Connecting the Nation: Diagrams of Unity and Diversity in Civics Textbooks

A regime that wants to survive needs to establish ideas of unity that keep society together. However, it is also necessary to recognize the diversity that exists within society. For different groups and individuals to identify with the nation, they need to feel that they are part of a unified whole. Civic education, which raises future citizens, must balance these contradictory narratives of unity and diversity. This study investigates how diagrams in civics textbooks have, from the early 1900s until today, been used to legitimate different states. Examples are chosen from ten countries on four continents: Sweden, the United States, Egypt, Botswana, Indonesia, Bahrain, Nazi Germany, the German Democratic Republic, Cameroon, and Namibia. The chapter examines how diagramming techniques, such as arranging, connecting, and varying, are adapted to convey unity and diversity in these different political contexts. The interpretation rests on theories on spatial cognition developed within the cognitive sciences. Metaphors of light and darkness can be used to signal who belongs to the nation. Genealogical trees or timelines can give historical legitimacy to the state. Countries with short histories might instead use diagrams of ideological unity. The GDR sought legitimacy by diagrams that delegitimized the West German political system.