Voor kapitaal en vaderland : een sociale geschiedenis van Vlaamse ondernemers en kaders op het kruispunt van natie en klasse (1873-1974)

This dissertation studies the construction of class and nation as intertwined social identities. It does so on the basis of the (hegemonic) visions articulated by intellectuals within and beyond the Flemish movement on the economic, social, cultural and political conditions for the socioeconomic development of Flanders. The research period spans a century, from the onset of the Long Depression in 1873 to the recession of 1974. The first chapter explores the pivotal role of economist Lodewijk de Raet in reorienting the Flemish movement towards the economy and business community at the end of the 19th century. Not only did “Flemish capitalists” have a role to play in the Flemish economic revival, but so did the cadres, particularly the engineers. The two segments formed a “leading estate” that was to commit itself to the material, intellectual and moral advancement of the nation’s popular power. Building on this, the second chapter emphasises how the engineers organised themselves in the Flemish Engineers Association from 1928 onwards and formed an image of what they considered their duties toward other social classes, on the one hand, and toward the Flemish people in their struggle for existence with other peoples, on the other. The third chapter examines how in the period after the Second World War, the Vlaams Economisch Verbond (Flemish Economic Union) played an important role in formulating ideological visions in which the general interest of Flanders was invariably equated with the economic development of the Flemish economy. The fourth chapter addresses the tug-of-war in the 1950s over the identity of the cadres and whether they belonged to the side of labour or capital. The analysis shows how cultural flamingantism, fuelled by new sociological concepts of the human relations approach, forged a strong ideological bond between Flemish entrepreneurs and executives. The fifth chapter closely examines the politician, business-man and academic André Vlerick, who, due to his involvement in Atlantic and Flemish networks of academics and businessmen, positioned himself at the intersection of transnational and national class formation. His lifelong mission was to cultivate a “Flemish elite” responsible for developing the “resources” of the Flemish people. In the general conclusion, I introduce the concept of “managerial nationalism” to emphasise the relationship between nation building and class formation. The dissertation argues that the bourgeoisie in Flanders established itself as a social class through the imagined community of the nation, exercising leadership over other classes while managing its foreign relations with other communities.