Representation Of National Identity Research Articles

The concept of performative national identity: the theoretical methodological framework

Modern social and political changes emphasize the particular relevance of the problem of forming national identity in the context of often contradictory sociocultural processes. Leveling out negative social phenomena that exploit the category of national identity and developing its potential for the formation of civic values and harmonization of interethnic relations in Russian society necessitates a deep understanding of this phenomenon, which is considered primarily as a result of its construction by social institutions. However, this process also takes the form of assimilation of elements of nation-building, passed through the filters of personal attitudes, representation of individual national identity in various social situations, which constitutes the problem of this research. Based on the study of theoretical data, the author proposed a category of performative national identity based on the application of the approaches of social constructivism and symbolic interactionism. The methods of theoretical research were theoretical analysis and synthesis, induction and modeling. As a result, the category of performative national identity has been developed, which includes technologies, features, resources for construction and conscious and unconscious representation of national identity in everyday practices. The results of the research develop the theory and methodology of constructing national identity, expand the understanding of the process of formation of national identity as a result of the assimilation of collective memory through the prism of personal attitudes, and also allow us to study the features of the representation of national identity in various situations from the point of view of the dramaturgical approach.

A Critical Pragmatic Study of National Identity Representation in American Political Discourse

National identity is considered the main reason for displaying the national flag ,celebrating national holidays and even declaring solidarity with millions of people whom we do not meet. The study investigates how national identity can be defined along both ethno-cultural and civic lines. This study is a critical pragmatic study of national identity used in American political discourse. One political speech is selected to be the data.This speech belongs to Trump. The model adopted in the analysis is based on Grice’s Maxims Breaching (1975) and Brown and Levinson’s Politeness Theory (1987). A mixed method is used in analyzing and representing the results. This work tries to answer the following questions: What are the types of national identity that are represented in American political discourse? What is the most common type of maxims breaching and politeness strategies? Which one of these strategies that is highly used? This study aims at identifying the most frequent type of national identity, investigating the most frequent type of maxims breaching and politeness strategies in addition to identifying one of these strategies that is highly used. To answer the above questions, the study hypothesizes that: politicians present their ethnic national identity higher than the civic version, flouting quality maxim is extremely employed, positive politeness strategies score high frequency, and finally politeness strategies are the most dominant strategies used in the adopted model. The most important conclusions the study has come up with are:1) ethnic national identity is highly demonstrated within American political discourse more than the civic one. 2) Regarding maxims breaching, flouting quality maxim is the most commonly one used in the political speech under study. 3) Politicians make use of politeness strategies. Positive politeness strategies are the most dominant ones 4) According to the pragmatic strategies, it is shown that politeness strategies are highly utilized in presenting national identity.

Az identitás maga az üzenet. A tömegmédiumok szerepe a nemzeti nagycsoportok identitásának hagyományozásában

Marshall McLuhan’s work in communication theory has drawn our attention to the fact that mass media, beyond transmitting knowledge, also shape our thinking. The same effect can be assumed for the way we think about our communities. Indeed, mass media have played and still play a crucial role in the birth and maintenance of historical large groups. Not only because our knowledge of the nation is fundamentally derived from the mass media, but also because these media have created a new language in which inter-group relations are inherently encoded. Media logic, not just the author, has a crucial role to play in shaping the representation of collective memory in history textbooks. As the most influential medium of mass communication, the textbook reconstructs and transmits the pattern of representation of national identity for future generations. In this way, identity becomes a message. The paper demonstrates this process through the example of the textbook transmission of a national trauma.

