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The paper focuses on the sociological adaptation and development of the mental mapping method within the study of national identity. 'Mental map' is defined as a spatial image or model formed over time in the individual or collective consciousness, while the method of mental mapping is interpreted as a graphic representation of a certain area by an informant at the request of a researcher. The study is based on the empirical application of mental mapping to the analysis of national identity among Ukrainian students (n=942). The paper outlines methodological and theoretical specifics of mental mapping and indicates perspectives of this method in the context of a visual sociological paradigm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

British and English national identities have long been considered to have porous boundaries whereby English individuals consider the terms more or less interchangeable. However, there is no empirical evidence to demonstrate whether primary feelings of either Britishness or Englishness are highly fluid within-individuals or whether individuals are consistent in their perceptions of their British or English identity. This is especially relevant in the post-Brexit referendum context where national identity is highly correlated with Brexit attitudes. Using panel data, we demonstrate that there is a notable degree of fluidity between identifying as British or English. This is higher than the fluidity between other national identities in the UK as well as more fluid than moving between any partisan or EU referendum identities. Remainers are more fluid than Leavers in their Englishness, whereas they are similar in the fluidity of their Britishness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the effects of national and cosmopolitan self-identity on xenophobic attitudes across 33 countries with a multilevel analysis of data from the National Identity Module III of the International Social Survey Programme. Of primary interest is how country contexts are intertwined with the sense of national belonging to predict individuals' anti-immigrant attitudes. The study finds that individuals with a stronger ethnicity-based national identity tend to evidence stronger xenophobia. Net of the individual-level effect of ethnic national identity, citizens of countries with a higher average of ethnic national identity also tend to be more xenophobic. Interestingly, the link between ethnic national identity and xenophobia is stronger in countries where this perspective is not shared as strongly. In the seemingly more 'open' country context, individuals' belief in the requirement of ancestral roots for national membership may entail stronger exclusivism as a fringe ideology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a critical reflection on methodological issues at the interface of researcher national identity and emotional vulnerability. This aspect of social research is often neglected in discussions of positionality, primarily in relation to emotional risk in the field, and here we address this gap in the literature. Rather than reflecting on access and rapport, or issues related to the complexities of insider or outsider research, the national identity of the researcher is considered alongside emotional entanglements experienced in the field. The emotion work that is performed, and the emotional risks that are experienced by the researcher as a consequence of nationality reveal much about the complexities of identity and power relations in the field. The fieldwork informing this article was undertaken as part of an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)-funded study (ES/N019423/1) that examined how seafarers from different ethnic and faith backgrounds interact with each other on board and how their religious/spiritual and welfare needs are addressed ashore. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing transnational mobility of athletes is accompanied by the growing presence of naturalised athletes in national teams, raising questions about the implications for nationalism and national identity in sports. Hong Kong offers a unique context to examine these issues as a Special Administrative Region of China which has its own representative ('national') team despite its non-sovereign status. Using in-depth interviews with 24 informants (fans, players, coaches, etc.), this paper examines how naturalised players from overseas and Mainland China are perceived by stakeholders of Hong Kong football. We found that informants articulated an 'instrumental-plus' discourse about these players, and a 'civic-plus' conception of nationality. Implications for sport and nationalism in the Hong Kong–China context and beyond are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article identifies new geographies of commemoration. These draw on non-representational perspectives that foreground the experiential aspects of commemorative sites and events, drawing these together with methodologies alive to the subtle but excessive feelings that arise in such settings. It argues that one aim of commemoration – to reinforce the contours of national identity – is disrupted by a focus on the experiential world because of the unpredictable and excessive nature of sensory and affective feelings. New research in geographies of commemoration also draws together different temporalities, holding the potential to unsettle and complicate national narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reflecting on the articles in this special issue of European Union Politics, this essay first asks whether EU scholarship has sufficiently conceptualized and measured what it means to identify with the European Project and/or the European Community. The evidence in this special issue indicates that many citizens now have attachments to Europe, albeit in uncertain depth. European attachments also exist in combination with or as an alternative to national identities. European/national identities also now overlap with partisan attachments, potentially forming a new basis of political cleavage. The research in this collection demonstrates a rich portfolio of methods to examine this important topic, and yields new evidence of how geographic identities are related to public opinion on issues such as immigration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have long recognized that national identity-related factors are among the strongest predictors of citizens' attitudes toward the European Union. But while some find that they reinforce support for the European Union, other scholars show that national identity undermines its support. In this article, we aim to disentangle this puzzle by studying how the national identity profiles of European citizens relate to support