Performing national practices of solidarity-through-sameness

The literature on national solidarity is puzzled by the question of how solidarity can bridge social differences and has not asked how it works through sameness; that question was relegated to the literature on national identity. But can solidarity create nationhood through sameness? This theoretical article rehabilitates Durkheim's underused concept of mechanical solidarity and proposes to study sameness not as a human given, identity or group quality, but as a social performance that constitutes similarity between people and thus also solidarity. Whilst mechanical solidarity can function in all types of groups, it is particularly prominent in the context of nationhood. To explain how, the article explores performances of national customs related to food, which convey a conformist and unreflective subjectivity as well as horizontal unanimity. When people do things collectively, they perform national solidarity without necessarily indicating a collective identity that exists out there or agreeing about ideas and values. Contrary to common stereotypes of modern societies as ‘complex’, the article underscores sameness as crucial to modern nationalism—still the most significant socio-political principle of our era.