Identity, migration, and social media: Generation Z in USMCA

Abstract Purpose This research analyzes national identity representations held by Generation Z youth living in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) countries. In addition, it aims to identify the information on these issues that they are exposed to through social media. Methods A qualitative approach carried out through in-depth interviews was selected for the study. The objective is to reconstruct social meaning and the social representation system. The constant comparative method was used for the information analysis, backed by the NVivo program. Findings National identity perceptions of the adolescents interviewed are positive in terms of their own groups, very favorable regarding Canadians, and unfavorable vis-à-vis Americans. Furthermore, the interviewees agreed that social media have influenced their desire to travel or migrate, and if considering migrating, they have also provided advice as to which country they might go to. On another point, Mexicans are quite familiar with the Treaty; Americans are split between those who know something about it and those who have no information whatsoever; whereas Canadians know nothing about it. This reflects a possible way to improve information generated and spread by social media. Practical implications The results could improve our understanding of how young people interpret the information circulating in social media and what representations are constructed about national identities. We believe this research can be replicated in other countries. Social implications We might consider that the representations Generation Z has about the national identities of these three countries and what it means to migrate could have an impact on the democratic life of each nation and, in turn, on the relationship among the three USMCA partners. Originality/value As one of the few studies carried out on USMCA national identities and by qualitatively exploring the representations that Generation Zers have about them, it may provide information that could contribute to expanding understanding among the citizens of the region.

Representation of National Identity on the Net

Introduction. The purpose of the article is to study and construct the typology of situations of the national identity actualization of young people in the digital space. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the study of the constructing national identity process as a result of the assimilation of institutional nation-building, passed through the filters of personal attitudes, that can be observed in the variability of representing national identity ways in various social situations. The relevance is conditioned by modern socio-political conditions and the need for in-depth study of the category of national identity.Methodology and sources. The research methodology is based on the approaches of social constructivism (the nation as an “imaginary community” by B. Anderson), symbolic interactionism (the dramatic approach of I. Goffmann), ethno-symbolism (everyday nationalism of J. Hutchinson) and memory studies (cultural memory of J. Assman). The research method is a discourse analysis of blogs in TikTok and Instagram, the unit of analysis is a blog as a case, sample size made up 127 cases. The collection of empirical data took place from 01.26.2022 to 03.10.2022.Results and discussion. The digital space provides the conditions for the maximum degree of intensity of the national identity representation, which can be represented in social networks by a wide variety of forms (costume, text, music, image, scenery, etc.). The following types of representation of national identity in the network have been identified: national identity as a “profession”, as “fandom”, national identity in the context of constant updating (migrants, intercultural marriage), in the context of everyday life, situational national identity, lack of a specific national identity.Conclusion. The conducted empirical research allows to construct the typology of situations of national identity of young people representations in the network. The typology is based on the degree of intensity of national identity representation. The typology can be represented as a continuum, on one pole of which there is a vivid representation of national identity, on the other - an active blurring and confusion of national markers.

Representation of National Identity and Culture in the Saudi EFL Textbook Series Mega Goal: A Critical Discourse Analysis

Representation of National Identity and Culture in the Saudi EFL Textbook Series Mega Goal: A Critical Discourse Analysis

Railways as Japanese identity: Riding between confidence and inexperience

ABSTRACT Does railway technology represent Japanese national identity? This paper focuses on the narratives indicating railway technology as a form of Japanese national identity representation. Using Japanese government pronouncements and interviews given by people involved in the Japanese railway supply industry appearing in Japanese vernaculars, I show that railway technology constitutes an integral component of the contemporary Japanese identity narrative, which has been built up through a particular technopolitical regime. These narratives consistently refer to the purported safety, reliability, and punctuality of Japanese railways as one manifestation of the high-quality technological skills underpinning Japanese identity construction. However, the narratives also reveal an inherent irony, whereby the confident Japanese Self at once reveals a countervailing, inexperienced Japanese Self, in which the Japanese railway technopolitical regime realizes that its own domestic strength has resulted in a lack of international experience compared to its European, and increasingly Chinese, rivals. I conclude by suggesting that the Japanese railway identity follows a complex construct involving a confident Self in contradistinction to an inexperienced Self both reproduced in opposition to the European and Chinese Other.

“Doing the nation”-the representation of national identity: evidence from Chinese Confucius Institutes in Thailand

AbstractThis article examines the extent to which overseas Chinese educators at Confucius Institutes (CIs) in Thailand act as representatives and practitioners of Chinese national identity. Though working for the state, CI teachers promote Chinese language and culture according to their own perceptions. In this paper, participatory observation and in-depth interviews were employed to assess how CI teachers in Thailand articulate their Chineseness and national identity. The findings show that (1) banal national sentiment was an important expression of the CI teachers' national identity, in terms of psychological attachment and ingrained behaviors; (2) pragmatic identity politics are used to distinguish various contributors to the CI; (3) the materialization of Chinese national identity recontextualizes the country via national symbols and cultural activities. The intricacy of the everyday activities of CI teachers illuminates the trans-nationalization and localization of Chinese national identity, which constitute the “doing” of the nation that the imaginary Chinese community in Thailand represents not just a government-endorsed national identity but also the CI teachers' creation of tradition.

The use of identity-related frames in electoral pledges and its effects on Euroscepticism in France and Germany

National identification strength is a key Euroscepticism driver. We examine how politicians’ framing of immigration policies increases the salience of different national identity representations and its relationship with support for the European Union (EU) in a two-waves between-subject survey-experiment using French and German samples. As predicted, exposure to assimilation frames (directly for the French sample or via frame perception for both samples) increased the salience of ethnocultural national identity representations. Additionally, as hypothesised, higher ethnocultural representations salience following assimilation frames exposure was related to higher Euroscepticism. However, feeling emotionally attached to the EU reduced this negative impact of ethnocultural national identity representations on EU attitudes. We discuss the role of ethnocultural nationalism in Euroscepticism and the importance of fostering stronger emotional ties to the EU.

FORMATION OF PERFORMATIVE NATIONAL IDENTITY OF YOUNG RUSSIANS IN POLITICAL PRACTICES

This article proposes to make analysis of the problem of constructing a performative national identity of young Russians in the process of political participation. The research is based on the results of an empirical study. The purpose of this paper is to identify the typology of performative national identity based on the perception of the political image of the state. The methodological basis of the study is social constructivism; the representation of national identity is analyzed as a social performance. A focused group interview was chosen as the research method. Between July and September 2021 and January-March 2022, 9 focus groups were held with representatives of different categories of young Russians: teenagers (from 14 to 17 years old), adult youth, working youth, "Orthodox youth" in the St. Petersburg State Budgetary Institution "City Center for Social Programs and Prevention of Antisocial behavior among youth "CONTACT". The results of the study would help to reveal the difference in the representation of the national identity of Russian youth, depending on their political views and forms of political participation. Typology can be represented as a continuum, on one pole of which is the national identity as complex of political practices in the traditionalist model, on the other - in the globalist model. Also, the study showed a close relationship between the categories of "patriotism" and "national identity" in the context of the perception of various symbols used to construct historical continuity. The results help to identify and describe the existing types of performative national identity of modern Russian youth, which could contribute a lot to increase the effectiveness of educational work with youth.

Color Harmonization in Georgian Ornaments

In the paper are discussed the issues of research of the colors used in Georgian ornament. In the Georgian ethnography, the ornaments are represented in a various way as in secular so in the church clothes, shoes, carpet products, weapons, jewelry, stone carpentry, pottery and etc. The ornaments are presented with a rich palette of colors in pictorial iconography, manuscripts and miniatures. Ornament, as one of the important monuments of Georgian cultural heritage, is the representation of national identity and indigenousity.  The development of tourism in Georgia was accompanied by the commercialization of ethnographic items and as a matter of fact, we find gross inaccuracies - in terms of forms, origin, dominant colors and decorations. As a result, often, neither the shape nor the combination of colors of the ornaments have anything to do with the old Georgian ornament. There is a danger that the stylization will continue and lack of information will lead to its complete confusion and even to oblivion. In the Georgian sciences ornaments are studied as in the artistic so in the symbolic ways. In spite of existing situation with studies, systemization of the Georgian ornaments is not conducted according to form, color and symbolic peculiarities and their rational usage in the various technologies sustaining and protecting the original forms and colors.

Framing the inclusiveness of the national ingroup: Do identity-related frames affect national identity representations salience?

