title: Why do nations matter? The struggle for belonging and security in an uncertain world.
abstract: This paper explores the reasons why national forms of identification and organization (might) matter in the contemporary era. In contrast to the majority of macro-sociological work dealing with this topic, I develop an analytical framework that draws together recent research on everyday nationalism with micro-sociological and psychological studies pointing to the importance of routine practices, institutional arrangements and symbolic systems in contributing to a relatively settled sense of identity, place and community. The second part of the paper focuses on the hierarchies of belonging that operate within a given national setting. Of particular interest is the largely taken-for-granted status of the ethnic majority and the degree to which it underpins claims to belonging and entitlement that are used to secure key allocative and authoritative resources.
authors.affiliation: School of Political, Social and International Studies, University of East Anglia. m.skey@uea.ac.uk
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Skey
mesh_terms: D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D018864:Cultural Diversity; D003469:Culture; D005006:Ethnicity; D006608:Hierarchy, Social; D006801:Humans; D007391:International Cooperation; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D011057:Politics; D011209:Power, Psychological; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology; D012637:Security Measures; D012931:Social Environment; D012933:Social Identification; D012945:Social Values; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors