SS 20 CHAPTER 1

NATION AND IDENTITY

Nation and Identity

Chapter 1

We are dealing with these questions

What are some concepts of nation?

What are some understandings of nation?

How can nation be understood as a civic concept?

How do people express their identity through nation?

Nation as Us

What are some concepts of nation?

Country and NationSome terms and ideas to know

“Nation-state” means “country”

“International” means “between countries or nation-states”

“Nationalism” means, among other things, “striving for a country.”

Only countries can be members of the United Nations.

Nation as a Collective Con-cept

Nation as a Patriotic ConceptIs dying for one’s country the

highest expression of patriotism?

Nation as a concept

What are some understandings of nation?

Linguistic Ethnic Cultural

ReligiousGeographic

Spiritual

Relationship to Land

Political

HOW CAN NATION BE UNDRSTOOD AS A CIVIC CON-CEPT?

Shared Values and Beliefs Expressed in Law

Canada as a Civic Nation VOICES

“Civic nationalism – of the French, British, and American type – defines the nation not in terms of ethnicity but in terms of willing-ness to adhere to its civic values. Allegiance is essentially directed toward the state and its civic institutions and values.

Ethnic nationalism – of the German and Pol-ish type – defines the nation in terms of ethnic origins and birth. Allegiance is directed primarily at the nation, at the traditions, values, and cultures incarnated in a people's history.”

Michael Ignatieff, politician, political scientist, and historian, in

Blood and Belonging: Journeys into the New Nation-alism, 1995

CIVIC NATIONA nation created by people - no matter what their ethnicity, culture, or language - who agree to live according to according to particular values and beliefs expressed as the rule of law.

The fundamental freedoms set out in Section 2 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms expresses the foundational values and beliefs of Canadians. The Charter forms the first 34 clauses of Canada’s constitution.

“civic” is an adjective that refers to citi-zens.

ETHNIC Racial, cultural, or linguistic characteristics. Many nations come into being people because of a shared collective identity based on ethnic characteristics.

The Korean, Japanese, Somali, and Norwegian

nations, are based largely on ethnicity.

VOICESKoreans have developed a sense of nation based on shared blood and ances-

try….Koreans believe that they all belong to a “unitary

nation” (danil minjok), one that is ethnically

homogenous and racially distinctive”Gi-Wook Shin, 2006

ETHNIC NATIONALISM• Nationalism that is founded on shared ethnicity, culture and

language. People who share these traits may choose to create a nation-state based on their collective identity.

Ethnic Nationalism is different than

Civic Nationalism

In 1871, people in the small German-speaking states, such as Bavaria, Prussia and Saxony, united to form the nation-state of

Germany.These people supported the idea of a single German nation-state that would consist of all people of German descent.

Ethnic – racial, cultural, or linguistic

INTERNATIONAL

• Between countries or nation-states. Nation-states may cooperate with one another to promote peace and trade, security, health and human rights, and the promotion of endangered peoples and cultures.

“International” means “between countries or nation-states.”

NATION-STATE

• A country that has physical borders and a single government. Nation-states may be based on ethnic nationalism and/or civic nationalism.

“ Nation-state” means “country”

PATRIOTISM

Love of a country and interest in its well being. A sense of loyalty that may be expressed in various ways.

VOICES “I love America more than any other country in this world:

and exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her

perpetually.”

- James Baldwin, American writer, in Notes of a Native Son, 1955.

SELF-DETERMINATIONThe power to control ones own affairs. National self-determination is the power of people within a nation-state or nation to make their own decisions about what is in their interest.

SOVEREIGNTYThe political authority to control

ones own affairs. Sovereignty may be distinguished from, and can sometimes conflict with, self-

determination, which is a peoples right to control their own affairs.

SOVEREIGNTY

• The political authority to control ones own affairs. Sovereignty may be distinguished from, and can sometimes conflict with, self-determination, which is a peoples right to control their own affairs.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk Found the Turkish Nation

HOW DO PEOPLE EXPRESS THEIR IDENTITY THROUGH NATION?

VOICES[When I am among my own people], they understand

me, as I understand them; and this understanding cre-ates within me

a sense of being somebody in the world.”

- Isaiah Berlin, philosopher and historian in “Two Concepts of Liberty, “ 1958

VOICES“When I’m in Alberta, I’m an Edmontonian or a Calgarian;

when I’m in Ottawa, I’m an Albertan or westerner; but when I’m in

Washington or Singapore or Sydney, I’m Canadian.”

- Preston Manning, founder of the Reform Party, in The Globe and Mail, 2007

Expressions of Individual, Collective, and Na-tional Identity

The Evolution of National Identity

Myths and National Identity

Changing Myths

National Myths and Canadian Identity

WRITTEN RESPONSEThink…..Participate…..Research……Communicate

The same person can be, without any contradiction, an Amer-ican citizen, of Caribbean origin, with African ancestry, a Christian, a liberal, a woman, a vegetarian, a long-distance runner, a historian, a school-teacher, a novelist, a feminist, a heterosexual, a believer in gay and lesbian rights, a theatre lover, an environmental ac-tivist, a tennis fan, a jazz musician and someone who is deeply committed to the view that there are intelligent be-ings in outer space with whom it is extremely urgent to talk.”

Amartya Sen , Novel Prize winning economist

ASSIGNMENTList as many aspects of your identities – individual, col-lective, and national – as you can. Don’t limit yourself.

See if you can create a list as long as the one put to-gether by Sen.