Getting Real on Fluctuating National Identities: Insights from Northern Cyprus

Abstract

Abstract: The discursive-constructivist accounts of identity have made a significant contribution to our understanding of how national identities change. Unfortunately, they have also turned our attention away from the role that the global economic system plays in the constitution and transformation of collective identities. This article draws attention to the shortcomings of discursive-constructivist approaches by scrutinizing the identity transformations that took place within the Turkish-Cypriot community in Northern Cyprus in the last decade. It suggests that within the context of contemporary globalization and EUropeanization, the (trans-)formation of national identities cannot be fully understood without taking the functioning of the global capitalist system into account.