ABSTRACT
This chapter details national identity as a key feature of modern societies. In so doing, it explores the meaning of identity and considers its defining criteria and its relation with culture, offering a critical analysis of Ernest Gellner's theory of nationalism. The chapter also argues that the power of culture lies in its capacity to create identity, something that individuals cannot live without, and that cannot easily be changed. Culture designs the most intimate parts of humans, mediating the way in which they relate to themselves, others and the exterior world. A common culture presumes some kind of complicity that only individuals socialized within that culture can understand. Then, the chapter addresses the key questions that refer to how is national identity created and experienced in late modernity placing a particular emphasis upon its symbolic dimension. Finally, it looks at the political aspects of national identity and focus upon its link with the concept of citizenship.
