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Cultural Groups, Social Inequality and Landscape

Cultural nationalism and its expression

  • 3 things to know
  • Unit A2 2

Overview

Cultural nationalism and nation and a state.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

Distinguish between a nation and a state.

Evaluation

Why can cultural nationalism strengthen as a response to globalisation?

Key term

Distinguish between cultural nationalism and civic nationalism.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What is cultural nationalism?

    Model answer

    Cultural nationalism is the belief that a nation is defined above all by a shared culture, that is by its language, religion, history, traditions and attachment to a homeland, together with the movement to protect, revive and promote that culture. It may be purely cultural, aiming at language survival, heritage and recognition, or it may become political, supporting devolution, autonomy or independence for the territory the nation claims.

  2. 2

    Distinguish between a nation and a state.

    Model answer

    A nation is a group of people who see themselves as belonging together on the basis of shared culture, history and identity, and who usually associate themselves with a homeland. A state is a political unit with defined borders, a permanent population and a sovereign government recognised by other states. A nation-state exists where the two roughly coincide. Many states are multinational, containing several nations, and some nations are stateless, spread across the borders of several states.

  3. 3

    Explain how cultural nationalism is expressed.

    Model answer

    Through language: campaigns for official status, language-medium education, broadcasting and bilingual signage. Through symbols: flags, emblems, anthems, colours and sporting representation. Through memory: commemorations, parades, monuments, museums and the naming or renaming of streets and places. Through institutions: cultural organisations, language boards, arts funding and community festivals. Through politics: parties and campaigns for devolved powers or independence, and demands for the recognition of the group in law. And through everyday practice, such as choosing a name for a child, a school for a family or a sports club to support.

  4. 4

    Why does language so often become the focus of cultural nationalism?

    Model answer

    Because it is the most everyday and most teachable marker of identity, it is visible and audible in public space, and its decline can be measured, which makes it a rallying point. It is also the marker most open to policy: governments can grant official status, fund language-medium schools, require bilingual signage and support broadcasting. That makes language both a genuine cultural cause and a practical political demand, and it means language policy often becomes the arena in which wider questions of identity are argued out.

  5. 5

    How does cultural nationalism appear in the landscape?

    Model answer

    In bilingual or minority-language signage and place names; in flags flown from lamp posts and buildings; in murals, painted kerbs and gable-end art; in memorials, statues and commemorative gardens; in restored heritage buildings, castles and historic sites presented as national symbols; in the naming of new estates, streets and schools; and in the designation of landscapes as national parks or heritage sites which are then presented as part of the national inheritance.

  6. 6

    Why can cultural nationalism strengthen as a response to globalisation?

    Model answer

    Because globalisation increases the flow of goods, media, capital and people, and some people experience that as a threat: the perceived spread of a homogenised international culture, the decline of a local language, the loss of traditional industries and ways of life, and rapid change in the composition of a neighbourhood. Reasserting local or national identity is a response to that sense of loss of control. This is one explanation offered for the coexistence of intensifying globalisation with the strengthening of regional and national movements, and it operates alongside more straightforwardly political causes such as devolution and economic grievance.

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