for the European Union across individuals and member states. To this end, we employ data from the International Social Survey Program 2013, by far the most extensive collection of survey questions on national identity, and the technique of latent class analysis. Our results show which specific configurations of national identity entail support, ambivalence or rejection of the European Union, their antecedents, and their variation across countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geopolitical competition and conflict play a central role in canonical accounts of the emergence of nation-states and national identities. Yet work in this tradition has paid little attention to variation in everyday, popular understandings of nationhood. We propose a macro-historical argument to explain cross-national variation in the types of popular nationalism expressed at the individual level. Our analysis builds on recent advances on the measurement of popular nationalism and a recently introduced geopolitical threat scale (Hiers, Soehl, and Wimmer 2017). With the use of latent class analysis and a series of regression models, we show that a turbulent geopolitical past decreases the prevalence of liberal nationalism (pride in institutions, inclusive boundaries) while increasing the prevalence of restrictive nationalism (less pride in institutions, exclusive boundaries) across 43 countries around the world. Additional analyses suggest the long-term development of institutions is a key mediating variable: states with a less traumatic geopolitical history tend to have more established liberal democratic institutions, which in turn foster liberal forms of popular nationalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chinese Civil War split the Chinese into two politically conflicted states from 1949. The People's Republic of China and Republic of China both claimed to be the legitimate representative of China in the international community. "Chinese Taipei" has become the name of Republic of China in the international sport field and almost every international organization since 1981, after Kuomintang (The Chinese Nationalist Party) refused to play under the provincial name "Taiwan," which was suggested by the International Olympic Committee in the 1960s. However, the relationships between Taiwan and China and the nationalistic discourses have changed drastically in Taiwan in the past 40 years. "Chinese Taipei" became the compromised, shameful symbol of Republic of China. At the same time, "Taiwan" turned into the most progressive, resistant, and aspired but banned name and self-identity for many Taiwanese. In 2018, the "2020 Tokyo Olympics Taiwan Name Rectification Referendum" was launched. It requested to rectify the current "Chinese Taipei" to "Taiwan". This paper aims to build a contextualized and historical understanding of this interrelation of sport and nationalism in Taiwan via this name game. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We provide the first individual-level test of whether holding supranational elections in the European Union fosters satisfaction with European Union democracy. First, we examine whether participation at the European Parliament election fosters satisfaction with democracy and whether, among those who participated, a winner–loser gap materializes at the EU level. Second, we examine under which conditions participating and winning in the election affect satisfaction with European Union democracy, focusing on the moderating role of exclusive national identity. Our approach relies on panel data collected during the 2019 European Parliament elections in eight countries. We demonstrate that while participating and winning increase satisfaction, such positive boost does not materialize among those with exclusive national identity. These findings hold an important message: elections are no cure to deep-seated alienation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does foreign elite rhetoric affect citizens' emotions and attitudes about austerity? In a survey experiment conducted on the online blogs of the two major Italian newspapers, participants read a fictional news article where the German Chancellor addressed Italians. Across treatments, I varied whether the message blamed or praised Italians, and whether the message focused on economic or symbolic concerns. Praise generated enthusiasm whereas blame spurred anger and anxiety. Moreover, respondents with a strong national or European identity who read a message of praise were more enthusiastic, less angry, and less opposed to austerity. Finally, people who identify strongly with the nation reacted more to economic messages whereas those who identify strongly with Europe reacted more to symbolic messages. The results suggest that rhetoric by a prominent European leader can influence citizens' emotions and attitudes toward austerity in the emerging European public sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At a time when nationalist sentiment is on the rise, this special issue takes stock of how sociology can contribute to understanding the past, present and future of nationalism. In contrast to declarations of 'the end of history', which was also meant to herald increasing integration due to a lowering of cultural and national barriers, nationalism never went away. The articles in this collection engage with the question of nationalism at a theoretical and empirical level and in different regional contexts, assessing how national boundaries are drawn and policed, how national identities are formed and the myriad political and everyday consequences of nationalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the relationship between sport, national identity and the media in the post-socialist nation-states of Croatia and Slovenia. It describes what has changed during the eight years since Jakov Fak, a Croatian-born Slovenian biathlete, changed his citizenship and began competing for the Slovenian national team. It also examines how the perception of Jakov Fak as an athlete and of his success has changed through time in different socio-political circumstances – in 2009 and 2010 when he competed for Croatia, and after 2010 when he began competing for Slovenia. To analyse this case we have used different media interpretations of Jakov Fak case, analysing four sports events: the Biathlon World Championships in South Korea (13–22 Feb 2009) and Germany (1–11 Mar 2012), and the Olympic Games in Canada (11–18 Feb 2010) and South Korea (9–25 Feb 2018). The results of discourse analysis show that in the case of Jakov Fak in the years 2009 and 2010, the public was provoked by and exposed to national symbolism, especially in political discourse. The media discourse did change between 2012 and 2018, and discourse typical of civic nationalism