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Flagging Nations? Exploring the Banality of National Discourse Through a Study of Everyday Talk and Media Texts in England

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Flagging Nations? Exploring the Banality of National Discourse Through a Study of Everyday Talk and Media Texts in England The London School of Economics & Political Science Flagging nations? Exploring the banality of national discourse through a study of everyday talk and media texts in England Michael Skey A thesis submitted to the Department of Media and Communications of the London School of Economics for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, March 2008 UMI Number: U61593B All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U615933 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Declaration I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the PhD degree of the London School of Economics and Political Science is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated it is the work of others (in which case the extent of any work carried out jointly by me and any other person is clearly identified in it). The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without the prior written consent of the author. I warrant that this authorisation does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party. 2 Abstract This study explores the banality of national discourse in England in an era that has been described as globalising. Drawing on the broader tenets of social constructionism, the concept of sedimentation will be employed as a means of understanding how certain discourses come to be embedded in the everyday lives of significant numbers in relation to particular historical conditions. This framework will be used to extend Michael Billig’s seminal thesis of Banal Nationalism (1995) in an effort to address the complexities of a multi-national, post-imperial society. The primary data set comes from a series of interviews with white, English-born people, who constitute the majority group in Britain. Various media texts have also been studied as a means of tracking any relevant debates at another level of society. The analysis suggests that national discourse continues to offer a ‘common sense’ heuristic within social interactions, informing manifold ways in which people articulate their lives. The resonance of this discourse is exhibited through a whole range of micro-linguistic and inter-textual features, underpinned by a framework of shared knowledge and assumptions. This framework was particularly evident when people discussed issues such as immigration and multiculturalism, which were generally evaluated as threats to a homogeneous and bounded national space. In these cases, distinctions were made between those who un/conditionally belonged to the nation, with various minority groups often stigmatised as internal ‘Others’ and seen to be destabilising everyday (national) practices, utterances and symbols. The growing sense of ontological insecurity generated by these perceived threats is also thought to partly underlie the increasing visibility of national displays within England at the current time. Finally, while increasing global mobility may sometimes pose a challenge to national frameworks, I suggest that any movement beyond the nation, whether cognitive and/or physical, is better conceptualised as a form of conditional cosmopolitanism, often underpinned by a secure sense of ‘home’, agency and access to cultural / economic capital. 3 CONTENTS List of Tables and Figures......................................................................... 9 Acknowledgements.............................................................................................10 Thesis Overview.................................................................................................13 Conclusions .........................................................................................................24 Chapter 1............................................................................................................26 Studying nations and nationalism:................................................................26 Theoretical approaches....................................................................................26 Introduction....................................................................................................... 26 ‘Classic’ theories of nationalism........................................................................ 27 Modernism .......................................................................................................... 27 Critiques ................................................................ 28 Ethnosymbolism ................................................................................................ 29 Critiques ............................................................................................................. 30 Building a more flexible framework................................................................... 33 From nations to national discourse.............................................................. 35 Discourse: Meaning, power and change..............................................................36 Definitions .......................................................................................................... 36 Exploring the field of discourse analysis.....................................................39 The productivity of power..............................................................................42 Accounting for agency...................................................................................... 43 (Re)creating ‘social lifef.................................................................................. 45 Order of discourse ............................................................................................46 Sedimentation.................................................................................................... 48 Theories of everyday life.................................................................................... 50 Daily routines and experience ...............................................................51 Spatial limits and temporal regularities...................................................... 53 The banality of power..................................................................................... 54 Contesting ‘everyday’ norms..........................................................................56 Critiques of social constructionism ................................................................58 Summary............................................................................................................... 60 Chapter 2: Studying contemporary national discourse.............................64 Mapping national discourse.............................................................. 64 The particular and the universal...................................................................65 Banal Nationalism: A brief overview ................................................................... 67 Why banality m atters...................................................................................... 69 Studying everyday national discourse................................................................ 71 Mediat state and nation.................................................................................. 71 National ‘audiences’: A bottom up approach..............................................73 Enhabiting the nation.......................................................................................74 Ecstatic nationalism 76 . 4 Theorising the global........................................................................................... 79 Zombie nations?................................................................................................ 81 The national and the post-national...............................................................82 Cooling and heating nationalism..................................... 84 The national in everyday life..............................................................................86 Institutionalising the nation........................................................................... 88 Ontological security and the idea of ‘home’............................................... 89 The difference that ‘difference’ makes........................................................91 Engaging with the ‘Other’................................................................................94 Summary............................................................................................................... 95 Chapter 3: The macro perspective................................................................ 98 Introduction........................................................................................................98 The formation of the British nation-state................................................... 98 Imperial Nation................................................................................................ 100 The empire and ‘otherness’...........................................................................102
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