Discovering the Dutch: Culture, National Identity, and Society

Midterm Review

Culture as an Iceberg (Zhu Hua)

you only see the “tip” of the iceberg of a culture which is 10%, and the bottom 90% is invisible. This model illustrates that the visible aspects of culture, such as food and language, are just a small part of a deeper, more complex cultural identity that includes values, beliefs, and social norms.

Culture as an Onion

A conceptual model that illustrates culture as concentric layers, moving from explicit outer elements (traditions, cultural motifs, sayings) to core cultural values and "truths." The onion model breaks down explicit visual elements (outer layers) and core values & permanent “truths” (middle and inner layers).

Ex: bicycle culture: from the outside layer, you see everyone riding bikes. but the inner layer reveals the Dutch sense of pragmatism, egalitarianism, health consciousness, and eco-friendly outlooks

Dutch Wheeler's Association (1883)

An early Dutch cycling organization that advocated for biking infrastructure and argued that cycling was compliant with Dutch values such as independence, modesty, stability, control, and patience.

Statiegeld

A bottle deposit refund system in the Netherlands.

Compositional Approach to Culture (Zhu Hua, 2019)

An approach that defines culture as a collection of "things" shared by a group of people. (ex: Dutch people share qualities of individualism and resilience)

Interpretive Approach to Culture (Zhu Hua, 2019)

a contextualist approach where you need to examine behaviors in context of their environment (not objectively) (Ex: Dutch people are individualistic and resilient because biking under all conditions is suitable for the climate/weather)

Action Approach to Culture (Zhu Hua, 2019)

An approach that views culture as an active, dynamic, and evolving process centered around "small cultures."

Critical Approach (Zhu Hua, 2019)

An approach that examines culture through the lens of power relations and ideological struggle. (Ex: Dutch Individualism and resilience is different for affluent people versus poorer people due to dependence on welfare programs, structural injustice, etc.)

Essentialism

The perspective that cultural or national identity is fixed, intrinsic, and defined by birth, often leading to sweeping generalizations. (also similar to reification) ; Members share common descent, culture, or "spirit" (Jus Sanguinis- nationality by birthright). Very conservative perspective.

Semiotics

The study of signs and meanings, focusing on how and when a symbol acquires meaning within a culture.- Bikes represent Dutch culture….

Reductionism

The practice of reducing an entire nation to a single narrative or equating culture to one exclusive factor, such as "ethnic culture" or "religious culture.” » example of this is the Hans Brinker story

Imagological Approach

The study of how cultural representations and images of nations are shaped, focusing on the specific attribution of moral or characterological traits.

Auto-image

How a nation or cultural group perceives and depicts itself.

Hetero-image

How an outside group or culture perceives and depicts another nation or people.

Counter-image

An image of a culture or nation that directly contrasts, counters, or replaces another preceding image.

Meta-image

How members of a nation believe that people in other countries view them.

Imageme

A conceptual container encompassing all expected and contrasting cultural images of a nation.It links to the counter-image. Imagemes often work in pairs or contrasts (rational/emotional, cold/warm), so identifying one often reveals the opposing term in the speaker's self-image.

For example, saying “the Dutch are thrifty” depends on what perspective you are coming from, and the same trait can be flattering in one setting and insulting in another.
Multiple imagemes create a national image.

 A nation being “imagined”

There are ways we define a nation-state, through border drawing and a sovereign government, but beyond that, the sense of shared membership of a nation is through imagined pictures, images, and values, not anything physical. Anderson stresses print capitalism: novels and newspapers let readers who never meet experience the same events at the same time ("homogeneous, empty time"), which makes it possible to picture a simultaneous community moving through history together. Vernacular print languages, the census, maps, and museums later reinforced the picture.

Five perspectival factors Beller (2007)

How our perspective is shaped as a spectant of another nation:

1) geopolitical proximity

2) tradition

3) historical involvement (wars, alliances, etc.)

4) cultural, political, or economic interest

5) collective opinions / an imageme that exists

Determinism vs. Voluntarism in national identity building

• Determinism holds that outcomes are shaped or fixed by forces beyond individual choice: economic structures, geography, culture, institutions, or historical conditions. People’s actions are largely products of these conditions.

• Voluntarism holds that outcomes result mainly from the choices, will, and actions of individuals or groups. Change happens because people decide to act, organize, or lead.

Nation versus a State

A nation is a community of people who see themselves as sharing an identity (through culture, language, history, ancestry, or political ideals). A state is a political-legal institution: a government holding sovereign authority over a defined territory and population. In short, the nation is about belonging, the state is about power and administration.

