In contemporary social science the idea of the nation has become increasingly problematic. An intensified analytical, albeit contradictory, emphasis on global and local processes seems to bypass the nation altogether. First, there is the concept of globalization, which suggests, in general terms, that the differences between nation states have been substantially eroded and that global economic, political and cultural integration is, if not complete, then certainly well advanced (Waters, 1995). At a radically different level there is the concept of localization, which proposes that the nation state and any form of national culture is at best a hegemonic fiction, with “authentic” place-and community-based systems of meaning that are deeply marked by the cultures of the marginalized (for example, of women, subaltern ethnic minorities and so on), repudiating the confected communality of the patriarchal state. Where, then, can the contemporary nation be found?