This Research Topic intends to explore the origins and consequences of political identity, which is broadly defined as identity with ethnic groups, geographic regions, or nation-states.
Contributions should address the theoretical questions related to the sources of ethnic, regional and national identity. For example, how does traditional cultural values and practices shape one’s ethnic and national identity? What is the impact of economic development and modernization on identity? How do different types of political systems, such as democracy and authoritarianism, change one’s sense of belonging to an ethnic group or a nation-state? How do people in colonial and post-colonial societies cope with their sense of identity? How does migration affect identity? These and other factors, such as media, technology, globalization, war, and elite fractions are all welcome topics in examining the question of ethnic and national identity.
In addition, this curated collection of articles is also interested in the political consequences of ethnic and national identity at both individual and societal levels. At the individual level, such identity can affect political attitudes and behaviours, including one’s political orientation and preferences, voting, protest, legal behaviour, and other forms of political participation. At the societal level, ethnic and national identity can influence the process of nation-building, formation of political parties, regime support, political stability, regime type, elite politics, among other consequences.
This Research Topic encourages diversity in research approaches. Research projects should be informed of the commonly concerned theoretical questions such as those mentioned above, but also backed by solid empirical evidence. They can be based on qualitative as well as quantitative studies. They can cover historical as well as contemporary topics. We especially welcome the diversification of empirical data, including field interviews, survey data, self-compiled historical and macro-level data, as well as social media and other online data sources. The research projects can be single-case or single-country studies, or cross-national or cross-group comparative studies.
This Research Topic intends to explore the origins and consequences of political identity, which is broadly defined as identity with ethnic groups, geographic regions, or nation-states.
Contributions should address the theoretical questions related to the sources of ethnic, regional and national identity. For example, how does traditional cultural values and practices shape one’s ethnic and national identity? What is the impact of economic development and modernization on identity? How do different types of political systems, such as democracy and authoritarianism, change one’s sense of belonging to an ethnic group or a nation-state? How do people in colonial and post-colonial societies cope with their sense of identity? How does migration affect identity? These and other factors, such as media, technology, globalization, war, and elite fractions are all welcome topics in examining the question of ethnic and national identity.
In addition, this curated collection of articles is also interested in the political consequences of ethnic and national identity at both individual and societal levels. At the individual level, such identity can affect political attitudes and behaviours, including one’s political orientation and preferences, voting, protest, legal behaviour, and other forms of political participation. At the societal level, ethnic and national identity can influence the process of nation-building, formation of political parties, regime support, political stability, regime type, elite politics, among other consequences.
This Research Topic encourages diversity in research approaches. Research projects should be informed of the commonly concerned theoretical questions such as those mentioned above, but also backed by solid empirical evidence. They can be based on qualitative as well as quantitative studies. They can cover historical as well as contemporary topics. We especially welcome the diversification of empirical data, including field interviews, survey data, self-compiled historical and macro-level data, as well as social media and other online data sources. The research projects can be single-case or single-country studies, or cross-national or cross-group comparative studies.
