Social Structure, Behaviour and Identity
January 1994 - May 1996. Funder: The ESRC.
This project was designed to look at the processes of national identity construction and maintenance among members of the arts and landed elites in Scotland. The research was built around the debate about the 'Anglicisation' of Scotland which is concerned with the influence of English 'incomers' on Scottish life. As sociologists, we were less interested in the validity of such claims, and more in the processes of identity construction and claims which underlie them.
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Over 220 semi-structured interviews were conducted with members of arts (101) and landed (119) elites in Scotland. All were transcribed and analysed with the aid of Hypersoft (a qualitative data analysis package). This research provided us with a much better understanding of the socially constructed nature of national identity.
As a consequence of this research we have come to recognise that processes of national identity rest not simply upon the claims and attributions of identity made by people but how such claims and attributions come to be validated or rejected by the significant others receiving them. Understanding the processes of identity claim, attribution and the receipt of claims and attribution is now central to our work. In pursuing this understanding, we have become aware of the key importance of identity markers and rules. Identity markers are any characteristics associated with an individual that they might choose to present to others, in order to support a national identity claim or that people look to in others when they seek to attribute national identity to them or assess their identity claims. Identity rules are probabilistic rules of thumb whereby under certain conditions and in particular contexts, identity markers are interpreted, combined or given precedence over others. They are guidelines, though not necessarily definitive or unambiguous ones, to the identity markers people mobilise in their identity claims, as well as those they will look to when seeking to attribute national identity or judge the claims and attributions made by others. Our findings from this research bring into question the notion that national identities are essentially fixed or given.
Publications:
McCrone, D., Bechhofer, F., Kiely, R. and Stewart, R. 1998 'Who are we?: Problematising national identity', The Sociological Review 46: 629-652
Bechhofer F., Stewart, R., Kiely, R. and McCrone, D.,1999 'Constructing National Identity: Arts and Landed Elites in Scotland', Sociology 33: 515 534.
Forthcoming publications:
A paper, 'The Markers and Rules of Scottish National Identity' is currently under consideration by a journal.
Constructing National Identity: Arts and Landed Elites in Scotland
Frank Bechhofer, David McCrone, Richard Kiely, and Robert StewartUniversity of Edinburgh
ABSTRACT
National identities are not essentially fixed or given but depend critically on the claims which people make in different contexts and at different times. The processes of identity rest not simply on the claims made but on how such claims are received, that is validated or rejected by significant others. Because actors are able, up to a point, to anticipate validation or rejection in particular contexts and at particular times, this influences the identity claims that they make. Identity is claimed and read off from various identity markers according to identity rules. Identity rules are the probabilistic rules of thumb whereby under certain structural conditions and in certain contexts, markers are interpreted, combined or given precedence one over another. This paper locates this approach to studies of national identity in the literature, and presents evidence for these assertions from a study of national identity, with examples taken from interviews in Scotland with two elite groups. Those interviewed were for a variety of reasons sensitive to issues of national identity. However, we argue that similar processes are at work generally, albeit people who have less reason to concern themselves with their own identity and the identity of those with whom they interact, see national identity more as something 'taken-for-granted', and relatively fixed.
Key words: national identity; markers; rules; identity claims; Scotland
Participants:
Professor Frank Bechhofer,Mr Richard Kiely and Dr Robert Stewart: all of the Research Centre for Social Sciences, University of Edinburgh. Professor David McCrone Department of Sociology, University of Edinburgh. Mr Gary West, School of Scottish Studies, University of Edinburgh (January - September 1994).