Imprint: Arcadia
Format: C Format
ISBN: 978-1-905147-58-8
Price: £ £11.99
Pages: 180 pp
Date: July 2007
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Who Cares About Britishness?
Vron Ware (About this author)
A Global View of the National Identity Debate
Commissioned through an exciting project with the British Council’s think-tank in the UK and six countries, this book takes our local debates about Britishness into refreshingly new and important territory. First, it offers the reader the chance to look beyond the top-down domestic agenda, and to listen to the views of people who have recently moved here or who live in countries once colonised by Britain. Second, in each location the book investigates the seldom-heard perspectives of a younger generation of women and men as they meditate on questions of identity, diversity and democracy.
How do other plural societies manage their debates about what it means to belong to and identify with the nation? How important is national identity anyway, in a world where so many people claim allegiance to more than one country? And what are the effects of young people discovering new shared identities as they increasingly communicate across national borders? These are among the many urgent questions that this book seeks to address.
The author undertakes a journey to Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Ireland and Kenya, five countries that were once part of Britain’s empire. Constantly reminded of the UK looks from a distance today, she brings the distinct voices of new British citizens and migrants into conversation with people she meets along the way. The book underlines the importance of talking about national identity and belonging in an insecure world undergoing rapid but uneven transformation.
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