Book Review: Appartenir au Québec / Quebec Identity

Denise Helly and Nicolas van Schendel.
Appartenir au Québec: Citoyenneté, nation et société civile. Enquête à Montréal, 1995.
Les Presses de l'Université Laval, 2001, 242 pp.
$25.00 paper (2-89224-326-2 ).

Jocelyn Maclure.
Quebec Identity: The Challenge of Pluralism.
Translated by Peter Feldstein..
McGill-Queen's University Press, 2003, 126 pp.
$22.95 paper (0-7735-2598-X), $60.00 hardcover (0-7735-2553-X)

Citizenship and nationhood are traditionally the preserve of political philosophy. Empirical investigations of these disputed notions are less common, making Appartenir au Québec a welcome addition to ongoing debates. The authors distil the answers provided by 85 Montrealers of varied socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds (native-born and immigrants) to questions about their attachment to Québec, Canada, their culture of origin, the state, their language and their political values. These rich qualitative data allow Helly and van Schendel to identify six categories of citizenship and nationhood, which they discuss in respective chapters. Some of these are unsurprising: groups of respondents identify with “ethnic” or “civic” ideas of nationhood, “republican” or “liberal” notions of citizenship. Many of the themes associated with these categories are equally familiar: sovereignty as a common project, the importance of shared values, or the relationship between lineage and nationality.

The most interesting aspect of the book is its very detailed depiction of the complexity of the practice and experience (rather than the ideational expression) of national belonging and citizenship. Immigrants and native-born individuals rarely fall into the neatly separate categories described in the book and elsewhere in the literature, but belong to overlapping, complex political sub-groups, usually influenced by their own history, class, gender, and personal experiences. Respondents identified as republican-universalist sovereignists for instance recognize the discrimination they endure or the privileges they enjoy within their community, and do their best to reconcile this reality with their egalitarian beliefs. Nativist, lineage-oriented nationalists are usually able to discuss the actual and potential pitfalls of their values. Cosmopolitan liberals are likewise all too aware of the obduracy of national identity, but nevertheless extol Montreal’s cultural flexibility.

What does this tell us about national belonging and citizenship in Quebec and beyond, beside the fact that things are not as simple as they appear? One striking factor, as the authors note, is the low level of societal atomization: nearly everyone in this study has some interest in, and some level of implication with, Quebec society and politics. All practice citizenship and nationhood, in other words. To varying degrees and with different preferences, of course, but there is little trace of mass alienation or cynicism.

Maclure reaches a similar conclusion, but from the opposite direction. His work is a more traditional analysis of some of the main intellectual currents on Quebec identity. It is an elegant book, complete with a useful appendix for those unfamiliar with the central figures and institutions of Quebec’s rich intellectual landscape, as well as a flattering foreword by Charles Taylor. Maclure’s main point is that the creaky-kneed dichotomy opposing rearview nationalists to rootless cosmopolitan individualists should be retired, to make way for a better understanding of an emerging pluralistic reality.

Quebec Identity is actually part of the movement it seeks to describe. Not unlike some of the writers and thinkers he discusses, Maclure expresses a “plurality of allegiances” (p.140), and expertly navigates between the shoals of nationalism and the rocks of anti-nationalism. The obvious challenge for this line of argument is to move from simply presenting this new “dialogical ethos” to identifying the institutional and societal form it should take. Maclure stops short of doing this, but it will be interesting to see if he charts a course in that direction.

Philippe Couton
Department of Sociology
University of Ottawa

Philippe Couton once belonged to Quebec. He still enjoys spending time within its borders, whenever his work at the University of Ottawa allows it. In 2003, he reviewed Paul V. Dutton, Origins of the French Welfare State: The Struggle for Social Reform in France 1914-1947 for CJS Online.


	Canadian Journal of Sociology Online May-June 2004 Denise Helly and Nicolas van Schendel. Appartenir au Québec: Citoyenneté, nation et société civile. Enquête à Montréal, 1995. Les Presses de l'Université Laval, 2001, 242 pp. $25.00 paper (2-89224-326-2 ). Jocelyn Maclure. Quebec Identity: The Challenge of Pluralism. Translated by Peter Feldstein.. McGill-Queen's University Press, 2003, 126 pp. $22.95 paper (0-7735-2598-X), $60.00 hardcover (0-7735-2553-X) Citizenship and nationhood are traditionally the preserve of political philosophy. Empirical investigations of these disputed notions are less common, making Appartenir au Québec a welcome addition to ongoing debates. The authors distil the answers provided by 85 Montrealers of varied socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds (native-born and immigrants) to questions about their attachment to Québec, Canada, their culture of origin, the state, their language and their political values. These rich qualitative data allow Helly and van Schendel to identify six categories of citizenship and nationhood, which they discuss in respective chapters. Some of these are unsurprising: groups of respondents identify with “ethnic” or “civic” ideas of nationhood, “republican” or “liberal” notions of citizenship. Many of the themes associated with these categories are equally familiar: sovereignty as a common project, the importance of shared values, or the relationship between lineage and nationality. The most interesting aspect of the book is its very detailed depiction of the complexity of the practice and experience (rather than the ideational expression) of national belonging and citizenship. Immigrants and native-born individuals rarely fall into the neatly separate categories described in the book and elsewhere in the literature, but belong to overlapping, complex political sub-groups, usually influenced by their own history, class, gender, and personal experiences. Respondents identified as republican-universalist sovereignists for instance recognize the discrimination they endure or the privileges they enjoy within their community, and do their best to reconcile this reality with their egalitarian beliefs. Nativist, lineage-oriented nationalists are usually able to discuss the actual and potential pitfalls of their values. Cosmopolitan liberals are likewise all too aware of the obduracy of national identity, but nevertheless extol Montreal’s cultural flexibility. What does this tell us about national belonging and citizenship in Quebec and beyond, beside the fact that things are not as simple as they appear? One striking factor, as the authors note, is the low level of societal atomization: nearly everyone in this study has some interest in, and some level of implication with, Quebec society and politics. All practice citizenship and nationhood, in other words. To varying degrees and with different preferences, of course, but there is little trace of mass alienation or cynicism. Maclure reaches a similar conclusion, but from the opposite direction. His work is a more traditional analysis of some of the main intellectual currents on Quebec identity. It is an elegant book, complete with a useful appendix for those unfamiliar with the central figures and institutions of Quebec’s rich intellectual landscape, as well as a flattering foreword by Charles Taylor. Maclure’s main point is that the creaky-kneed dichotomy opposing rearview nationalists to rootless cosmopolitan individualists should be retired, to make way for a better understanding of an emerging pluralistic reality. Quebec Identity is actually part of the movement it seeks to describe. Not unlike some of the writers and thinkers he discusses, Maclure expresses a “plurality of allegiances” (p.140), and expertly navigates between the shoals of nationalism and the rocks of anti-nationalism. The obvious challenge for this line of argument is to move from simply presenting this new “dialogical ethos” to identifying the institutional and societal form it should take. Maclure stops short of doing this, but it will be interesting to see if he charts a course in that direction. Philippe Couton Department of Sociology University of Ottawa Philippe Couton once belonged to Quebec. He still enjoys spending time within its borders, whenever his work at the University of Ottawa allows it. In 2003, he reviewed Paul V. Dutton, Origins of the French Welfare State: The Struggle for Social Reform in France 1914-1947 for CJS Online. http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/cjscopy/reviews/quebec.html May 2004 © CJS Online Click here to download PDF file < Back to Current Table of Contents