Nationality and identity: nation, nation-state, citizenship

Sociology: Culture & Identity

1. Nationality and identity

   • What is nationality?
     • Key term: A nation is a particular geographical area with which a group of people identify, to which they share among themselves a sense of belonging based on a common sense of culture, history and usually language.
     • Key term: A nation-state is a nation which has its own independent government controlling a geographical area.
     • Key term: nationality is having citizenship of a nation-state, including things like voting rights, a passport, and the right of residence.
     • A nation may or may not be a nation-state. Most of those living with in a nation-state will have citizenship, which gives people their legal nationality. Nationality usually involves the rights and responsibilities attached to being a citizen, with right such as being able to access government services like healthcare and education, having a passport and the right of residence, and responsibilites such as obeying the law and paying taxes. Nationality is most commonly based on place of birth or marriage, but can also be achieved by naturalization, whereby poeple choose their nationality after meeting legal requirements.
     • Study: Hall (1992) suggests that every nation has a collection of stories, images and symbols about shared experiences, which people draw on to construct and express their national identity.
       • Example: a flag, a national anthem, festivals, national hereos and stories, national sports teams, national drinks or foods, national dress or music.
     • A national identity is formed by the agencies of socialisation through which it is passed on from one generation to the next. For example, the education system tends to promote national identity, through teaching citisenship, language, literature and history, and understanding and respect of national values. It is through the agencies of socialisation that people learn a common language, which is an important aspect of a national identity and the mass media generally promote a national identity by giving higher priotrity to mational over foregin news, and celebrating national sporting events. National identity is reinforced through rituals and ceremories e.g. bonfire night, 4th of july.
     • Study: Palmer (1999) discusses how a national identity is promoted and maintained by hertiage, using the historic symbols of the nation as a means of attracting tourists. For example, Buckingham palace, the tower of London are presented as symbols to encourage tourists to celebrate and share identities in Britain, all manner of castles, palaces, stately homes, museums, hertiage centres and pictureque villages are used to promote a distinctive sense of national identity to tourists, and also build this identity for residents.
   • Nationality as a source of identity
     • Having a particular nationality involves a national identity. National identity usually involves as sense of belonging to a nation-sate and sharing things incommon with others of the same nationaity, and a consciousness of differences from those of other nationalities.
     • National identity and nationalism are usually linked to nationality and membership of a nation-sate, but this is not neccessarily the case. For example, the British nation-state includes the nations of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, together forming the UK. Citizens of the UK all have British nationality, but they do not all have this nationality as their main source of national identity.
     • There is a growing sense of nationalism and national identity within the countries making up the British state, and a declining number of people are identfying themselves as 'british' adopting instead of distinct English, Scottish or Welsh identities, or regional identity in Northern Ireland.
     • Key term: Nationalism involves a sense of pride in, and commitment to, a nation, and a very strong sense of national identity.
   • What is meant by a British identity?
     • Britain is made up of a wide varity of ethnic groups, including Welsh, Irish, Scottish, English, Poles, Indian-,Bangladeshi- and Pakistani- Asians and African Caribbeans, so it can sometimes be difficult to identify a specific British identity and a British culture, and a national identity shared by all citizens what is sometimes suggested as making up 'British culture' or a 'British identity' may just be a reflection of the ability of those with power to impose their view of 'Britishness' on the rest of society.
     • British national symbols, like the Queen, the English language (though British minority ethnic groups, including Welsh, have their own language too), the Union jack flag and the British passport. However, identifying features of 'Britishness' beyond these becomes quite difficult.
     • The British Home Office has devised a 'Life in the UK Test' for those wishing to apply for British citizenship, which is meant to identify features of 'Britishness' that immigrants should be familar with. However, it is doubtful whether even most people who were born and bred in Britian would pass the test.
   • Globalisation and declinning national identities
     • Key term: A culture of hybridity is a culture that is a 'mix' of two or more other cultures, creating a nre culture (a 'hybrid').
     • Globalisation is changing national cultures, and blurring national identities. Hall suggests that one possible consequences of globalisation ia that national cultures may decline, leading to new cultures of hydridity and new hybrid identities. Decisions and events in one part of the world can now have significant consquences for people across the globe. The mass media now reports events across the world almost instantaneously, as well as exposing people to other cultures, including attitudes, values, religious beliefs, fashions and diet.
     • People travel abroad much more than they used to , and more British people are buying homes in foregin countires. Britians membership of the European Union means that some decisions affecting British life are now taken in collaboration with other European countires, and the same currency (the euro) is now used across much of Euope. Widespread immigration means there are substantial minority ethnic groups in Britain as well as in many other countries. Individual countires appear to be of declining importance, with national identities becoming diluted.
       • Postmodernists see such changes opening up more opportunities for people to choose from a far wider range of cultures and identities than they had in the past. Consequently, nationality and national cultures may be less significant as a source of identity, and people might see a European or global identity, for example, as more significant than a British or English identity.
     • While globalisation may be undermining traditional conceptions of national identity, Hall recognizes that this, as well as the growth of wider political units like the European Union, can also give rise to nationalism and a reassertion of national identity as a means of opposing trend. This idea of asserting national identity as a means of opposing changes like globalisation and tge European union as been discribed up Orr (2011) as part of a more general trend towards contructing what see calls negative identities, as people rage at anyone seen to be different. This is where people construst and define their identities by who they are not.
   • A British identity crisis?
     • There does appear to be a growing identity crisis in the UK, and particularly over whar is meant by a 'British identity'. This identity is becoming less important to the majority of people, and the survery evidence below suggests that the 'British' identity is fraying, with English, Scottish and Welsh identities replacing it.