This between-subject survey experiment, conducted in two waves using a German sample (N = 1166 in Wave 1, N = 829 in Wave 2), examined the hypothesis that identity-related frames – specifically, assimilation versus multicultural – affect outgroup prejudice and admission policy preferences by increasing the salience of different national identity representations (NIR). Participants were exposed to identical articles (except for the manipulations) framing information about Syrian refugees in Germany in either assimilation or multicultural terms. As predicted, exposure to assimilation versus multicultural frames led to higher ethnocultural NIR salience and, in turn, to higher outgroup prejudice and preference for more restrictive admission policies. Still, findings pointed to the defining role of frame content and valence perception in these effects, as perceiving the frame as more assimilationist and anti-immigration was related to higher ethnocultural NIR salience. Furthermore, frame perception explained a larger portion of variation in ethnocultural NIR salience than treatment alone. Additionally, ethnocultural NIR salience fostered intergroup threat perception leading to higher outgroup prejudice and preference for restrictive asylum policies. In contrast, civic NIR salience was unaffected by the experimental manipulation. We discuss the impact of identity-related frames on ethnocultural NIR salience and the role of exclusionary national identities on outgroup prejudice and preference for restrictive admission policies. We also highlight the benefits of using multicultural frames to frame information about refugees and asylum to foster positive intergroup perceptions.

The Value of Multiculturalism and Language in Children's Literature: A Critical Study

Celebrating language diversity, cultural pluralism, and multiculturalism has long been seen as a sign of cultural openness and awareness in children's literature. Many good examples on cultural pluralism are seen in children’s books that celebrate the value of humanity as a universal concept rather than only a representation of national identity. The paper emphasizes the invitation to call upon pluralism as well as the cultural diversity which constitutes a new vision in children’s literature. Despite the fact that children’s literature has developed over an extended period of time, one has to understand the role that cultural diversity and its representation in children’s literature have in developing education and classrooms’ curriculum. However, as the paper showed us, multicultural children’s literature is still growing as many scholars and writers began to realize the importance of multicultural education in terms of social, ideological, and linguistic aspects.

Het laatste woord in Uphoffs ‘Rotte Boek’

Imagology studies the representation of national identities in (literary) texts, but is usually limited to a cultural-historical and intertextual focus. Hence the textual, ‘aesthetic function’ of literature is often neglected. In this article we argue that the textual analysis of literary techniques, specifically metafiction, can be a useful theoretical impulse for the premises of imagology. This proposed focus also does more justice to (metafictional) literature’s critical capacities regarding the representation of national identities and ‘the other’. This ‘textual’ form of imagology, focused on metafiction, will be applied to the literary representation of a specific European region, the Balkans, in De spelers [The players] (2009) by Manon Uphoff. This novel deals with a love affair between a Dutch woman and a man who fled his native country in response to the violent conflicts that resulted from the disintegration of Yugoslavia in the 1990’s. The representation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in De spelers could be typified as stereotypical or balkanist discourse – a view that was articulated by reviewer Elsbeth Etty in the national paper NRC Handelsblad. We will argue, however, that the self-referential elements of Uphoffs novel have (self-)critical potential with regard to its balkanist representation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Memorias de una joven obrera: Actitudes sociales, catolicismo y poderes locales franquistas en una comunidad rural (Béjar, 1939-1960)

This article shows through a female worker life history in Béjar, named Lucía García Hernández, an ordinariness story during post-war time in a rural community located in Salamanca. Through this oral source interpretation and also through the historical events that happenned in the fourties and in the fifties in Béjar, this articles intends to explore how local authorities from Francoism and Catholic church imposed the representations of national identity. Straight ahead the dictatorship power, this paper examines from the history from below approach the different attitudes and social behaviours from the textile female workers in Béjar and also the Catholic female mobilization concerning to these ones, specially on morality issue. For that purpose, special emphasis is placed upon common experiences from gender, class, race and age notions. Finally, this article examines some of the sociabilities from the Catholic Workers Action, “grey places” where female and male labor force experienced a different way of religiousness and shared ordinariness happenings related to labour factories and fam-ily difficulties during the Spanish post-war.

Planning capital cities: a cultural district in Canada’s capital region

ABSTRACT This paper investigates issues of national identity and multi-level governance within Confederation Boulevard, the heart of Canada's National Capital Region. We develop a framework that combines the literature on cultural districts and multi-level governance and analyse the plans written by the National Capital Commission (NCC) from the 1980s to the 2010s. Through the lens of cultural districts, we focus on urban form as a whole, instead of considering just specific artifacts or buildings, and uncover how over time the NCC is designing a representation of national identity moving towards multiculturalism. Moreover, the lens of cultural districts delineates a space for multi-level governance revealing the emergence of dynamics of negotiation among different levels of government towards territorial cooperation. This analysis of Confederation Boulevard contributes to the literature on planning capital cities beyond the specific case, adding to our understanding of (1) urban representation of national identity and (2) dynamics of a layered governance.