State is basically the official/legal term

Orientalism (Edward Said)

A conceptual framework demonstrating the dichotomy between "the self and the other" (West vs. East), illustrating how groups often focus on defining themselves rather than truly knowing the other. (Concepts of Heteroimage and reductionism )

Induced Image Formation Agents

Sources of image formation that are deliberately disseminated by a nation itself, such as soft power instruments (e.g., monarchy or tariffs).

Organic Image Formation Agents

Sources of image formation that arise directly through individual personal contacts and firsthand experiences. (ex: studying abroad in the Netherlands)

Autonomous Image Formation Agents

Independent external sources that shape cultural perceptions, such as news media, documentaries, social media, influencers, literature, and movies. (Ex: Hans Brinker)

Banal Nationalism

The everyday, routine representations and expressions of national belonging embedded in daily life.

Gezellig

A Dutch cultural concept describing a cozy, warm, and comfortable atmosphere typically associated with informal social settings and shared food.

Völkertafel (ca. 1725)

A historical "Table of Peoples" cataloging purported characteristics and ethnic stereotypes of various European nationalities.

Spring of Nations (1848)

A revolutionary period in 19th-century Europe associated with the rise of the modern nation-state project based on the concept of one people, one country, and one state.

Pillarization (Verzuiling)

The vertical segmentation of Dutch society into distinct ideological and religious sub-groups (pillars), each operating its own schools, media, and institutions. Happened in the last decades of the 19th century, 1920s-1950s, Protestant, Catholic, socialist, and (more weakly) liberal "pillars" each had their own parties, schools, unions, newspapers, broadcasters, hospitals, and sports clubs.

Pillars in 1900s

Protestant, Catholic, socialist, and liberal

Identity Politics (Leerssen, 2007)

The retrieval, protection, or cultivation of culture and identity where different identity-based “groups” emerge and create conflict/discourse/fragmentation in politics (pluralism)

Jus Sanguinis

"Right by blood"; a principle of nationality law where citizenship is inherited exclusively through parental descent.

Jus Nexi

"Right of connection"; the acquisition of citizenship founded upon a genuine social connection, residence, or naturalization.

Jus Soli

"Right of soil"; birthright citizenship granted to anyone born within the national territory (not recognized in the Netherlands).

Thick Citizenship

A condition in which an individual holds two or more recognized forms or legal bases of citizenship connection.

Thin Citizenship

If you only have one: Jus Sanguinis, Jus Soli, Jus Nexi

“Culturalization of citizenship” (Duyvendak et al)

Citizenship has traditionally had legal and political dimensions: passports, voting, rights, duties. In the culturalized version, being a “real” citizen depends on sharing the nation’s supposed culture.
Citizenship becomes a question of cultural fit and loyalty, and not only of formal membership.

Sociaal en Cultureel Rapport 2019 (from Beugelsdijk et al. 2029)

Denkend aan Nederland (the Sociaal en Cultureel Rapport 2019, published June 2019), which surveyed about 5,000 people and ran focus groups and interviews. It found that Dutch people broadly agree on what makes the Netherlands Dutch, most often naming the language, freedom and King's Day, but disagree over what those concepts mean, such as "freedom." Only 41 percent said outright that a Dutch identity exists, 42 percent said it does "in some respects," and 6 percent rejected the idea entirely.

Inburgeringstoets

A Dutch civic integration examination designed to test an applicant's affinity with and knowledge of Dutch society and language.

Liberalism (in the Dutch sense)

• Label “liberal” refers to an emphasis on individual freedom 

• Limited hand of gov’t in the lives of citizens

• Free market economy, without high taxes 

• Right wing

New Left protest movements in the 1960’s

youth, anti-establishment, anti-Vietnam war, activism taken to the streets to expand social freedoms

activists rejected both traditional Old Left communism/socialism and mainstream capitalist-military structures, focusing instead on participatory democracy and social justice

Populism

• No clear consensus on a definition 

• Focus on the people; Anti-establishment and anti-elites

• Rise of populism = revival of ‘mass-culture theory’

Mass Culture Theory

Movements of the majority to build empowerment against the establishment 

United by common values or ideals 

‘Reflective reading’ of populism

The political atmosphere is a reflection of the of the preferences of the population; things first happen among the people, and then make their way to the political field rather than the people being influenced by things like current events, media, and political actors 

How does it fall short? → uses social characteristics of voters that change slowly over time, so this theory can’t explain the rapid changes that are seen. Also assumes that media and politicians have no influence over the views of the people

‘Constructive reading’ of populism

Populist movements happen in response to political changes, events, etc.

The representation of the people in that moment, but accounts for the failure of consensus as a new identity of the people is formed (constructed) according to the influences of current events, media, political action, etc.

