ABSTRACT
National identity and nationalism (the movement that develops either to generate or to protect and revitalise national identity) are social phenomena of primary importance in contemporary society and politics. Wars are fought, ethnic cleansing is practised, objects of art are created, families are divided and lives are wrought or flourish, all in connection to this fervently debated community, ‘the nation’. During the 1980s, a number of scholars and politicians hurried to predict the demise of the nation and the nation-state, and to forecast their replacement by subnational and supranational forms of identification and political organisation. However, during the past decade we have witnessed a revitalisation of national loyalties, albeit through complex processes that also involve subnational and supranational groups.
