Examining Canada and Britain from 1990 to 2004, the thesis explores how the surge in minority nationalist agitation that occurred in Quebec and Scotland changed the political environment in Canada (outside Quebec) and England allowing regional elites to advance political agendas which mobilized regional and national identities. The thesis considers the role of democratic institutions at the regional level in shaping political demands through a comparative study of regional and national identity mobilization in Nova Scotia and the North East of England. The analysis contends that the relationship between minority and majority nations is dialectical; nationalism stems from fundamentally different interpretations of the state and is not the ‘fault’ of either nation. Using this claim as the basis for analyzing elite debate at the centre and in the regions, the dissertation systematically examines regionalism within the majority nation by investigating debates at the national and regional level. The work looks at parliamentary debates, campaign material, newspaper accounts and elite interviews; and as identity mobilization and political debates are targeted at the electorate, survey analysis is undertaken to see whether elite debate resonated with the masses. The thesis demonstrates that regionalism is a component of the ongoing (re)conception of nation within the majority nation, and that during periods of strong minority nationalist agitation, a political environment is created which allows elites in the majority nation to mobilize national and regional identities. Regional identity mobilization is shown to be part of the nationalism of the majority nation; as the dominant conception of the state within the majority encompasses the minority nations as co-nationals and equal citizens, regional elites are able to use the minority nations as examples of successful agitation without subscribing to their interpretations of the state. Regional levels of democracy did not alter the nature of regionalism in either state and though the demands issued may have been different, the underlying concerns were the same: a lack of voice and efficacy.

The relationship between imperialism and nationalism has often been portrayed by theorists of nationalism and post colonial discourse theorists as antagonistic. Anti-democratic, aggressive empires impose their will on subject peoples who, in response, form nationalist movements in opposition to this imperialism. These movements, it is claimed, assert the nation’s right to self-determination and independence. Whilst this was undoubtedly the case in a number of anti-colonial movements, examples can be found that refute the apparently antagonistic relationship between nationalism and imperialism. Nationalism does not always advocate independence from states or empires. Imperialism can be a vehicle for a national mission or can strengthen minority nations. In certain contexts, these two anti-thetical concepts can be reconciled. The thesis investigates the reconciliation of nationalism and imperialism using the concept of imperial nationalism. This concept is used to denote a variety of nationalism that proposes reform of the state/imperial government for the benefit of the nation whilst simultaneously emphasising the benefits of the reform of the empire. An important element of the nationalist discourse will be the maintenance of the imperial connection as beneficial for the nation. A comparative historical analysis of nationalist groups in nineteenth century Scotland and Canada is used to highlight the relationship between nationalism and imperialism in the discourse of nationalist groups. Both Scotland and Canada held relatively privileged positions within the British Empire. Yet Scottish and British Canadian nationalist groups argued the existing systems for governing their respective nations were illegitimate. In Scotland, the Scottish Home Rule Association argued for a Scottish Parliament, focusing on the extent to which the United Kingdom state was unable to cope with the work created by the four home nations and the Empire. An important aspect of home rule for Scotland, however, was its extension to the other home nations and the opportunity it would present of reforming the Imperial Parliament for the benefit of the Empire, and by association Scotland. In Canada, the focus of Canada First and the Imperial Federation League in Canada was on reform of the system of Imperial governance. Canada had not been given control over relations with the United States under the British North America Act and British Canadian nationalists felt Canadian interests had not been taken into account in British dealings with the United States. The answer was to provide Canada with a voice in treaties in the short term and, in the longer term, to reform Imperial government in order to provide Canada with a voice in the affairs of the Empire as whole. The thesis investigates the extent to which these movements were nationalist, imperialist and, finally, how these two concepts were reconciled.

