nationality 9

byrne

attended citizenship ceremonies where are immigrants to Britain were officially given citizenship

• she used interviews and observations

• speeches given at such ceremonies focused on traditional stories of democracy, independence, freedom, collective memories like world wars, 1966 World Cup victory, projecting images of England as a green and pleasant land using symbols like coins, flags, anthems and uniforms

fox

watching the English

the English have created a distinctive and particular way of communicating

talking about the weather is a language code: when someone comments about the weather to a stranger in subtitles it would say ‘will you be my friend’ and if the stranger replied about the weather it means yes I will be your friend

• English are shy and prudish people who have a long winded and complicated set of conversion codes

• because we have been sociolsaied into these codes of behaviour we understand and feel comfortable using them but ppl from other nations would find this hard

• in Finland they say ‘silence is gold, talking is silver’ meaning if there’s nothing important to say like politics religion then don’t say anything

• we have hidden rules for English behaviour and this demonstrates how national identity is socially constructed

ritzer

americanisation is infiltrating local culture

• leads t homogenisation

• he is concerned that our unique sense of national identity is being lost

• countered are becoming more similar so nostril identities will be lost

ford and goodwin

studied the rise of the BNP party

• since 2001 the number of bnp members or who would vote for the bnp has grown by 500,000

• f&g say these supporters have a fairly distinctive social profiles: middle age/ employed but occupy low social class position/ economically deprived and industrial north of England

• this is a response to they hold precarious and unstable positions in society and they’re more likely to feel threatened:

• - by immigration, rising ethnic/ cultural diversity

DU: zempis burqas participant observation

hall

suggests countries display three responses to homogenisation

1 - accept global culture and move towards cultural homogenisation

2 - take on parts of global cultural leading to cultural hybridity

reject and apply cultural resistance

zempi

du for ford and Goodwin on the bnp

women who wear the burqa experienced endless harraseement

• ignore day shop keepers

• shouted at by passing vehicles

• looks

• tutting

• excluding behaviour

• aggression

• hostility

Durkheim

highlights the importance of sacred symbols

• a flag, statue, piece of music attached to a nation can be highly symbolic

• and how a simple object can have a strong bond/ relationship to the society

• would explain why many ppl are highly patriotic about their home nations and some countries like America pledge allegiance to their flag as a sign of dedication

miller and Slater

scared out research in trinidad to see if the internet had damaged local identities

• it had in fact done the reverse and nearly every online interaction that Trinidadians had was a reinforcement of their Trinidadian identity

• they used slang to converse, promoted their nation, pinned the national flag to their bios and social media accounts

• emphasised their Trinidadian identity using memes and slogans based on their pride of their nationionality

• demonstrating how their is cultural resistance to loosing identity and cultural heritage