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Summary National Identity & The News
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National identity and the newsLecture 1
Nation, for Barrington
- Nation = a collective of people, united by share cultural features and the belief to
the right to territorial self-determination
- State = principle political unit (in international system) corresponding to a territory, a
population, and a set of ruling institutions
- Country = the territorial component of the state
- Border between US x Mexico = border between two states
- Nigeria is a country, a state but not a nation à more than 500 languages, ethnic
groups, etc.
- 3 components necessary (Barrington):
o People à “we are a group”
o Shared cultural characteristics à values, language, myths, symbols
o Territorial self-determination à we want to control our homeland; may or
may not be the case already
Anderson
- Why are there so many ppl willing to die for their states
- Emphasizes the emotional power of the nation
- Nations and nation-ness, nationalism:
o Cultural artefacts
o Profound emotional legitimacy = ppl willing to die for them
- Nation = an imagined political community, that’s both inherently limited and
sovereign
à imagined = we cannot possibly know all of our fellow citizens, but we all share the
idea that we are a part of the same nation (socially constructed)
à community = imagined horizontal comradeship – despite actual inequalities
(socially constructed)
à limited = has borders and other nation outside
à sovereign = free, authority above (older) dynasties/realms
Competing definitions?
A collective of ppl united by shared Imagined political community that is
cultural features and the belief in the both inherently limited and sovereign
right to territorial self-determination
- Emotional power shouldn’t be understated
Nationalism
- Makes me think of a sense of superiority towards other nations
1
,Nationalism for Barrington
- Nationalism = the pursuit (by argument or other activity) of a set of rights for the
self-defined members of the nation, including, at a minimum, territorial
autonomy/sovereignty
à doesn't have to be violent (peaceful separatist movements, referendums)
à territorial boundaries defined (where it should be)
à membership boundaries defined (who’s included)
- Both about ppl and the territory
Banal nationalism
- Billig has two goals here
1. Move nationalism away from periphery
o Nationalism isn’t only for extremists, it happens every day, it’s recreated
every day
2. Challenge idea that nations are the natural, moral order
o It’s not necessarily the right way
A brief history of nationalism (Gellner)
- A while back = agrarian societies
à before the industrial revolution, society was set up around smaller social units;
separate, local cultures
à people identify with their family, kin, village
à ppl learn their culture locally
à limited literacy
- Industrial societies
à huge capital cities, industrial urban centers
à but because you have ppl coming from previously separate cultures, there is need
for communication across groups
à later also a need for common language/writing system and common culture
à education system, state-run, becomes crucial
- Through this process, the folk-transmitted cultures shifted into a school-transmitted
culture
- State and culture become linked
o State runs the schools and therefore standardizes the education
o All attendees within a state get a culturally similar education
o Homogeneity of culture across a state
o Culture becomes identity, to guide through the impersonal, mobile industrial
society
o So culture and state (“nation”) become linked
The “trick” of nationalism (Gellner)
- Nations create and enforce cultural unity
- Diminishing sub-cultures in favor of the high culture
2
, - For Gellner, this is nationalism = the imposition of a common high culture on
previously distinct, low cultures
- But nations often claim to be about a “folk culture” achieving political recognition
- BUT nations didn’t start this way, they were different groups coming together à this
is the disingenuous trick
- So nations seems like a natural, moral ordering of the political world à history
suggest otherwise
Nationalism and assimilation
- Building a nation can/must suppress existing/potential nations (or sub-cultures)
- Cultural assimilation = cultural dominance of one culture over the other; in the end
the original culture has completely vanished
- Today’s version?
à Trump telling the congress women to go where they came from
à There is one true version of what the nation looks like à problematic
So, why banal nationalism? (Billig)
- Billig critiques this sense that nations are neutral, moral
- Yet, helps explain why nation is so powerful, too
à why ppl are wiling to die for it
à why ppl got to war to protect it
à Helps explain why national identity is often clear and so strong
- Banal nationalism = relatively, small, seemingly unimportant, routine elements in
everyday life that remind us of national identity and nationhood (banal = so lacking in
originality as to be obvious and boring)
- This reinforces nations’ importance
- This reminds us that we belong to our nation
- Banal nationalism à a Dutch flag on a carton of milk, American flags everywhere
- Not problematic per say
- Some rarer, but still not perceived as blatant nationalism à sport events, Eurovision
- Even subtler
à news about these events, that re-cues national identity; news discourse implying
togetherness
à the simple division between foreign and domestic news
à “the prime minister said”, “our troops have…”, “the weather will be great..”
- Clarification of the concept:
o In established nations
o Constant stream
o Routine, unconscious
o Not deliberate
- But banal nationalism is not innocent, nor unproblematic à a key point for Billig
Why this matters?
3
, - Reinforces “ideology of nationalism”
- That fighting for nations is fighting for a natural political order
- Nations aren’t natural not homogenous
à differences between religions, ethnicities, social class, regions
- Particular voices are diminished in the national voice à banal nationalism is
therefore problematic
Critiques of banal nationalism
- Only applies to a single, established nation with established borders
- Think of issues in: UK (Scotland, Northern Ireland), Spain (Catalonia, Basque country),
China (Hong Kong, Taiwan), Belgium (Flanders v. Wallonia)
- And supra-nationalism in Europe and beyond
Quick summary
- Nations, nationalism are about (imagined) groups of ppl fighting for/to maintain
territory
- Banal nationalism is the small, daily, and routine flagging of nationhood
o It reinforces the ideology of nationalism
à that nations are the natural political order
à and that nations and culture (should) coincide
o It reinforce the importance of nations and thus national identity
From states to individuals
National identity?
- People are members of nations à by birth or subsequent movement
- But most ppl also feel a sense of national identity and often group loyalty to that
nation
- Why?
1. History of nationalism (link of state and culture; state provides sense of
identity and culture)
2. Banal nationalism (daily reinforcement of nation)
3. Psychology of group attachments
How group identity works
- We unconsciously categorize ppl naturally into groups
- We are either in or out of the group
- Groups serve psychological needs for members
à Affiliation, goal accomplishment, an image associated with specific groups
Social identity theory
- These groups memberships become a part of our sense of self
- Social identity = that part of our self-concept based on group memberships
- Simply being in a group elicits “ingroup bias”
o Ingroup bias = tendency to prefer, and act more favorably, toward our own
groups/fellow group members
- We need to feel pro-self, so we tend to feel:
4
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