The apparent tension between Israel as a democracy and Israel as a specifically Jewish state has played a central role in much academic and popular debate about the region. Taking an actor-centred perspective of national subject and citizenship formation, this thesis treats Jewish nationalism and democratic citizenship not simply as abstractions, but as categories lived out in the everyday lives of Jewish Israeli youth. The ethnography focuses on secular and religious Jewish Israeli high school teens as they approach conscription age and begin to make decisions about their rights and responsibilities as Jewish Israeli citizens. This is done in a context of their school, recreational, and family life. Through the engagement of these youth with processes around the Disengagement from Gaza, which saw the radicalisation of existing conflicts between “secular” and “religious” Jews, I show how these teens reproduce Jewish democracy in their everyday lives, taking it from an abstract conundrum to an un-ambiguous way of being Israeli. What might be considered paradoxical in fact resembles what I consider the multiplexity of Jewish Israeli identity that considers the multiple ethnic, religious, and civic resources that constitute Jewish Israeli national subjectivity. The tensions between democratic citizenship and Jewish nationalism are therefore productive of a particular form of identity. The particular focus of the thesis is how and why Jewish Israeli youth reproduce Jewish nationalism, and subsequently how people themselves construct a sense of nationhood through the shared experiences of kin and peers. This ultimately establishes the nation as not only an “imagined community” but a tangible network of shared experiences, rooting it in intimate relationships that inspire feelings of national connectedness. The vagueness of why people would want to contribute to an abstract society is partly understood in an Israeli context through looking at the intimate familial motivations behind doing military service. The fact that the majority of Israeli teens still consider military service a vital constituent of Israeli civic identity and national membership reveals the moral boundaries that continue to be derived from civic republicanism and ethno-nationalism that comprise the experience of being in the army and Jewish democracy as a whole. Through the attitudes of Jewish Israelis and the IDF towards draft avoidance and conscientious objection one is able to appreciate how the ethnic and civic forms of citizenship that constitute the experience of military service establish certain contours of national belonging. This provides a contemporary understanding of Jewish Israelis‟ engagement with civic-republicanism and ethno-nationalism, showing the ways both the state and Jewish Israelis expect other Jewish nationals to show commitment to the Israeli state. My ethnography on state rituals illuminates how official state narratives converge with subjective national experiences. As well as trying to reinforce particular forms of nationalism, individuals take part in state rituals for their own reasons revealing the emotional aspect of nationalism and hence the fresh ways people interpret national discourses.

This thesis expands the discussion on Iranian national identity into the period of Khatami’s presidency. Within the theoretical and methodological framework of discourse analysis this thesis contends that the multiple constructions of Iranian national identity, which coexist and compete with each other, can be better understood as discourses. The detailed analysis of five discourses of national identity illustrates a complex set of relationships based on the meanings attached to Iran’s Islamic and pre-Islamic identities and how the West is dealt with in the construction of national identity. The first discourse addressed is the Islamist discourse of national identity, which prioritises Iran’s Islamic culture. At the opposite end of the spectrum the Iranist discourse, which is based on the prioritisation of Iran’s pre-Islamic culture, is deconstructed. It is contended that this represents a new indigenous Iranism that is based on a rediscovery of Sasanian Iran as opposed to Achaemenid Iran. Khatami’s discourse is presented as an attempt at a dialogue between Islamism and Iranism. It is argued that the Khatami period is unique in terms of the articulation of national identity because Khatami has combined for the first time ideas, which together form the Islamist-Iranian discourse of national identity, as an official state discourse. These are the combination of Islamic and pre-Islamic culture, the notion of ‘dialogue among civilisations’ and the idea of Islamic democracy. While these three discourses are based on the politicisation of culture, two additional discourses are presented that reject this politicisation. The first is a discourse of civic Iranian national identity and the second is a discourse of cosmopolitan Iranian national identity. It is contended that Khatami and his Islamist-Iranian discourse have allowed the more open articulation, since the establishment of the Islamic Republic, of these constructions of Iranian national identity.

Making use of knowledge from a wide range of disciplines, this thesis analyses the interactions of culture and economy, particularly regarding the influence of nineteenthcentury historiography, on Shetland’s present-day economic development. Shetland’s local identity concept is strongly influenced by this North Sea archipelago’s Norse history. This is in part the result of the islands’ late nineteenth- and early twentiethcentury national romantic literature, which was inspired by Continental and mainland British trends in anthropology and philology. The theories of fairy origins proposed in the 1890s by the Edinburgh anthropologist David MacRitchie exerted a great influence on Shetland writers. His theories – since shown to be incorrect – led to the historiographic dehumanisation of the islands’ pre-Norse population and permitted the complete valorisation of the Vikings, most notably in the work of the Shetland author Jessie Saxby. Since the 1930s, a variation of MacRitchie’s theory has been repeated in nearly every local book concerning Shetland folk belief. These conceptions of history continue to inform the sense of local identity felt by many Shetlanders. This has come into conflict with the local government’s efforts at place brand, tourism, heritage, and economic development, all of which tie into a broader struggle between fostering Shetland’s national awareness and expanding Shetland’s jurisdictional capacity. Particular attention is paid to how history is used variously by the community to express exclusivity and by the local government to promote inclusivity.