began to dominate. Two types of nationalism are mixed in a post-socialist context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws on original focus group research to explore constructions of 'British values', in 'everyday' discourse. Two prominent, yet competing conceptions of this term are identified: political/institutional and social/cultural. Although each of these conceptions risks essentialising 'British values', this risk is mitigated by publics in at least three ways: (1) explicit recognition of the term's ambiguities; (2) discussion of its political motivations and exclusionary outcomes; and, (3) identification of qualitative change in the meaning of 'British values' over time. As the first exploration of public understandings of this term, their differences, and these complications, the paper offers three contributions: (1) adding breadth to existing studies of everyday nationalism through focus on 'British values' specifically; (2) shedding light on this trope's work in broader conversations around social and political life in the United Kingdom; and (3) facilitating reflection on the reception of, resistance to, and re-making of elite political discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Michel Houellebecq has a reputation as a heavy drinker and many of his protagonists mirror this tendency. This article focuses specifically on wine, asking whether the consumption of wine, both in his writing and in representations of his life, constitutes a simple cultural transgression, mainly via the quantities imbibed, or whether in fact wine is used as a complex literary device, a symbolic marker of national identity, social status and interpersonal relations. Tracing the presence and analysing the significance of wine in Houellebecq's seven novels published to date reveals new ways to decode and interpret the author's work through the prism of this product and its rich semantic field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has long been claimed that sport plays an important role in the formulation of national identity. Key to understanding this relationship is Michael Billig's concept of banal nationalism, which is used in this article to examine national symbols that act as daily reminders of the nation. Specifically, the article discusses the relationship between Englishness and sport by drawing upon data from interviews with representative English sportswomen in association football, cricket, netball, and rugby union. The article demonstrates the important role that (men's) sport plays in developing a sense of national identity in England and, in particular, one that is distinct from Britishness. Furthermore, the significance of national symbols is evidenced as banal reminders of national identity for England's sportswomen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise of the Internet brings up a debate about its role in eroding or strengthening national identity. Taking the perspective of media ecology, this article saw the Internet as a context and explored its impacts on social context in which national identity is constructed. Using the data from the World Values Survey (2010–2014), this article carried out multilevel analyses with 50,240 respondents in 36 countries. The results illustrate how online distribution of information, power, and freedom affects cognition, affection, and action of national identity. National identity is eroded by information distribution but is strengthened by power distribution. Power distribution and freedom distribution work together to neutralize and regulate the effects of information distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While some studies have examined the impact of globalization on national identity 'from below', their findings are inconclusive, some arguing that national identity is less important for people in more globalized countries, others finding evidence to the contrary. Addressing and resolving some of the previous studies limitations, this article investigates the relationship between globalization and national identity with four cross-national surveys, using 149 national samples across 74 countries, inspecting whether country level of globalization impacts ethnic identity and whether globalization moderates between patriotism and ethnic identity. The findings indicate that although ethnic identity levels are lower in the more globalized than the less globalized countries, globalization has no differential effect on the strong and positive link between patriotism and ethnic identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine two aspects of the connection between individuals' national identities and their European Union evaluations. First, we examine the changing relationship from 1993–2017, thus paying attention to not only recent crises years but also the time when political integration accelerated after the Maastricht treaty came into effect. Second, we draw on group-identity theory to explain the changing relationship for individuals with extreme as well as moderate ideological attitudes. We use a new cumulative Eurobarometer Representation dataset (1993–2017) to test three hypotheses. Our most important finding is that by 2017 the relationship between national identity and European Union evaluations among ideologically moderate citizens is stronger than it was in 1993 among individuals with right-extreme ideological views. While the economic crisis since 2007 reinforced this development, it was not responsible for its onset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many of the political debates in Europe call for the strengthening of a national identity that is, somewhat paradoxically, described in universal liberal terms. Yet previous research has not been able to tell to which extent these conceptions of national identity are indeed liberal. This is because we lack an analytical tool that allows liberal conceptions of national identity to be separated from, for example, conservative ones. There is also a pervasive yet questionable assumption that the more liberal a national identity is, the less it can per definition be truly national. This paper seeks to remedy this gap, by bridging the literature on these empirical trends of civic integration with the normative debates surrounding liberal nationalism. The result is a tripartite typology for the conceptions of national identity in conservative nationalism, liberal nationalism and constitutional patriotism, respectively. Each is specified along the following dimensions: (1) whether the sense of national belonging is defined by vertical or horizontal ties; (2) whether the national history is to be revered, taken as a starting point or critically scrutinised; (3) whether the legitimate place for the shared activity by which the national identity is upheld