Nationality and Identity

• National identity


  The identity of a whole country rather than the individual
• Ways national identity is expressed

  • Supporting your national team in sport
  • Pride in the anthem and flag
• Anderson's view of a nation


  An 'imagined country' where members will never meet most of their fellow members, so national identity is socially constructed through symbols and rituals
• Publication of newspapers and books

  Created a national language, contributing to the social construction of national identity
• In conflicts and disasters, the fate of the British people involved is given a higher status than others, and we're encouraged to get behind our nation's interests
• Difference between English and British identity

  For Scottish, Welsh or Irish, there is a clear difference, as those countries have been in a position of subordination to England, leading them to differentiate themselves from the dominant English identity and assert their differences
• English national identity


  Elusive, developed through missionary nationalism in the interests of unity and empire, so Britishness may just be diluted Englishness
• The world is in the middle of a global identity crisis, in which many of the hold divides such as east vs west, by which we had defined ourselves, have broken down
• Britain having lost its empire and feeling very small in a global world, is unsure about whether it should become more American or European
• Englishness was based on historical traditions that are meaningless to a vast majority living there today, so there is a struggle to find an English identity
• Sardar's view on developing a confident identity

  Embrace diversity but also focus on what makes us the same
• Devolution, economic crisis and increasing immigration


  English national identity appears to have strengthened
• The growth in popularity of groups such as the English defence league suggests this new English identity is negative and exclusive
• A growth of English nationalism seems more exclusive and white, leading someone who grew up Caribbean and can see himself British and also black to question where he would fit in a new nationalistic England
• Young people are 'citizens of the world' and national boundaries and cultures are less significant, with the internet and social media contributing to this breaking down of boundaries
• Cultural homogenisation


  Countries may accept a global culture, and all countries will be more similar
• Cultural hybridity


  Countries may take some parts of global culture alongside their traditional culture, and develop an individual culture
• Cultural resistance


  Countries may resist global culture and fiercely protect their cultural heritage, becoming more traditional and nationalistic