Week 2
british Identity


IDENTITY
Ethnic Identity
Being British
The Family
Geographical Identity
Class
Men and women
Religious and political Identity
Social and everyday contacts


Ethnic Identity

The native British

Scotland

The non-native
British

Northern
Ireland
Wales
England


Ethnic Identity

h
s
i
t
i
r
B
e
v
i
t
a
N
The

National loyalities (Ethnic identity)
can be strong among the people in Britian
whose ancestors were not English


Scottish Identity
Important aspects of public
life (education, law and
religion) are organized
separately from the rest of
Britain
Scottish way of speaking
English is very distinctive
(e.g. dialects spoken by
working class in the lowland

cannot be understood by
those not Scottish)


Scottish Identity
Many symbols of Scottishness
are well known

Th
Li o

nR
am

e
l
t
is

pan
t


Wales Identity
Wales don’t have many reminders
of their Welshness in everyday
life:
Their public life is similar to
that in England
A large minority of the people

don’t consider themselves to
be especially Welsh
The important symbol of
Wales is Welsh language


Welsh Language
One single highlyimportant symbol of
Welsh

• The mother tongue for 20% of the
population
For these people, Welsh
identity is more than just living in the
region known as Wales
• It shows signs of continued vitality.
It receives a lot of public support
(used at school, mass media, etc)
Bilingual road marking in Wales


Identity in
Northern Ireland
Ethnicity, family, politics and
religion are all inter-related
Social class has a
comparatively minor role in
establishing identity
Northern Ireland is a polarized
society: born and stay in one

community for their whole life


The divided
community
Ancestors came
from Lowland
Scotland or
England

Ancestors were
native Irish

Protestant

Catholic

Want
Northern Ireland
to remain in the UK

Want
Northern Ireland
to become part of
Irish Republic


The divided community
Although the 2 communities live side by side,
their lives are almost entirely segregated

• live in different
• Register with
housing estates
different doctors
•Listen to different
•Go to different
radio and TV
schools
•Read different
• Commemorate
newspapers
different
anniversaries
They rarely have contacts
(probably 1st time
at university) and find it horrifying to marry
those from the other community (= deaths of
Romeos and Juliets)
 It is more severe in working class and lesser
in middle class


English Identity
It makes no distinction between
English and British Identity

Example: The national anthem
“God Save the Queen”British national anthem



Ethnic Identity

The

no
n

n

ve
i
t
a

h
s
i
t
Bri

Family roots lie in the Caribbean or in
South Asia or elsewhere
(immigrated 1950-1965)


Non-native British


Non-native British
• Dancers at Nottinghill Carnival (2002)



Non-native British
Accounts for 6% of the population
Can’t choose when to advertise their
ethnic identity and when not to
Have different languages, religions (Hindu
and Muslim), different everyday habits and
attitudes (e.g. parents’ control). Yet, they
are becoming less distinctive as most of
non-whites are now British citizens
Take pride in cultural roots and can
defend against racial discrimination (quite
a lot in Britain)


IDENTITY
Ethnic Identity
Being British
Family
Geographical Identity
Class
Men and women
Religious and political Identity
Social and everyday contacts


Being British
They are too individualistic and don’t like to
feel that they are personally presenting

their country Continue

Know little
about the EU,
just smt to do
with French

to be bad Could think
about of nothing to
British are learning
be proud of
not
other
normally languages

actively
patriotic

Obstinate to certain
Are now afraid distinctively ways:
Greater
of the loss of driving on the left, red
openness
British identity buses, use different
to foreign
in the EU
systems of
influences
However
measurements


would
emigrate if
they could


IDENTITY
Ethnic Identity
Being British
Family
Geographical Identity
Class
Men and women
Religious and political Identity
Social and everyday contacts


Nuclear family is
less common
(divorce and
children born
outside marriage)

1971

family

1992

All divorces

79,200
175,100
0-4 years
10,296
40,273
Little sense of
Family identity is
5-9 years
24,552
extended47,277
family
rather weak
10-14 years
15,048
31,518
15-19 years
10,296
22,763
20+ years
19,800
33,269
More
Small-size
Significant
Divorces
in the UK, 1971
and 1992 (by duration
elderly of
households
family events

marriage)
people
and gatherings
alone
Source:
British Cultural Identities. (2002)live
, page
115
are rare


IDENTITY
Ethnic Identity
Being British
Family
Geographical Identity
Class
Men and women
Religious and political Identity
Social and everyday contacts


Geographical identity
 Not on the place of birth
 Not on the feeling of belonging to a place: too
mobile

The pride lies in where they find it nice
and happy to live in or when they fight
to preserve it

A sense of
identity with a
larger
geographical
area is a bit
stronger, basing
on the spoken
accent

Regional identity is often felt
strongly at sporting events


IDENTITY
Ethnic Identity
Being British
Family
Geographical Identity
Class
Men and women
Religious and political Identity
Social and everyday contacts


Class
Britain is a classconscious society
(though the people do
not approve of class
division)


Difficult to
become
friends with
smb from a
different class

Different class
have different sets
of attitudes and
daily habits


Class identification
ed
n
i
m
r
e
t
e
d
t
Class is no
i ts
r
o
h
t
l

a
e
w
by
e
appearanc
es
d
u
t
i
t
t
a
s
’
r
ake
but by spe
eir
h
t
d
n
a
s
t
s
and intere
ng

i
k
a
e
p
s
f
o
way
Working class
people use lots of
“non-standard”
grammar and
vocabulary

Their accent
cannot change
like the ability
to use standard
English

England and
Wales: strong
regional
accent=
working class,
RP = upper of
middle-upper

Scotland & N.

Ireland: regional
accent = RP