excludes the private or even the public non-political sphere; (4) whether we are asked to cultivate feelings of piety or loyalty to the homeland; and (5) whether or not the shared public culture of the nation is considered changeable and enforceable. Policy implications for individual rights, immigration and cultural minorities are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the relation between identity definition and trust in different information sources in Morocco, Jordan and Tunisia following the 2011 Uprisings. While prior to 2011 literature mostly highlighted the role of pan-Arab news channels in consolidating a transnational Arab public sphere, recent studies argued that there has been a reinforcement of national media and identities in the Middle East and North Africa, as a consequence of a partial liberalisation of national broadcasting. Our study is based on the Arab Transformations survey (2014), which unlike previous surveys included questions covering both media consumption and identity definition. We looked at how in the three countries the choice of Muslim, Arab or national identity definition was associated with the preference for distinct sources of political news. The results only partially confirmed the hypothesis of a renewed importance of national media and showed that in the three countries people tended to attribute very different values to the same news sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indonesia has seen recent expansions of fundamentalist movements mobilising members in support a change to the current constitution. Against this background, two studies were conducted. In Study 1, we explored the intersection of religious and national identity among Indonesian Muslims quantitatively, and in Study 2, we qualitatively examined religious and national identification among members of moderate and fundamentalist religious organisations. Specifically, Study 1 (N = 178) assessed whether the association of religious and national identity was moderated by religious fundamentalism. Results showed that strength of religious identification was positively associated with strength of national identification for both those high and low in fundamentalism. Using structured interviews and focus group discussions, Study 2 (N = 35) examined the way that self-alignment with religious and national groups develops among activists of religious movements in Indonesia. We found that while more fundamentalist activists attached greater importance to their religious identity than to any other identity (e.g., national and ethnic), more moderate activists represented their religious and national identities as more integrated and compatible. We conclude that for Indonesian Muslims higher in religious fundamentalism, religious and national identities appear to be less integrated and this is consequential for the way in which collective agendas are pursued. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To what extent may an historic nation impress its religious identity on the public space of its society? For example, does it have a right to ban the wearing of hijabs in schools, to insist on the display of crucifixes in school classrooms, or to ban the construction of minarets? My aim in this article is to critically examine the answers which liberal nationalism gives to these questions, focusing in particular on David Miller's version of this theory. His key claim is that the religion associated with the historic nation may legitimately be given a predominant place in public space. After outlining the principal elements of Miller's position, I shall criticise the general principle on which it is based, before challenging his views on several particular issues. My conclusion will be that, whilst the historic nation has the right to express its religious identity in the public space of its society to some degree, this right is significantly more constrained than Miller believes. Constraints are derived, in particular, from consideration of the particular nature of different kinds of public space, and consideration of what people need from such spaces, including the need for spaces in which they can express themselves and in which they can feel at home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the role of Sino-British collaboration in promoting green bond development in China, the extent to which it meets the United Kingdom's wider objectives regarding the UK-China bilateral relationship and the underlying factors. Drawing on desk research and interviews, it tests and validates the hypothesis that the key driving force for this development is the coupling of the financialisation of the Chinese economy and the politics of 'ecological civilisation', although learning through international interaction has also played a role. It further shows that the scope for the United Kingdom to benefit from this growth is limited by the structure of UK-China trade, China's strong macro-economic control and its approach to international relations that prioritises learning and identity transformation rather than the opening up of its markets. Inter-hub competition also plays a part. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last few decades, scholars have dedicated much attention to the coverage of sportswomen in the media. However, few of these studies are situated within the Central Eastern European context. In this study, I analyze the textual and visual coverage of sportswomen in the Hungarian monthly sports magazine Presztízs Sport and examine the ways in which Hungarian national identity is articulated through discourses of sport, athletic competence, and womanhood. This sports magazine reflects some of the global patterns in the representation of sportswomen, but also distinguishes athletes based on the sport's historical success in Hungary. Further, it positions the családanya, the "family-mother" as a gender ideal that transcends other representation categories. The maternal athletic body affirms conservative values and contributes to the aspirations of nation-building through both reproduction and elite sporting success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on campaign strategies generally assumes that political parties avoid campaigning on issues that are internally divisive. However, this strategy might not always be viable, especially when parties attack each other in high-stake elections. This article provides novel evidence on the effects of campaigning on cross-cutting issues by focusing on the 2015 U.K. general election in Scotland. Results based on an experiment and a nationally representative survey show that the strategy to criticize the Scottish National Party (SNP) with regard to the cross-cutting issue of Scottish independence polarized voters along national identity lines. Among