type
Report
Source
The British Journal of Sociology. March, 2023, Vol. 74 Issue 2, p173, 16 p.
Subject
Language
English
ISSN
0007-1315
Abstract
Keywords: Belgium; golden age; heartland; left behind; nostalgia; resentment Abstract This article untangles competing conceptualisations of nostalgia and identifies a specific form of collective-restorative nostalgia as politically significant. We argue that the link between resentment and this type of nostalgia emerges from their joint critique of the socio-political realities of the present. Nostalgia provides spatial and temporal orientations for a group's experiences of resentment through highly selective recollections of the heartland and an idealised golden age. We hypothesize that nostalgia leverages the heartland and the golden age to formulate claims for recognition and restored status on behalf of those who feel left behind by late modernity. Next, the article uses structural equation modelling and the 2019 Belgian National Election Study to reveal how resentment (consisting of ontological insecurity, group relative deprivation, and powerlessness) mediates between structural characteristics and nostalgia. Our findings suggest that each component of resentment individually contributes to explaining the nostalgia of less educated and economically deprived individuals. Byline: Julius Maximilian Rogenhofer, Koen Abts, Oliver Klein, Paul Bertin