The German-Chinese-Japanese Warship: Representations of National Identity and Cultural Significance of War in Art, c. 1885–1896

The history of the warship Zhenyuan/Chin’en 鎮遠 built in Germany for the Chinese navy and captured by the Japanese in 1895 during the First Sino-Japanese War is depicted in several different types of art works: not only multiple Japanese woodblock prints but also Chinese and Western illustrations show scenes involving this battleship. Combining these art works with historical accounts allows one to capture the significance of the ship as a symbol of national pride and identity of the different nations involved in its transnational history.

Private and public partnerships: The Greek diaspora’s branding of Philotimo as identity

This article recognizes the discourse of philotimo as a prevalent mode of the diaspora’s representation of national identity in the context of the Greek debt crisis. It shows how this narrative adheres to the cultural technologies of nation branding to establish a positive Greek self-representation and in so doing, countering the crisis-related international devaluation of the national image. This cultural rehabilitation functions as a mode of governmentality: it seeks to shape the global perception of Greece and Greek identity for several interrelated purposes. First, in endowing value to Greek identity, it aims to restore national credibility and in turn cast Greece as an attractive destination for foreign investments. In this capacity, the narrative links national culture with global capitalism. Second, in redeeming the Greek nation as a moral nation, the branding fosters diaspora solidarity to Greece as a moral imperative. Notably, the purpose of the branding enterprise is not to merely disseminate a favourable image globally, but also to constitute Greek identity in the diaspora and Greece. Operating at the intersection of national, transnational and global processes, the narrative requires analysis that extends beyond the conventional framework of diaspora–homeland relations. The Greek branding enters a broader politics in which countries deploy their national cultures to position themselves competitively within global capitalism. From this angle, the article identifies an emergent diaspora political form – a partnership between private and civic organizations – which asserts authority to represent Greek identity globally for the purpose of economic, social and cultural gains. It concludes with a reflection about the social and political implications of this branding, as well as the role of scholars who write about this phenomenon, and more broadly about Greek national mythologies.

The Cultural Expressions and Representation of National Identity- A Study of the Indian Singing Reality Television Show “Sa Re Ga Ma Pa”

This paper aims to understand the narrative structure of Indian singing reality television show to identify the representation of national identity. By focusing on the “Sa Re Ga Ma Pa” show format, this paper has followed the work of Vladimir Propp to examine the cultural expressions with the sequential development of the narrative plot. The convergent parallel mixed method has been using to collect quantitative and qualitative data. While using the Likert scale, the reliability of the questionnaire has been calculated and reported Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for internal consistency reliability. The quantitative data has gathered from 205 respondents and 99 episodes aired from 2017 to 2019 have analysed in qualitative data, which is followed by data analysis through IBM SPSS Statistics. By analysing the quantitative and qualitative data this paper finds that the cultural expressions reveal the notion of national identity through the representation of ‘ordinary’ people and emphasis on performances by focusing on the structured format of Indian reality television. The paper indicates the ways where the viewers of the society can connect with cultural expressions through the genre of reality television.

Folklore, Literatura y Panamericanismo

Este artículo analiza dos viajes académicos realizados por especialistas norteamericanos a la Argentina durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Ralph Steele Boggs, un folklorólogo de la Universidad de Carolina del Norte que llegó a Buenos Aires en 1940; y Edward Larocque Tinker, doctor en Literatura reconocido por sus columnas dominicales en el New York Times, que arribó al país en 1945. Ambos eran promotores de la “unidad panamericana”, se abocaron a establecer contactos con instituciones locales y generaron diferentes actividades. A partir de los documentos internos y de las publicaciones de la institución anfitriona de Boggs en Argentina y del archivo privado de Edward Larocque Tinker, nos interesa indagar cómo articularon los discursos panamericanos con las representaciones identitarias nacionales que se encontraban en plena expansión para ese período y cuáles fueron los efectos de su visita sobre la sociedad norteamericana.