‘National Identity’ as a Rhetorical Resource

Abstract

While cultural and social analysts both in Australia and overseas (e.g. Adams, 1997; Ignatieff, 1995; 1997) have drawn attention to the international rise of ethnic nationalism in the ‘new world order’ of the post-cold war world, very little ethnomethodologically-inspired work has addressed the topic. While national identity has become a burgeoning area of interest in the sociological literature (e.g., Delanty, 1996; Treanor, 1997; Rex, 1996; Achard, 1993; Condor, 1999) there appears to be a lack of sustained attention to the way – in actual talk and interaction – expressions of national identity are deployed for various interactional purposes and with a range of interactional consequences. As such, the links between the situated and moment-by-moment interactional management of questions of national identity in talk, and the broader cultural, social and political context in which such claims are mobilised, remain unclear.