This study examines national identity formation processes among individuals with foreign backgrounds, particularly those from former Yugoslavia who are raised in Sweden. It takes its starting point in the complex phenomenon of identity formation and belonging, drawing inspiration from the question "Where are you from?".  Previous research shows that individuals with foreign backgrounds experience a sense of duality in their identities as they navigate between their parents' culture and the culture in the new country. The study aims to understand the social structures and relationships that shape these individuals’ national identity processes. By exploring their experiences of national belonging and identifying the social structures and social relations that influence their identity construction, the study hopes to contribute to a better understanding of the complex dynamics surrounding national identity formation for this specific group. To achieve the purpose of the study, a qualitative approach was employed, involving six semi-structured interviews with individuals aged between 20 and 35, whose parents immigrated from former Yugoslavia and raised them in Sweden. The theoretical framework for this study is based on ethnic identity and national identity as a form of ethnic identity. The results shows that social structures and social relationships influence individuals experiences of national belonging and identity formation. Individuals shape their national identity based on a "we" and "them" structure. Another important conclusion is that societal structures and norms can affect an individual's experience of her national identity. Institutions such as schools, workplaces, and the "Swedish family " can be seen as important social structures that influence the individual. Furthermore, place plays a central role in shaping national identity.

Willingness to defend has been stated as a fundamental prerequisite for the Swedish total defense. Despite this, research regarding the subject is limited, and there is a lack of knowledge on what willingness to defend means from the citizens’ point of view. Drawing on theories on territory, national identity and institutionalization processes, I explore the conceptualization of willingness to defend from a socio-spatial perspective through semi-structured interviews. This study engages in what people believe is worth defending, and why, and how this differs depending on the geographical scale. The results show that willingness to defend is a versatile concept with a breadth of connotations, as are the ideas about what is worth defending. The democratic system is recurrently described as a central issue worthy of defense, but this also creates a dilemma in the context of the total defense service. Some consider engaging in defense a citizen-duty, others express that participation must be based in free choice. On the global scale, willingness to defend is connected to, challenged, and affected by international actors and events, such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Additionally, Sweden's new NATO membership creates another moral dilemma, as considered positive from a security perspective, while at the same time challenging Swedish exceptionalism as a moral superpower.

This thesis presents an analysis of the English-language work of three Welsh writers during the eighteenth century, spanning the period of the 1750s to 1794. During this period, the British state consolidated its power following the last of the significant internal uprisings in 1745, and attempted to create a British nation with internal unity. Such a unity entailed a renegotiation of older national identities as subjects attempted to partake of multiple identities simultaneously. In Wales, the manifestation of multiple identities was especially clear, as the language of the state did not accord with the mother tongue of the majority of Welshmen. Though Welsh literati had written in English since before the Act of Union (1536), choosing to write in English becomes more interesting for the critic during such a time of change. Previously, these works have been treated as aberrations, or literary curiosities less worthy of note than the Welsh-language productions of the same authors. This thesis argues that, instead, they should be analysed as offering an insight into these authors’ conception of Britain, and their place within the state and the new nation, both in the choice of language and the topics considered. As a theoretical basis for these analyses, I consider the concept of Prydeindod from the work of philosopher J.R. Jones, as distinct from the idea of Britishness, and as a way of complicating Anglocentric or binary discussions of Britishness. This in turn informs readings of the English-language productions of Welsh writers in the eighteenth century, and shows that their negotiations of new identities are not as forthright as has previously been assumed.

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National identity is a complex notion of being and belonging. The multiple selves, out of which the identity is composed of such as gender, class, race, and ethnicity etc. pose a challenge in creating any sort of unified collective national identity that would encompass each individual's unique set of these multiple selves and roles. This complexity is even more pronounced when a national identity of such nations as the U.S. is examined. Due to its multicultural and multiethnic nature, identifying a collective American identity becomes a challenge. This thesis examines the birth of national identity in the U.S. during the Revolutionary era through the time of the Early republic and the period of 1800-1850 in an effort to discover the unifying features of such complex identity and to uncover its origins. The text consults theoretical framework on nation, nationalism and national identity to establish a working definition of a nation and to explain the complexity of the concept which is then further examined in the context of the U.S. In combination with a historical overview of the period 1770-1850, the thesis addresses nationalist feelings and thoughts that permeated the country at the time, examining the first emergence of calls for unified American national identity and the subsequent...