Studies on African nationalism have focused primarily on the role of indigenous African groups and their leaders in the fight for independence and the attainment of nationhood, often excluding non-indigenous groups. This dissertation focuses on the integral role that Indians played in the freedom struggle in Kenya, from 1895-1970. It analyzes the ways in which Indian groups in this East African British colony participated and contributed to the emergent anti-colonial struggle at different points in the colonial period. The study interrogates how African nationalism is conceptualized in scholarship. Traditionally, African nationalism has been cast solely as Black resistance against European colonialism. Thus, the inclusion of a diverse cast of stakeholders from the Indian sub-continent in this study of the anti-colonial movement in Kenya shifts our understanding of the nature and course of the nation-building project. Methodologically, this understanding of the role of diaspora communities in nation-building can be replicated in other independent countries in Africa and elsewhere in the Global South, where the history and contributions of non-indigenous or immigrant populations to the attainment of independence and the construction of (civic) national identity has been understudied. Thus, a focus on the critical role played by Indians in Kenya’s independence, expands our understanding of how ethnic minorities and immigrants have impacted notions of history, citizenship and identity in their host countries. The study analyzed multi-archival materials that were collected in Kenya, Britain, and the United States.

The present dissertation is a study of the process of national identity renegotiation in modern Russia. More specifically, I analyze the use of the word fascism in contemporary Russian discourse. Developing a blend of Kenneth Burke’s theory of human motives and Jacques Lacan’s psychoanalytic theory of the subject, I compare the psycho-rhetorical narratives of the four distinct parties - Vladimir Putin, state-sponsored “anti-fascists” (Nashi), independent anti-fascists (Antifa), and neo-fascists - which fight over the usage of the word fascism in their attempts to renegotiate the meaning of Russianness. While explicating the mechanism of national identity construction, Lacan’s theory, as I argue, does not help distinguish among various visions of the nation. Therefore, I build upon Burke’s classification of symbolic frames (comedy, tragedy, epic, elegy, satire, the burlesque, and the grotesque) to differentiate among alternative fantasy-frames (Lacanian fantasy and Burkean frame) as more or less politically dangerous and ethically sophisticated. As the reading of the four psycho-rhetorical narratives shows, the vision of Russia proposed by Russian neo-fascists dangerously approximates the Russian idea promoted by the state and pro-Putin “anti-fascists.”

This study is an analysis of how people from the former Yugoslavia saw their homeland. The aim is to investigate exiled Yugoslavs’ view of their homeland. The paper will also examine how Yugoslavia contributes to nostalgia. Additionally examine various groups’ of people view of Yugoslavia and the civil war. The source material used in this paper is mainly interviews. The interviewed persons are exiled Yugoslavs who were born between the years 1946-1960. Secondary source material is from literature. First hand literature used to examine Yugoslavia are: New Perspectives on Yugoslavia: Key issues and controversies edited by Dejan Djokic and James Ker-Lindsay, Balkan history: Yugoslavia rise and fall written by Sanimir Resic, Tito: Folkets diktator written by Björn Kumm. Method used in this paper is oral history. Through oral history, exiled Yugoslavs will tell how they experienced the former Yugoslavia. The survey showed that most exile Yugoslavs highlighted how good society, and their lives were back then in Yugoslavia. In addition, the study came to the conclusion that Yugoslavia contributes to nostalgia among exile Yugoslavians. Most of them travel back to their home country during their holidays to recharge both mentally and physically.

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Teodor Holmberg was a Swedish author, political opinion-shaper and political debater who were active during the late 19th century and the early 20th century. The Swedish political party Sweden Democrats emphasizes Holmberg as an important ideological source of inspi­ration in their policy program. In a few books and articles, Holmberg is presented as one of the few conservative debaters who were a supporter of democracy and who advocated the introduction of universal suffrage for both men and women during the Swedish democratiza­tion process in the early 1900s. In articles and previous research, there are conflicting opin­ions about Holmberg’s ideological approach to democracy, universal suffrage and parliamentarianism. The aim of this thesis is to analyze Holmberg’s ideological approach to the universal suffrage, parliamentarianism and conception of democracy during the Swedish de­mo­crat­ization process 1906-1925. The result show that Holmberg advocated the intro­duction of universal suffrage for both men and women during the democratization process, and also had a positive attitude towards citizens participation in the governance of the nation. Holm­berg’s ideological position is influenced by both a nationalist idea of the rights and free­doms of national citizenship, and a traditionalist conservative view of the popular self-govern­ment as a Swedish governmental tradition. Holmberg’s conception of democracy is also based on both a nationalist and a pragmatic conservative view, and means that all citizen and social classes have the same right to participate in the governance of the nation. Holmberg’s view on governance can be described as a popular self-government in which all the people in the na­tion are striving together to cater for the nation’s welfare and interests. Holmberg’s conception of democracy implies a resistance to the majority principle and parliamentarianism. Holmberg’s advocacy of universal suffrage and positive view of the citizens’ political partici­pation is very radical and different compared to the dominant view within the Swedish right wing. In contrast, Holmberg’s opposition to parliamentarianism and strong defence of the Swedish king’s political power is consistent with the dominant view within the Swedish right wing.