It departs from the reflective reading because it shows how everything is contextual, we can’t just assume a cause and effect progression of a populist movement.

1982 Wassenaar Agreement

A last hail mary to solve the stagflation & high unemployment crisis in the 1970s/80s:

Unions agreed to wage restraint in exchange for shorter working hours (enabling more people to be employed) and job security. This traded short-term union demands for long-term stability, and it became the template for decades of subsequent bargaining.

Polder Model

• Origins in polder land or medieval Dutch governments

• Dutch-ified version of Coordinated Market Economy with emphasis on consensus and compromise

• Reinvented in ‘80s and ‘90s by Wassenaar Agreement 1982

• Disadvantage- cannot compete with countries’ low wages and should focus on new research and development instead

Cooperative governance model between:

1. The government

2. Employers' associations  

3. Trade unions

Politics of Accommodation

• The elites of different pillars made secret compromises to maintain peace, so no pillar would be threatened

• “Behind closed doors politics”

• Accommodation could not work when differences became many and widespread with the fall of pillarization (hyper-pluralism)

• Ended around the 60s… Replaced by a neoliberal, businesslike approach to politics

Diploma Democracy

• From 2009 Dutch National Research Council study

  • Describes how people involved in politics was reduced to those who were highly educated “meritocracy became a  new form of privilege”

• Main Points:

  • Lower educated (nationalists) vs overrepresentation of higher educated groups (cosmopolitans) who both have different concerns and policy preferences 

  • People don’t like this elitism …..

  • Framed as “healthy correct” to overrepresentation- but this encourages parties to adopt right-wing populist policies and anti-establishment parties that go a little too far (like Geert Wilders)

Purple Coalitions (1990s)

Rise of Purple Coalitions and decline of CVD:

• Social-democratic labor party, conservative-liberal VVD, and social-liberal D66 form a coalition and get majority seats

• Formed the first cabinets in the Netherlands since 1918 without the participation of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA)

• They oversaw the polder model reforms and booming economy 

• This caused an influx of more socially progressive policies (euthanasia, weed, etc.) being passed due to absence of Christian Democratic party’s input

Pim Fortuyne

• Gains popularity at end of 1990s, murdered in 2002

• Platform: attack state bureaucracy and immigration policy and promote entrepreneurship and Dutch culture

• Created oppositions: 

  • Internal: Dutch vs Dutch political elite (poldermodel)

  • External: Dutch nationalist identity vs “backwards” Muslim immigrants

• Created space for future Right-wing politicians, like Wilders

Gert Wilders

Partij Voor De Vrijheid (PVV)- right-wing, anti-Islamist party

Appeal to Henk and Ingrid- everyday people

Starts to become prominent in 2010 

Perpetuate divide of elite vs ordinary who face “street-terrorists” and are “being threatened and robbed”- vows to defend common people from elite and immigrants

Regiolect

A distinct language variety or dialect spoken within a specific geographic region.

Regiolects decline in 20th century because of tech boom of radios, TV, media, film, etc. that make it easier to standardize & spread the “common” Dutch language

Sociolect

A language variety shaped by an individual's social environment, such as socioeconomic status, age, employment, or urban background.

Standardization of Dutch

Happens in 16th-17th century, everyone wants to understand and disseminate the stories in the Bible, so there needs to be a standard way everyone can read/write

Renaissance also gives way to increased interest in reading classical literature & the “liberal arts”

Challenges:

• Which dialect/regiolect is correct?

• The meanings/translations of some dialect language/regiolect terms are lost and spelling changes

• Loss of localized language and culture through standardization

1960s as a “watershed period”

Pillarization ends… it becomes more of a focus on individual liberty and increased secularization

Everyone wants new freedoms and more social progress

Catalyst: post-WW2 increase in wealth and spread of neoliberalism (individual prosperity, focus on civil liberties, etc.)

More floating voters and weakened traditional political parties > fragmentation

Greater acceptance of alternate lifestyles

Drug Use as “Tolerant Identity” (1970s)

• Harm reduction policies such as subsidizing youth clubs where people can safely experiment with drugs

• Front market is very regulated by gov’t

Harm Reduction

A pragmatic public health strategy aimed at minimizing the negative consequences of drug use, such as providing methadone treatment and clean needle exchange programs.

Religious Paradox in Dutch Holidays

The contradiction in contemporary Dutch society wherein traditional Christian holidays remain culturally prominent and "Judeo-Christian heritage" is cited despite high levels of secularization.

(e.g., Sinterklaas, Easter eggs, Palm Sunday celebrations, and phrases like “merry Christmas”)