Political Discourse And National Identity In Scotland

Addresses issues of national identity and nationalism in Scotland from a political and linguistic perspective.

In September of 1997 Scots voted overwhelmingly for the establishment of a modern democratic parliament - their first parliament in almost three hundred years. How did this remarkable constitutional change come about? Jonathan Hearn explores this question by examining how claims for greater political autonomy in Scotland today draw on deeper cultural traditions of political thought and action. Scotland's civic nationalism voices a moral critique of neoliberalism and a communitarian defence of the idea of the welfare state, grounding these in Scottish culture and identity. By placing this movement and its language in their institutional, historical and cultural contexts, this powerful book challenges the conventional distinctions between liberalism and nationalism, and between civic and ethnic forms of nationalism, by arguing for a more nuanced way of thinking about processes of culture, identity and politics. Key Features*An anthropological perspective on Scottish nationalism*An ethnographic, highly readable presentation of the subject*A synthetic treatment of nationalism and liberalism*An in-depth critique of the ethnic/civic dichotomy in nationalism studies

This timely book provides an extensive account of national identities in three of the constituent nations of the United Kingdom: Wales, Scotland and England. In all three contexts, identity and nationalism have become questions of acute interest in both academic and political commentary. The authors take stock of a wealth of empirical material and explore how attitudes to nation and state can be understood by relating them to changes in contemporary capitalist economies, and the consequences for particular class fractions. The book argues that these changes give rise to a set of resentments among people who perceive themselves to be losing out, concluding that class resentments, depending on historical and political factors relevant to each nation, can take the form of either sub-state nationalism or right wing populism. Nation, Class and Resentment shows that the politics of resentment is especially salient in England, where the promotion of a distinct national identity is problematic. Students and scholars across a range of disciplines, including sociology and politics, will find this study of interest.

Ailsa Henderson analyses each nation's linguistic, racial, cultural, economic, and political diversity within a historical and contemporary context. Challenging the assumption that nationalism in Scotland can be characterized as "civic" in contrast to an "ethnic" model in Quebec, Henderson adopts a more complex model of national identity that distinguishes between nationalistic rhetoric, which is invariably civic in form, and public understandings of belonging, which tend to rely on ethnic markers. In Hierarchies of Belonging she demonstrates that nationalist rhetoric and a sense of belonging affect how citizens feel about the state, the nation, and each other.

The history of the Reform Acts viewed from a Scottish angle, bringing out its implications for relations with England. Pentland's work promises to fill a major hole in Scottish historical writing, and to do so in an exciting and innovative way.' COLIN KIDD Awarded the Senior Hume Brown Prize 2010 The passing of the 'Great Reform Act' of 1832 retains a central place in British history. Historical debate, however, has focussed on whether reform represented the end of the ancien régime or a conservative holding action by political elites. Little critical thinking has been devoted to investigating the passage of the three different Reform Acts as a renegotiation of the relationship between England, Scotland and Ireland. By providing a history of reform in one national context this study addresses several key themes. It delivers a more 'British' history of reform, exploring how the constitutional crisis of 1828-32 was negotiated in different contexts and how, throughout the 1820s and 30s, events in England, Scotland and Ireland impacted on one another. It moves beyond constitutional questions to explore the development of a political culture of reform in shared languages, strategies and personnel across a number of political, religious and social reform campaigns. Finally, it argues that the period was crucial in the renegotiation of what it meant to be British and had a profound impact on national identities in Scotland, where different versions of Britishness and Scottishness were integral to the practice of politics at all levels.

What does it mean to say you're English, Scottish, British? Does it matter much to people? Has devolution and constitutional change made a difference to national identity? Does the future of the UK depend on whether or not people think they are British? Social and political scientists answer these questions vital to the future of the British state.

First published in 1992. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.