Negotiating the Nation: Implications of ethnic and religious diversity for national identity (NATION)
Led by
Marta Bivand Erdal
Dec 2013 - Dec 2016
What does it mean to be Norwegian, French or British, and what are the roles of ethnicity and religion for contemporary European nation-building? Through the parallel processes of globalization, immigration and secularization, traditional notions of national identity are under pressure. Negotiating the nation: implications of ethnic and religious diversity for national identity (NATION), seeks to explore these themes through three overarching research questions.
1) Along which boundaries do conflicts around the meaning of national identity arise?
2) What are the implications of increased ethnic diversity on national identity?
3) How do religious and ethnic identities interact in current negotiations of nationhood?
These questions are explored from top-down, meso-level, as well as bottom-up perspectives focusing on the power of definition that different actors hold in processes of negotiating the nation. While studies of nationalism and nation-building are traditionally top-down focused, NATION emphasizes the multiplicity of actors and the significance of bottom-up perspectives for negotiations of national identity. This is achieved through a combination of interview data and textual analysis at all three levels, including essays written by youth, print newspaper opinion pieces and policy documents.
Norway is the main case-study for the project, exploring the ways in which the nation has been negotiated, before and after the 22 July 2011 terrorist attacks. In order to provide international comparison, parallels will be drawn with the UK and France, in particular with regard to mediated negotiations of the nation.
The NATION project is to start on 1 December 2013.