Self and NationSAGE, 2000 M12 18 - 256 pages A `RARE BOOK′ FROM LOCAL AUTHORS `Here is a rare book, a truly helpful piece of work on the psychology of nationalism. Stephen Reicher and Nick Hopkins, of St Andrews and Dundee Universities, focus much of their study of recent Scottish experience, drawing on inter-views with political activists. The cast light on why our `Unionists′ and nationalists feel so sure their side represents our national identity and the other lot doesn′t. For once it is a compliment to say a book raises more questions than it answers. Stephen Reicher and Nick Hopkins open up large questions closer inspection′ - Glasgow Herald `In this impressive book Stephen Reicher and Nick Hopkins draw from a wealth of research to address issues of nationality, national identity and nationalism that lie at the heart of core topics in social psychology and its cognate disciplines. They have produced a powerful and scholarly text that interweaves an abundance of rich empirical data with a broad-reaching and timely theoretical statement. Moreover, the content is not confined to matters of national identity but also extends to treatments of stereotyping, prejudice, intergroup conflict, leadership, collective action, and the self .... For all these reasons, the book should serve essential and compelling reading for a very broad audience′ - S Alexander Haslam, Australian National University `Stephen Reicher and Nick Hopkins write with elegance and clarity, drawing the reader into their argument, without losing any of its complexity and nuance. This book deserves to make a major impact in studies of nationalism. It ought to become a classic.... I′m quite bowled over - it′s really brilliant′ - David McCrone, Edinburgh University |
From inside the book
... Tajfel and Turner elaborated in order to explain what happened (Tajfel, 1978; Tajfel & Turner, 1979, 1986). Social identity theory suggests that the behavioural shift from interpersonal to intergroup behaviour is underlain by a ...
... Tajfel (1979) and is echoed with equal force by Turner twenty years later: 'process theories such as social identity and self-categorization require the incorporation of specific content into their analyses before they can make ...
... Tajfel, the minimal group experiments and the process of differentiation used to explain them were points of departure, not points of arrival. He sought to examine how the process operated within the 36 Self and nation.
... Tajfel was not interested in making generic statements of the sort that those with lower self-esteem will differentiate more. He was interested in the structural and ideological conditions under which people will act to challenge their ...
... Tajfel, 1972), so we would argue that the abstraction of experiments from their diachronic context is fatal to understanding change. If the context–category relationship is frozen in practice, how can it be otherwise in theory? The ...
Contents
1 | |
28 | |
3 Nation and Mobilization | 53 |
4 National Identity and International Relations | 77 |
5 In Quest of National Character | 100 |
6 Lessons in National History | 131 |
7 Representing the National Community | 152 |
8 Changing Categories and Changing Contexts | 181 |
9 Nationalist Psychology and the Psychology of Nationhood | 204 |
References | 223 |
Author Index | 235 |
Subject Index | 239 |