Politics and nationalism in Scotland: a Clydeside case study of identity construction
Section snippets
Introduction: space, politics and identity
The late twentieth century was a period of great change for world politics. Imperial decline and the end of the Cold War were two major factors in the increase in geopolitical instability. Anderson (2000) argues that debates on the ‘end of the nation-state’ and identity restructuring in recent decades (Anderson, Brook and Cochrane, 1995, Massey and Jess, 1995, Ohmae, 1995, Anderson, 1996, Dittgen, 1999) illustrate this process, and suggests that our analytical approaches may need refining. The
Theoretical frameworks of nationalism and identity construction
Nationalist movements are largely defined by, and act within, the boundaries of a distinct territory (insofar as struggles for recognition and statehood depend upon the people it represents and defines occupying and embedding themselves within space); nationalism is thus an inherently geographical phenomenon. For a nationalist movement to have authority, and its goals legitimacy, it and the territory over which its claims extend must be firmly delimited and recognized, both physically and
Dimensions of Scottish identity on Clydeside
This section examines the impact of nationalism in Paisley South along three cleavages of identity (class, nationality and culture) which together provide an instructive case study of how the distinctive Clydeside consciousness of ‘hard people doing hard manual jobs’ (Hall, 1991, p. 64) has interacted with a growing nationalist politics and its ‘call to the flag’ to produce local feelings and perceptions. I realize that focusing on these three cleavages is somewhat artificial, not least because
A case of mistaken identity?
The research presented here shows the problems nationalism faces on Clydeside regarding its popular appeal. It is a process fraught with tensions and cross-party and cross-national allegiances that hamper the construction of a coherent and powerful identity of the Scottish nation. Table 9 illustrates using multiple regression12
Conclusions: (de)constructing the nation
This paper has sought to contribute to ‘patchwork’ of analysis on Scotland’s contemporary political geography by outlining the important political and social dynamics in the Clydeside area and illustrating how these affect Scottish nationalism. This case study has also provided a context for Nairn’s call for a post-national construction of the Scottish nation. An area where nationalism has traditionally failed to gain popular support, it is a good example of where such a nationalist discourse
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank Gerry Kearns, Mike Raco and Rafe Blandford for their comments and criticisms on earlier drafts of this paper, to the late Graham Smith for his inspiration during this project’s first stages, and to Phil Stickler for preparing Fig. 1. Thanks too to the three anonymous referees for their helpful comments and criticisms, and to the many people who took part in this research; there are too many to mention, but their important contributions are much appreciated.
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