Bechhofer Frank

We live in a world in which being a 'citizen' of a state and being a 'national' are by no means the same. Amidst much scholarly debate about 'nations' and 'nationalism', comparatively little has been written explicitly on 'national identity' and a great deal less is solidly evidence-based. This book focuses on national identity in England and Scotland. Using data collected over twenty years it asks: does national identity really matter to people? How does 'national identity' differ from 'nationality' and having a passport? Are there particular people and places which have ambiguous or contested national identities? What happens if someone makes a claim to a national identity? On what basis do others accept or reject the claim? Does national identity have much internal substance, or is it simply about defending group boundaries? How does national identity relate to politics and constitutional change?

This final book in The Affluent Worker series was originally published in 1969. It contains the findings and conclusions on the issues the research was specifically designed to investigate - the extent of working class embourgeoisment. This thesis is examined in the several contexts of work, sociability, social aspirations and imagery, and so on. At all these points it is called into question empirically and conceptually. In this volume which brings the project to an end, the authors also take up again the broad questions of class and politics out of which the investigation originally sprang.