Space and identity: constructions of national identities in an age of globalisation

Abstract

This article enquires how notions of national identities are still topical in recent scholarship at a time when processes of globalisation appear to be undermining the nation-state and its territorial power. The so-called spatial turn within the social sciences and humanities has exposed transnational, postcolonial and global aspects of identity constructions beyond the narrow borders of the nation and all things national. Stimulating historical and geographical research into nations and identities, this journal is informed by the same epistemology, tentatively located in postmodern thinking. Despite the prophecies of doom of postmodern enthusiasts, this study testifies to the continued relevance of borders and national attachments, albeit in terms of self-reflexivity.