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Boundary mechanisms and symbolic resources: towards a process‐oriented approach to national identity *
Author(s) -
Zimmer Oliver
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
nations and nationalism
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.655
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1469-8129
pISSN - 1354-5078
DOI - 10.1111/1469-8219.00081
Subject(s) - identity (music) , schematic , national identity , sociology , politics , ethnic group , boundary (topology) , the symbolic , process (computing) , epistemology , social identity theory , political science , social science , computer science , law , social group , aesthetics , anthropology , psychology , mathematics , philosophy , psychoanalysis , mathematical analysis , electronic engineering , engineering , operating system
Abstract This article argues that the classical distinction between civic and ethnic forms of national identity has proved too schematic to come to terms with the dynamic nature of social and political processes. This has caused difficulties particularly for those historians and social scientists studying particular national movements rather than concentrating on a handful of thinkers and intellectuals or taking a broadly comparative approach. As an alternative to the classical model, I propose to distinguish between, on the one hand, the mechanisms which social actors use as they reconstruct the boundaries of national identity at a particular point in time; and, on the other, the symbolic resources upon which they draw when they reconstruct these boundaries.