When the Nation Becomes Louder: Everyday Nationalism and the 2014 Scottish Independence Referendum

Minna Liinpää

doi:10.1177/0038038520931992

Abstract

The 2014 Scottish independence referendum provided a sociologically opportune moment to study how nationalist narratives are constructed, expressed and experienced from below – or how nationalism is lived on the ground – as ‘the Scottish nation’ was widely discussed and debated. Drawing on 24 qualitative interviews, this article considers how ethnic and racialised minorities experienced and made sense of the nation on an everyday level around the time of the referendum. Consequently, this article argues that experiencing the everyday as routine, mundane or unremarkable is often a privilege; that focusing on those whose national belonging is not ‘beyond question’ is a revealing angle to take; and that during such hyper-nationalist contexts the nation merely becomes louder for ethnic and racialised minorities.

Highlights

This article makes use of the 2014 Scottish independence referendum in an effort to study everyday nationalism
This article focuses on ethnic and racialised minorities’ views and experiences, and seeks to tease out the ways in which the nation is made visible in everyday life, and how – in that context – the ideas of ‘race’, ethnicity and nation interact
I will advance three interrelated arguments: first, informed by Smith’s (2016) work on everyday racism, I argue that everyday nationalism studies need to become more critical of the notion of ‘the everyday’ itself, and to take into consideration that experiencing the everyday as routine, mundane or unremarkable is often a privilege

Summary

Introduction

This article makes use of the 2014 Scottish independence referendum in an effort to study everyday nationalism. I will advance three interrelated arguments: first, informed by Smith’s (2016) work on everyday racism, I argue that everyday nationalism studies need to become more critical of the notion of ‘the everyday’ itself, and to take into consideration that experiencing the everyday as routine, mundane or unremarkable is often a privilege To this end, literature on everyday racism and ethnicity provides an important body of work to tap into – especially as ideas about the nation are closely bound up with ideas of ‘race’ and ‘ethnicity’ (Balibar, 1991; Gilroy, 1992; Triandafyllidou, 1998). We need to remain attuned to the complexities of the category of the everyday when, on the one hand, studying those who are often seen to unproblematically be part of the nation (often ‘white’ nationals in white-majority countries – see, for example, Skey, 2011) or, on the other, those whose status is often questioned or challenged (see, for example, Antonsich, 2016, 2018)

Methodology

Conclusion