National Belonging and Everyday Life: The Significance of Nationhood in an Uncertain World [Hardcover]

This book?analyses the current debates around national identity and multiculturalism by?addressing three key questions; why do so many people treat as common sense the idea that they live in and belong to nations? And, why, and for whom, might this idea be significant, notably in an era of increasing global uncertainty?Acknowledgements Introduction: What's Going On? Theorising National Discourse 'Football, Tea and Racism': Talking With and About the Nation 'Aggressively Defensive': Managing Perceived Threats to the Nation 'We Knew Who we Were': Ecstatic Nationalism and Social Solidarity 'It Broadens our Horizons': Are We all Cosmopolitan Now? Conclusions Bibliography Endnotes

Joint Winner of the British Sociology Association's Philip Abrams Memorial Prize 2012

'In this clearly and engagingly written study, Michael Skey explores the often neglected traces of nationalist thinking found in everyday speech, and so provides an important reminder of the distance of much abstract writing about cosmopolitanism from daily experience. Through his sensitive analysis, Skey uncovers forms of anxiety and compensation that are of great relevance to contemporary policy debates in Europe and elsewhere. His book should be of wide interest to researchers and students of cultural and political sociology, media and cultural studies, and nationalism.'

- Nick Couldry, Professor of Media and Communications, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK

'Michael Skey's book deconstructs the 'common sense' behind banal nationalism and explores the specific political projects of belonging which underlie people's sense of selfhood and community in the contemporary world. The book successfully combines theoretical and empirical investigations and helps to clarify some of the naturalized assumptions about the society we live in.'

- Nira Yuval-Davis, Director of the Centre of the Research Centre on Migration, Refugees and BelolÃ4