The capital city of the Republic of Macedonia, Skopje, has undergone two important architectural changes during the last half a century. Both of these, the renewal of the city after the devastating earthquake of 1963 and the extensive architectural project "Skopje 2014" launched in 2010, included content which focused on the formation of Macedonian national identity. The diploma thesis The Reconstructions of Skopje and the Formation of Macedonian National Identity analyses how architecture and urbanism was used to form Macedonian national identity. As these two events had very different initial conditions, the nature of these reconstructions, together with the promoted visions of national identity and their presentation, differed considerably. The rebuilding of Skopje after the earthquake presented Macedonian national identity to a greater extent through a strong ideological content based solely on visions of the future. In comparison, the project "Skopje 2014" presented an interpretation of national identity through specific symbols. This construction was based on the interpretation of historical events, resulting in a new understanding of the historical continuity of the Macedonian nation. The fact that two vastly different visions of Macedonian national identity, presented through the recreation...

Far-right parties and anti-immigration moods were on the rise in 2017 European politics. After Brexit vote and Donald Trump's triumph in the US elections, whole world was watching the 2017 French presidential election with great vigilance. Using the method of discourse analysis, the principal objective of this master thesis is to identify to what extent was the immigration constructed as security threat in presidential election and how did major presidential candidates use political discourse for identity construction - positive representation of French Self and negative representation of Migrant Other. For the purpose of analysis, first three presidential candidates with the largest share of votes were chosen: François Fillon, Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron. Concerning the theoretical framework, all research stems from Copenhagen school which defines vital concepts for our research: societal security and securitization process. From methodological point of view, Lene Hansen's Self/Other identity construction model is used. Keywords Securitization, Islam, migration, France, presidential election, discourse analysis, national identity

How a Realist-Constructivist Theory Can Contribute to Understanding the 2014 Ukraine Crisis Abstract Realism has been the predominant paradigm for analysing Russian foreign policy in recent times, however, it can sometimes appear lacking in convincing power. Constructivism offers some explanation for the motivation behind policy, however, again appears lacking in convincing power alone. Realist-constructivsm has been suggested to bridge the gap, as it were, between traditional notions of power, and cultural influences. The main argument for realist-constructivism is that some of the basic principles of realism must have a constructivist base, for example, in order to define the 'us' and 'them' in international politics and to determine with whom one is competing for power and influence, there first must be an understanding of how one defines the 'us'. This analysis examines the realistconstructivist theory as put forward by Barkin (2004; 2010), analyses its advantages and disadvantages, and seeks to view the Ukraine crisis of 2014 through a realist-constructivist lens, hoping to contribute something to the still young and developing discussion around a realist- constructivist theory. Keywords Realist-constructivist theory; NATO; national identity; Ukraine; Crimea; the EU; 2014; annexation

In this thesis, the issue of language policies and nation-building as seen by a constructivist perspective are studied, the studied case being the Post-Maidan Ukraine. It is argued that the ruling elites of Ukrainian society are persuading the members of minority-language populations to re-categorize themselves according to the blueprint of national and linguistic identities that the elites are presenting. The thesis studies the responsiveness of the populations of Kyiv, Dnipro, Uzhhorod and Odesa to the identity-building efforts. To assess the success rates of the endeavour, the method of linguistic landscape analysis and a survey among students of Czech in Ukraine are employed. In the linguistic landscape analysis, the behaviours of issuers of official, commercial and informal messages appearing in the studied cities are observed. Looking at the language composition of these signs, the overall responsiveness of the populations towards the official language policies, and, by extension, towards the nation-building efforts overall, are assumed. The survey then provides supporting evidence by asking the respondents questions about their attitudes towards the language legislation and stance on the issue of language use in the country. It is observed that in informal contexts, the messages often revert...

This thesis investigates the formation of national identity in South Korea regarding Japan through the perception of Japan in the eyes of the South Korean people. Despite Korea’s independence from Japan in 1945, the complex relationship resulting from the historical events seems continual, blocking their further cooperation. The ethnic relation between these two countries has been revolving around socio-political issues. In this sense, this thesis focuses on the micro-level to understand the ethnic relationship, which is visible through the formation of national identity. By adopting the constructivist point of view, this research identifies the core elements of national identity in the case of South Korean people through the application of national identity theories. This research employs semi-structured interviews to attain primary data from the Korean interviewees. Secondary sources are complemented from the presidential speech to provide an insight into the constitution of South Koreans’ national identity in parallel. Thematic analysis is utilized from these two data sets to explore the national identities by generating the themes of history, Japanese goods, and imagery. The perception of South Korean people toward Japan has revealed that they take the colonial history into account the most in their constitution of national identity.