After the change of their country’s political and international statuses, post-colonial and respectively post-communist individuals and collectives develop feelings of alienation and estrangement that do not involve physical dislocation. Eventually, they start imagining their national community as a collective of individuals who share this state. Paraphrasing Benedict Anderson’s definition of the nation as an “imagined community,” this study identifies this process as “imagined exile,” an act that temporarily compensates for the absence of a metanarrative of the nation during the post-colonial and post-communist transitions. This dissertation analyzes and compares ten English Canadian and Romanian plays, written between 1976 and 2004, and argues that they function as expressions and agents of post-colonial and respectively post-communist imagined exile, helping their readers and audiences overcome the identity crisis and regain the feeling of belonging to a national community. Chapter 1 explores the development of major theoretical concepts, such as nation, national identity, national identity crisis, post-colonialism, and post-communism. Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 analyze dramatic rewritings of historical events, in “1837: The Farmers’ Revolt” by the theatre Passe Muraille with Rick Salutin as dramaturge, and “A Cold” by Marin Sorescu, and of past political leaders, in “Sir John, Eh!” by Jim Garrard and “A Day from the Life of Nicolae Ceausescu” by Denis Dinulescu. Chapter 4 examines the expression of the individual and collective identity crises in “Sled” by Judith Thompson and “The Future Is Rubbish” by Vlad Zografi. Chapter 5 explores the treatment of physical and cultural borders and borderlands in Kelly Rebar’s “Bordertown Café”, Guillermo Verdecchia’s “Fronteras Americanas”, Petre Barbu’s “God Bless America”, and Saviana Stanescu’s “Waxing West”. The concluding chapter briefly discusses the concept of imagined exile in relation to other investigations of post-colonial and post-communist dramas and reviews some of the latest perspectives of national identity, reassessing this study from a diachronic perspective.

Through the lens of identity process theory, the present thesis explores: (i) the qualitative nature of British national and ethnic attachments and their respective outcomes for identity processes among British South Asians (BSA); and (ii) the impact of media representations for identification and identity processes. In study I, 20 first generation South Asians (FGSA) were interviewed regarding identity, national and ethnic group memberships and inter-ethnic relations. The results revealed that (i) social representations of the ethnic 'homeland' could accentuate national attachment, but that both national and ethnic identities could have positive outcomes for identity processes in distinct social contexts; (ii) the phenomenological importance of 'special moments' and family identity can shape and accentuate national identification; (iii) ethnic and national identities are strategically 'managed' in order to achieve psychological coherence. In study II, 20 second generation South Asians (SGSA) were interviewed regarding similar issues. The results revealed that (i) SGSAs' awareness of the hardship faced by FGSA in the early stages of migration could induce disidentification with Britishness and accentuate identification with the ethnic group; (ii) the Press may be regarded as excluding BSA from Britishness; (iii) SGSA may manifest hybridised identities to enhance psychological coherence. In study III, a sample of 50 tabloid articles regarding BSA was analysed qualitatively. The results revealed that (i) BSA are constructed as 'deviating' from self-aspects of Britishness; (ii) BSA may be represented in terms of a hybridised threat to the ethno-national ingroup. Study IV investigated some of the findings of the previous studies quantitatively. The questionnaire was administered to 215 BSA. A series of statistical analyses confirmed (i) the impact of negative media representations of one's ethnic group for identity processes; (ii) the accentuation of ethnic identity and attenuation of British national identity as a result of exposure to negative media representations; (iii) a weaker national attachment among British Pakistanis than British Indians. It is argued that levels of British national and ethnic identities will likely fluctuate in accordance with social and temporal context and that BSA will make strategic use of both identities in order to optimise identity processes.

The general aim of this thesis is to use foodwork and cooking in Sweden as a way to better understand theoretical questions about men and masculinities. Paper I discusses how an increased public interest in elaborate cooking and gastronomy in Sweden, a country with a cultural idealization of gender equality, could explain why men in Sweden assume responsibilities for domestic cooking without feeling emasculated. Papers II, III and IV draw on interviews with 31 men from 22 to 88 years of age and with different levels of interest in food. Paper II shows how domestic foodwork and cooking are associated with ideas of Swedish progress in terms of gender equality and culinary skills. Paper III demonstrates further that domestic cooking is not only a responsibility which men assume, but also a way of being sociable with friends, partners and children. Thus, both papers II and III challenge the idea that men only cook at home if they enjoy it. The data rather indicate that domestic foodwork responsibilities are a cultural expectation of men in Sweden, ingrained in desirable masculine practices. Paper IV explores men’s responses to media representations of food. The interviewed men responded to these representations with indifference, pragmatism, irony, and at times even hostility. In general, the responses are based on gender and age-differentiated taste distinctions and notions of masculine and culinary excess. Paper V uses a mix of texts (81 online texts and two magazines) and observations from the food fairs GastroNord (2014 and 2016), Mitt kök-mässan (2014) and the chef competition Bocuse d’Or Europe (2014) complemented with pictures and videos. I argue that a Swedish culinary community that promotes Swedish culinary excellence is constructed by drawing on preestablished national (self-)images. This culinary community is constructed as open and tolerant, with ethical concerns for the environment and for nonhuman animals. Its culinary icons are represented by chefs in whites and the leading restaurants. In sum, this dissertation provides empirical and theoretical contributions to both food studies and gender studies that critically scrutinize men and masculinities. Food-issues are permeated by gender, both in people’s everyday life and in the gastronomic elite.

Despite the political disunity of early Irish society, theories and expressions of national identity abounded in the work of the learned classes of clerics, genealogists, poets and lawyers. This thesis examines texts from two crucial periods in the evolution of these theories. Focusing initially on the seventh and eighth centuries, the first part of the thesis argues that Irish national identity was created as part of a campaign to assert the joint authority of the Uí Néill kings of Tara and their ecclesiastical allies in Armagh. Drawing inspiration from biblical and patristic sources, and possibly also from contemporary developments elsewhere in Europe, these ecclesiastico-political allies asserted the national unity of the Irish in linguistic, genetic and territorial terms in pursuit of their own particular objectives. The influence of biblical and patristic beliefs on many of these early expressions of Irish identity highlights the outward-looking nature of the Irish scholarly tradition. During the eleventh and twelfth centuries, this international dimension intensified as the histories and identities of foreign peoples became subjects of study in Ireland, and new source materials filtered into the country from overseas. With reference to two texts composed during this period, the Irish Sex Aetates Mundi and a poem on national characteristics beginning Cumtach na nIudaide n-ard – the second part of this thesis discusses the influence of newly acquired sources on contemporary Irish scholarship. It also examines how the information contained in these sources was adapted and rationalised to conform to the basic assumptions of Irish society.

This thesis analyses China's national identity construction and its foreign policy implications especially towards Japan and the United States during the Hu Jintao period 2002-2012. The vast literature on China's rise takes “rising nationalism” in China as one of the key indicators of increased likelihood for aggressive behaviour in the future. This work problematizes some of the simplified assumptions made in this literature by emphasising the domestic context from which foreign policies rise. I argue that culture specific values deriving from national identities shape attitude structures and affect the whole thinking and conceptualisation related to foreign policy with wide-ranging consequences. Thus, in this research national identity is operationalised through values and attitudes deriving from it. With empirical evidence, I show in my thesis that most things discussed as "nationalism" in China studies literature can be analytically separated into at least two components, each with different foreign policy relevant correlates. Analysing two sets of survey material with statistical methods I show that the type of national attachment in China constrains foreign policy preferences in a different way than often assumed in the literature: "patriots" support an internationalist stance in contrast to "nationalists" who favour more assertive behaviour towards Japan and the US as well as generally protectionist economic policies. In addition to analysing the associations between core values and foreign policy preferences, I also provide other examples of cultural factors shaping Chinese foreign policy context including the role of historical legacies and their political use, and the role of the media in the formation of foreign threat perceptions and foreign policy preferences. The need to better understand these national identity dynamics is emphasised because of the ongoing pluralisation of Chinese foreign policy establishment, which gives more space to domestic input from various levels of society.