British voters, attack statements and perceived negativity increased support for some of the parties sponsoring the attacks, whereas among Scottish voters they actually increased support for the target of the attacks. In addition, experimental results indicate that attack statements affected mainly ideologically close parties (the Labour Party and the SNP). At the theoretical level, these findings indicate that the strategy to attack opposite parties on divisive issues can lead to both electoral gains and losses depending on voters’ “identification” with such issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is part of the special cluster titled Social practices of remembering and forgetting of the communist past in Central and Eastern Europe, guest edited by Malgorzata Glowacka-GrajperControversies over social memory form an important aspect of reality in the post-communist countries of Eastern Europe. On the one hand, there are debates about coming to terms with the communist past and the Second World War that preceded it (because important parts of the memory of the war were “frozen” during the communist era), and, on the other hand, and intimately connected to that, are discussions about the constant influence of communism on the current situation. This article presents some of the main trends in research on collective memory in the post-communist countries of Eastern Europe and reveals similarities and differences in the process of memorialization of communism in the countries of the region. Although there are works devoted to a comparative analysis of memory usage and its various interpretations in the political sphere in the countries of Eastern Europe, there are still many issues concerning daily practices (economic, religious, and cultural) associated with varying interpretations of the war and the communist past which needs further elaboration and analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article revisits the history of Yugoslavia to trace the unique ways in which the national airline Yugoslav Airlines (JAT) served as a powerful tool of Yugoslav, and then post-Yugoslav, Serbian state identity construction from 1975 to 2013, when JAT ceased to exist. I analyze the complete archives of the JAT Review to trace the stunning reconstruction of Yugoslav state identity over time: from the height of the Yugoslav “brand” in the 1970s as the country served a pivotal role in the Non-Aligned Movement, to the slow decline in pan-Yugoslav identity and the rise of sub-Yugoslav nationalisms throughout the 1980s, to the final dissolution of the country and collapse of Yugoslav identity in the 1990s. Building on insights from the nation-branding literature, I conduct a textual and visual analysis of articles, photographs, and ads that appeared on the pages of the JAT Review. The analysis points to the complex and often contradictory ways in which Yugoslavia constructed its multiple identities to project power and status in the international sphere, while simultaneously maintaining citizen loyalty at home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different studies have shown that national groups construct a positive social identity through the appropriation of heroic narratives about the national past. Within this framework, this research studied the narratives of Argentine university students (n = 27), without specific training in history about a historical process in which their national state carried out morally questionable actions. Specifically, we analysed their narratives on the ‘Conquest of the Desert’, a military campaign carried out in the late nineteenth century which entailed the genocide of the indigenous peoples who inhabited most of what is today Argentina. Through semi-structured interviews, it was revealed that although the grammar of the participants’ narratives is generally poor, it is possible to identify in them two clashing groups as agents of that historical process. Furthermore, the participants did not use the pronouns we/us to refer to any of these groups, so they did not identify with them. We conclude that the poverty of the participants’ narratives may reveal a collective attempt to forget this morally condemnable historical process, which would also have been expressed in the shift of responsibility from the Argentine state to other social groups in most of the narratives analysed. Likewise, failure to identify with the victims, even in cases in which it was considered to be the national state, shows the implementation of cognitive strategies to preserve a positive identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how João de Andrade Corvo and José Vicente Barbosa du Bocage, two nineteenth-century Portuguese naturalists, were able to reach prominent political positions in their country by means of their work in, respectively, botany and agriculture, and zoology. The authority they derived from their scientific activities and the knowledge they acquired in the process, favored by their proximity to particular political quarters, elevated them to important governmental offices, in the context of which they implemented policies that reinforced Portugal's identity as an imperial nation. The colonial policies and agreements signed by Corvo and Bocage aimed at securing Portuguese colonial territories, which, aside from their economic relevance, constituted a symbol of power that reinforced the sovereignty of a small nation in a Europe dominated by the rule of increasingly vaster and stronger states. In spite of their different scientific careers and personal interests, both naturalists played key roles in Portuguese foreign affairs and colonial negotiations of the late nineteenth century, especially during the Scramble for Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to its diverse nature, being an Indonesian is sometimes confusing as it entails overlapping national, ethnic and religious identity. By using a social representation approach, online survey research involving 114 Indonesians was carried out to explore these questions: How do Indonesians negotiate their ethnic, religious and national identity? What identity markers should one possess to claim being an Indonesian? And lastly, who is the nationalist? Research findings suggest that national and ethnic identity as well as ethnic and religious identity were consensual, while the relation between religious and national identity was emancipated. It is also found that being a Muslim and possessing a stronger sense of ethnic identity would increase the likelihood of being a prouder Indonesian, while being a female, living abroad for 5-10 years, being a nationalist Muslim and embracing transnational Islamic movements reduced the probability of having a stronger sense of national identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sense of a nation as a cohesive entity bound by a distinct language, culture, and traditions has been increasingly challenged in the age of globalization. Any discussion of national identity unfolds on a ground which is complicated and fluid. It is often defined by mass migrations across volatile regions and immigration debates within most organized societies, and also contingent upon unforeseen roles played by social media in crucial fields of politics, democratic participation, and communication. India’s national identity has undergone a drastic transformation in the era of globalization and media proliferation. This monograph examines conspicuous spaces and moments of material and digital life in the National Capital Region to understand the underlying momentum for the metaphorical construction of a “New India” and to provide an analytical framework for political and cultural transactions that have defined the nation’s journey toward a new identity and national imagination. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork in India, print and new media analysis, and archival research, I examine globalization’s uneven effects and how global culture has often destabilized, but numerously reinforced, various power structures within the nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Leave majority recorded in England was decisive in determining the UK-wide referendum result. Brexit was made in England. We take this as a prompt to challenge the conventional Anglo- British mindset that animates most studies of 'British politics' and has shaped public attitudes research on the United Kingdom. We explore the persistence of distinctive Eurosceptic views in England and their relationship to English national identity prior to the referendum. We then model referendum vote choice using data from the Future of England Survey. Our analysis shows that immigration concerns played a major role in the Brexit referendum, alongside a general willingness to take risks, right-wing views, older age, and English national identity. Therefore, Brexit was not just made in England, but Englishness was also a significant driver of the choice for Leave. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to analyse the influence of different musical genres with Andean influences (Huayno, Chicha and Rock/Fusion) on the components of Peruvian national identity. To this end, we enlisted the participation of 92 upper-middle-class people (M = 19.91,SD = 1.95). The participants were randomly assigned each music genre in three experimental groups: Huayno (n = 30), Chicha (n = 31) and Rock/Fusion (n = 31). The results show that Rock/Fusion is the most highly rated musical genre with the most positive influence on some stereotypical components of national identity, attitude towards music and positive emotions. In contrast, the more ‘Andeanized’ genres, especially Chicha music, are perceived more negatively and have fewer positive effects on the stereotypical components of national identity, attitude towards music and positive emotions. The discussion suggests that the influence of the musical expressions evaluated depends on the ascribed status of the social group where these expressions were originally conceived and are currently consumed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The experiences of six adolescents in Berlin, as depicted in two documentaries, serve as examples of failed integration. These young people, some with and some without a migrant background, allow glimpses into their lives in Neukölln Unlimited (2010) by Agostino Imondi and Dietmar Ratsch, and in Bettina Blümner’s Prinzessinnenbad / Pool of Princesses (2007). This article highlights how the films corroborate the findings made by social system theorist Ulrich Schmidt-Denter about disaffected youth in Germany. He argues that German self-loathing is a significant reason for the failure of many migrants and their children to integrate. An apparently specifically German tendency to observe and reflect on oneself critically seems to sabotage integration and aspiration. To illustrate how both documentaries validate Schmidt-Denter’s findings, I analyse the six protagonists’ attitudes to themselves and others, demonstrating that they contradict the diagnosis of a new German norm in relation to national identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dominant groups (e.g., White U.S. citizens) are more associated with "American" identity and they feel greater ownership over American national identity compared to ethnic minority groups. We extended this perception to gender and tested whether American national identity is constructed in masculine, versus feminine, terms. We examined whether U.S. men feel greater symbolic ownership over the nation and represent what it means to be a prototypical American, more than U.S. women. In Study 1, men and women considered male-associated traits more American than female-associated traits and listed more men as examples of "true" Americans than women. In Study 2, men reported higher levels of nationalism than women. Women's nationalism was moderated by their conception of male-associated traits as American--women who viewed American identity as more masculine were less nationalistic. Men showed a stronger correlation between gender identity and American identity compared to women. However, correlations between gender identity and nationalism did not differ by participant gender. Results suggest men and masculinity are considered more American than are women and femininity. We provide support for the subgroup asymmetry hypothesis through the novel lens of gender. We discuss means of attenuating the gendered construction of national identity in terms of media, policy, and education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citizenship tests are designed to ensure that new citizens have the knowledge required for successful 'integration'. This article explores what those who have taken the test thought about its content. It argues that new citizens had high levels of awareness of debates about immigration and anti-immigration sentiment. Considering new citizens' views of the test, the article shows how many of them are aware of the role of the test in reassuring existing citizens of their fitness to be citizens. However, some new citizens contest this positioning in 'acts of citizenship' where they assert claims to citizenship which are not necessarily those constructed by the state and implied in the tests. The article will argue that the tests and the nature of the knowledge required to pass them serve to retain new citizens in a position of less-than-equal citizenship which is at risk of being discursively (if less often legally) revoked. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the evolution of tequila's reputation - from lowbrow to high class - in Mexico and the United States. Analyzing the content of novels, magazines, newspapers, ads, and song lyrics, it argues that the current cachet associated with tequila was influenced by a range of historical, political, and economic circumstances within and between Mexico and the United States. Specifically, transformations took place in three key phases including tequila's: (1) increasing ties to national identity in Mexico; (2) changing perception - moving from feared to fun - in the United States; and (3) gaining of state-backed support and legislative protection. In explaining the shifting patterns of prestige, the roles of transnational circuits of consumption and production merit closer analysis in understanding the relations that shape cultural fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The attitudes of the European Union (EU) citizens towards immigration and the impact of their national identification on attitudes towards the EU have received ample attention in the literature. However, the immigrants’ identification with Europe has not been adequately studied. This article investigates the impact of non-EU immigration heritage on European identification. Based on social identity theory and using Eurobarometer cross-sectional data, it compares the European identification of those with a first generation non-EU immigration heritage to that of EU country natives. Moreover, it focuses on salient aspects of immigrant experience such as country policies directed at reducing discrimination and personal experience of discrimination. The results show that those with non-EU immigration heritage have higher European identification compared to the natives. Furthermore, in line with social identity theory, this article shows that successful anti-discrimination policies pull immigrants towards national identification rather than European identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines strategies for immigrants to improve integration by exploring the relationship between occupational choice and assimilation. I ask whether immigrant-origin individuals will be viewed as better representatives of the nation when employed in occupations that reflect national identity. I examine this question with data from original surveys in France, Germany, and the United States. Results suggest that native and immigrant-origin individuals in occupations that reflect national identity are more likely to be seen as ideal representatives of the nation. Yet, the benefits of an occupation that reflects national identity are fairly minor for immigrant-origin individuals in France and Germany and roughly one third the size of the benefit for native-origin individuals. In comparison, native and immigrant-origin individuals in the United States have the same increase in likelihood of being seen as ideal representatives of the nation. These findings have implications for our understanding of immigrant integration and national identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence suggests that incidental national flag exposure activates nationalistic feelings and that incidental exposure to the EU flag can affect citizen attachments to Europe. However, we know little about what inferences citizens make based on the EU flag when they see it displayed by parties in an electoral context. To test the expectation that this display affects citizens’ evaluations of party elites’ EU attachment, we conducted a large-scale experiment embedded in a Swedish survey in which respondents were exposed to communications from one of the two main Swedish parties, containing or not containing the image of the flag. We find that simple visual display does little to move perceptions. However, if citizens perceive that a particular party displayed the flag, then they are more likely to evaluate its party elites as more attached to Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1848 Marx and Engels published their Communist Manifesto. The opening line claimed: ‘A spectre is haunting Europe – the spectre of communism.’ In Poland the experience of more than 40 years of communism and the fear that ‘reds’ still secretly control the government haunts the present. This article explores the emerging political culture and the volatile political climate of post-communist Poland. In particular it looks at the various attempts at lustration as part of transitional justice, at the Kaczyński brothers’ plan to redefine national identity by establishing a moral Fourth Republic, and at the involvement of writers, reporters and film-makers in the lustration debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the relevance of nationalism for politics and intergroup relations, sociologists have devoted surprisingly little attention to the phenomenon in the United States, and historians and political psychologists who do study the United States have limited their focus to specific forms of nationalist sentiment: ethnocultural or civic nationalism, patriotism, or national pride. This article innovates, first, by examining an unusually broad set of measures (from the 2004 GSS) tapping national identification, ethnocultural and civic criteria for national membership, domain-specific national pride, and invidious comparisons to other nations, thus providing a fuller depiction of Americans’ national self-understanding. Second, we use latent class analysis to explore heterogeneity, partitioning the sample into classes characterized by distinctive patterns of attitudes. Conventional distinctions between ethnocultural and civic nationalism describe just about half of the U.S. population and do not account for the unexpectedly low levels of national pride found among respondents who hold restrictive definitions of American nationhood. A subset of primarily younger and well-educated Americans lacks any strong form of patriotic sentiment; a larger class, primarily older and less well educated, embraces every form of nationalist sentiment. Controlling for sociodemographic characteristics and partisan identification, these classes vary significantly in attitudes toward ethnic minorities, immigration, and national sovereignty. Finally, using comparable data from 1996 and 2012, we find structural continuity and distributional change in national sentiments over a period marked by terrorist attacks, war, economic crisis, and political contention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the multiplicity of South Korean Major League Baseball fans, with a focus on the tensions that they experience under the nationalistic aura surrounding MLB fandom while pursuing their individual hobby. For this purpose, it employs the idea of “post-Westernization” to interpret baseball as a global sport and examine its recent popularity in South Korea. By