Parochialism
Etymology
From "parish," through Late Latin parochia, itself from Greek paroikía ("a sojourning"), from pároikos ("dweller nearby, stranger"): pará ("beside") plus oîkos ("house"). The parish was the small local church district, and parochialism extends its narrow bounds into a metaphor for any confined point of view. The journey runs from "the neighborhood" to "seeing no further than the neighborhood."
noun · /puh-ROH-kee-uh-liz-um/
A narrow outlook confined to the concerns of one’s own small locality or group, with little interest in the wider world.
What it names
It names the way a limited horizon can pass for the whole of reality, so that purely local interests get mistaken for universal ones.
Example
The council’s parochialism killed the regional rail plan the moment it failed to lay track in every member’s own town.
Related idea
Sectarianism divides people by faction or creed; parochialism narrows them by place and immediate interest. One splits the world into rival camps, the other simply cannot see beyond its own fence.