The Republic of Moldova is a relatively new state in Eastern Europe, formed as an independent country in 1991, after the fall of the Soviet Union. While nation branding efforts in Moldova are still in their infancy, the country’s tensioned historical legacy, divided identity and current discursive struggles make it a valuable, albeit highly unexplored subject for nation branding research. This study draws of a transdisciplinary integrative approach to analyze the ways in which a governmental institution, Invest Moldova Agency, constructs and communicates the nation brand. The aim, as highlighted in the research question, was to identify the discourses employed by the government in the process of nation branding and their relationship to national identity, society, and social practice. Theoretically, the study is informed by Critical Discourse Analysis and Keith Dinnie’s Category flow model of nation branding. Methodologically, I use Fairclough’s three-tier CDA model, additionally employing Multimodal CDA to extend my analysis to include visual alongside textual content. The qualitative study uses Facebook posts, official documents, and an in-depth interview as data. The findings show that discursive strategies on nation branding either focus on national identity or on the practice itself, and they are consistently shaping and being shaped by social practices. Moreover, five discourse categories were identified: critical, accountability, transformative, assessment, and cultural discourses, each of them responsible for creating a specific reality.

In 2015, Europe experienced the arrival of an unprecedented number of migrants and refugees. This sparked a crisis, as the European states struggled to cope with the influx. Moreover, tensions in the European Union arose due to the disproportionate burden faced by some states, therefore arguably leading to some countries securitising the issue. This thesis seeks to investigate how and to what degrees socio-political conditions and political leadership roles impacted the securitisation of the 2015 refugee crisis in Hungary and Sweden. The assessment of these questions was approached by this paper through the employment of a comparative study analysis and a qualitative content analysis of speeches held by the Hungarian and Swedish prime ministers. Additionally, this paper utilises a theoretical framework, based upon Finnemore and Sikkink’s social constructivism and the Copenhagen School’s securitisation theory. This paper argues that socio-political conditions and leadership roles, embodied by the prime ministers of Hungary and Sweden, significantly impacted the securitisation processes of the 2015 refugee crisis. Furthermore, political leadership roles are interconnected to socio-political conditions via the securitisation of political issues in the following way: socio-cultural aspects, paired with political interests, inform the political leaders that shape how and through which articulation securitisation occurs.

The thesis Anti-immigrant Rhetoric and the Concept of National Identity in the French Presidential Campaign in 2012 is focused on the political discourse of three main candidates of the French presidential campaign in 2012 (Marine Le Pen, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande). The aim of the research is to analyze the image of immigration and immigrants and on the other hand French and national identity in the discourse of the politicians. As methodological basis for the research critical discourse analysis was selected, completed by analysis of metaphors. The thesis is based on the theoretical framework composed of the following concepts: 1/ discursive reproduction of the racism by so called symbolic elites, 2/ new racism and 3/ construction of national identity. The thesis also presents the social and political context of the election. The main objective of the research is to answer the following research questions: How does the political discourse of presidential candidates deepen the gap between positive self-presentation and negative presentation of the others? And to which extent in the discourse of individual candidates can it be seen? The thesis describes specific topics, topoi and discursive strategies which are used by the candidates.

This diploma thesis aims to examine the phenomenon of second-generation immigrant associations in Italy and focuses on their efforts to change the 1992 Citizenship Law between 2005 and 2014. The goal of the thesis is to determine whether the style of their argumentation is nationalistic or multicultural. The nationalistic style would point to their identification with Italy as a classical nation state, reflecting an acceptance of Italy's autostereotypes. The multicultural argumentation style would show that their primary frame of reference is the culture of their parents' country of origin and reflect a desire to see Italian society transformed according to multicultural principles, where all cultures are equally respected and esteemed. Christian Joppke's theory of three-dimensional citizenship (status, rights, identity) serves as an instrument for research. Anne-Marie Thiesse's national identity checklist serves as a guideline for distinguishing between nationalistic and post-nationalistic argumentation style. The analysis shows that the dimension these associations refer to the most is identity, which they use to prove their "Italianicity." They conduct their argumentation in a very classical nationalistic style, using themes such as Italian language, national territory, and national cuisine....

The thesis examines the governmental construction of national identity through its citizenship education policy in England, the country with heightened tensions in diversity and identity re-construction aligning with its mandatory citizenship classes since 2002. Theoretically framing the study on the Foucauldian post-structuralism, the thesis utilises Foucauldian-influenced ‘What is the problem represented to be?’ (WPR) method by Bacchi that presents the government as a problem-producer. Conducting qualitative research methods, the study analyses the current National Curriculum in England with the explanatory and foundational state documents of Crick and Ajegbo Reports. The thesis identifies that the government primarily aims to re-construct the inclusive and integrative national identity based on the acknowledgement of multiple identities and a plurality of nations in the citizenship education curriculum in England. The study, however, also reveals that the English citizenship education policy implicitly presents a few assimilationist elements in the national identity discourse through exclusion andunrepresentativeness of the ethnic and racial identities, hierarchical establishment between native English and minorities, and the division of ‘whites’ and ‘non-whites’. Comparatively examining the documents, the thesis, therefore, concludes that the government has a powerful position in socially and politically re- constructing the discourses, concepts, and meanings over time.