exploring the activities and voices of an online community among Korean fans, it demonstrates how national desires were complicated when they collided with a global strategy during the first World Baseball Classic in 2006. Analysis of Korean MLB fans during the WBC indicates both the possibilities and the limits of global baseball as a case of post-Westernization. The study shows that becoming an MLB fan in South Korea is at the intersection of national identity (nationalist fervor for MLB), regional rivalry (against Japan, the former colonizer) and global sensibilities (American sport fandom). Korean fans’ responses can be summarized as the national-regional-global nexus in which they perceive the existence of regional and global hierarchies, but they also routinely contest their own and each others’ perceptions. Finally, it suggests that fans’ articulation of the national, regional, and global are far from being fixed or unidirectional: they are constantly under construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The constitutional position of England has become the subject of intense focus following the decision by the Conservative Party to table the question of English devolution in the immediate aftermath of the Scottish Referendum. Various pundits have argued that English nationalism has become a major factor in British politics and a source of deepening territorial tension. Academic commentators have been slower to interrogate the nature and implications of these assertions and, despite the ubiquity of references to English interests and anxieties in political discourse, there is a much less extensive analytical literature on the make-up and political dimensions of the national identity of the largest people of the United Kingdom. How, then, should the political status and character of the English identity be understood and studied? Notions of a politicised Englishness reflect various, often contentious, judgements of both interpretive and empirical kinds. This article highlights the different ways in which 'politicisation' in this context has been characterised, and shows that each of these established perspectives yields a different sort of political response and policy approach. I finish with some observations about how politicisation might be conceptualised, and identify the elements of a more comprehensive and fluid understanding of this phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) has been one of the most dramatic and widely discussed features of British politics in recent years. This article argues that one vital but largely overlooked facet of this phenomenon has been the politics of national identity. It argues that despite UKIP's ostensibly unionist stance, Englishness is an important pivot around which key elements of the party's appeal revolve, notably in terms of its Euroscepticism, its opposition to immigration and its anti-establishment narrative. It argues that the Anglo-Britishness promulgated by UKIP allows space for the celebration of English identity rather more easily than of other substate national identities, as it does not challenge the legitimacy of the UK state, which is itself seen as the expression of Anglo-British identity and sovereignty. Scottish nationalism, on the other hand, is seen as a threat to the Union and therefore anti-English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates whether European identity is a feasible and functional alternative to national identity. We examine the extent, determinants and consequences of national and European identification among (immigrant) Turkish and native Belgian pupils, with data gathered from 1629 pupils across 68 Belgian schools. The results show that immigrant Turkish pupils identify more strongly with Europe than with Belgium. The groups are closer to each other with respect to their European identification, while the latter is not in conflict with national identification. Moreover, European identity is less ethnically and more civically defined than national identity. Importantly, European identification was moderately related to academic achievement, though it is hard to make a causal claim. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This comparative analysis examined how the presidents of Russia, Belarus, and Poland, the three countries with different political regimes, used the New Year’s addresses to rhetorically construct social reality in terms of national identity and the positions of the countries in the world. Specifically, the study looked at how presidents used rhetorical means to build and reinforce solidarity and civil sphere, to appeal to the nations’ historical consciousness, to include or exclude certain groups, to define the relationship of the state and society, and to rhetorically construct the image of conformity. The differences in how the presidents rhetorically constructed and reinforced solidarity and civil sphere were revealed in how the speakers stressed active role of either the government or the community in overcoming crises. It was observed that the image of solidarity and conformity could be rhetorically constructed not only with the help of unifying rhetoric but also by blaming and social exclusion of “enemies” to build sense of connectedness and conformity against “the other.” The way the presidents spoke about status quo in their countries demonstrated how institutionalized uncertainty could be rhetorically constructed in democratic regimes and how stability could serve as an argument in sustaining regime legitimacy in nondemocratic regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organised movements that challenge a government must construct and frame their own visions of the nation that legitimate their challenge. To do so, they may attempt to mobilise a cultural nationalism to supersede dominant political nationalisms. An alternative cultural nationalism can appeal to patriotism while undermining the legitimacy of a standing government. Such work is subtle, particularly when direct challenges to authority are proscribed by law. Organisational rituals of belonging are powerful tools in this process. Ritual repetition of key framing ideas can unite members around the cultural construct of the movement without directly addressing their targets. This paper examines the organisation of the Society of United Irishmen (1791-98) and their use of a membership 'test' ritual. The test epitomised the primary work of the society which entailed the construction of a new vision of Irish nationalism. As the Society transitioned from its rhetorical function to organising an actual rising against British rule, the Society's test and related rituals changed to reflect this shift. While the rising itself failed, the cultural construct endured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]