����Ӱ��

 “If you can’t fly your own flag in your own country then there’s something wrong, isn’t there? – National belonging, everyday life and the status of the ethnic majority” 

 Why do so many people take-for-granted the idea that they live in and belong to a nation?

 Do national identities matter and, if so, to whom?

 To what extent are processes of globalisation undermining or reinforcing attachments to the nation?

 Drawing on insights from sociology, social psychology and anthropology, this lecture addresses these complex questions by examining the views and attitudes of a group that has been overlooked in much of the recent literature; the ethnic majority.

 Through a detailed analysis of the ways in which members of the majority in Western countries discuss their own attachments, their anxieties about the future, and, in particular, their relations with minority groups, the crucial link between a more settled sense of national belonging and claims to key material and psycho-social resources is outlined. 

By analysing what is at stake for the majority, we can offer a more complete understanding of recent controversies over immigration, multiculturalism and community cohesion in Western settings, as well as a framework for theorising the significance of nationhood in the contemporary era.

Dr Michael Skey is a Lecturer in Media & Culture at the University of East Anglia. He researches in the areas of media and cultural studies, sociology of everyday life, globalisation and sport. His monograph, National Belonging & Everyday Life: The Significance of Nationhood in an Uncertain World, published in October 2011, won the 2012 BSA/Philip Abrams Memorial Prize for best first, and sole-authored, book in sociology. His work has also featured in a range of journals, including; Sociological Review, Communication Theory, Nations & Nationalism, Journal of Cultural Geography and Ethnicities.