Elsevier

Political Geography

Volume 21, Issue 6, August 2002, Pages 813-843
Political Geography

Politics and nationalism in Scotland: a Clydeside case study of identity construction

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0962-6298(02)00028-8Get rights and content

Abstract

This article examines constructions of Scottish national identity and nationalist identity politics on Clydeside, focusing on the constituency of Paisley South. Seen as a ‘transition zone’ in Scotland’s political geography, I focus on the place-specific constructions of Scottish identity and one of its political expressions, nationalism, in the period between the September 1997 devolution referendum and the May 1999 Scottish Parliamentary elections. Using contemporary archival sources, statistical survey research and qualitative interviews, this article explores the construction of Scottish national identity in the area along three inter-related dimensions: class, nationality and culture, drawing on Paasi’s framework of region-construction to examine the role geography plays in this process, and the political effects and tensions created. I use work by Tom Nairn and Anthony Smith to argue that Scottish nationalism on Clydeside illustrates the problems of the simple ethnic-civic theorization of nation-construction and discourses that rely on a post-national understanding of identity politics. Instead, I suggest that we need to conceptualize Scottish nationalism in a different way: as a neo-nationalist movement that is having to adapt to locally-specific conditions and broader trends to construct Scotland as a geographically-coherent entity in the post-devolution era.

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.

References (105)

  • B. Anderson

    Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism

    (1991)
  • J. Anderson

    Nationalisms in a disunited kingdom

  • J. Anderson

    The shifting stage of politics: New medieval and postmodern territorialities

    Environment and Planning D: Society and Space

    (1996)
  • P. Anderson

    Renewals

    New Left Review (II)

    (2000)
  • BBC (2000) England ‘happy’ to split UK. BBC Online archive,...
  • L. Bennie et al.

    How Scotland votes

    (1997)
  • D. Bicket

    Fictional Scotland: A ‘realm of the imagination’ in film drama and literature

    Journal of Communication Inquiry

    (1999)
  • V. Bogdanor

    Devolution in the United Kingdom

    (1999)
  • R. Bond

    Squaring the circles: Demonstrating and explaining the political ‘non-alignment’ of Scottish national identity

    Scottish Affairs

    (2000)
  • P. Boyle

    Contrasting English and Scottish residents in the Scottish Highlands and Islands

    Scottish Geographical Magazine

    (1997)
  • J. Bradbury et al.

    British regionalism and devolution: The challenges of state reform and European integration

    (1997)
  • J. Brand et al.

    Identity and the vote: Class and nationality in Scotland

  • J. Brand et al.

    Home rule in Scotland: The politics and bases of a movement

  • A. Brown et al.

    Politics and society in Scotland

    (1998)
  • G. Brown et al.

    New Scotland, new Britain

    (1998)
  • A. Brown

    Taking their place in the new house: Women and the Scottish Parliament

    Scottish Affairs

    (1999)
  • M. Castells

    The power of identity

    (1997)
  • Clayton, T. (2000). Multicultural citizenship and post-devolution Britain: An analysis of minority rights, political...
  • A. Cohen

    Nationalism and social identity: Who owns the interest of Scotland

    Scottish Affairs

    (1997)
  • D. Conversi

    Reassessing current theories of nationalism: Nationalism as boundary creation and maintenance

    Nationalism and Ethnic Politics

    (1995)
  • F. Davidson

    The fall and rise of the Scottish National Party since 1983: Analysis of a regional party

    Scottish Geographical Magazine

    (1996)
  • D. Denver et al.

    The Scottish Parliament elections 1999: An analysis of the results

    Scottish Affairs

    (1999)
  • H. Dittgen

    World without borders? Reflections on the future of the nation-state

    Government and Opposition

    (1999)
  • The Economist (1998). Post-industrial Glasgow, 21...
  • D. Forsyth

    Empire and Union: imperial and national identity in nineteenth century Scotland

    Scottish Geographical Magazine

    (1997)
  • N. Gallent et al.

    Local concerns and regional devolution: observations from Wales

    Regional Studies

    (1998)
  • P. Hall

    Structural transformations in the regions of the United Kingdom

  • D. Harvey

    The condition of postmodernity: an enquiry into the origins of cultural change

    (1989)
  • C. Harvie

    No gods and precious few heroes: Twentieth century Scotland

    (1981)
  • C. Harvie

    Cultural weapons: Scotland and survival in a new Europe

    (1992)
  • C. Harvie

    Scotland and nationalism: 1707 to the present

    (1994)
  • C. Harvie

    Fool’s gold: The story of North Sea oil

    (1994)
  • Harvie, C. (1995). Boundaries and identities: The walls in the head. University of Edinburgh International Social...
  • J. Hearn

    Claiming Scotland: National identity and liberal culture

    (2000)
  • Hechter, M. (1999 [1975]). Internal colonialism: The Celtic fringe in British national development (2nd ed.). New York:...
  • View full text