Local Organisation, Cultural Identity & National Integration in the North Atlantic

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This volume contains conference papers from the 3rd North Atlantic Studies Conference. The papers seem to indicate a connection between progressive centralisation -- corresponding with increased homogeneity of culture at the national level -- and a concomitant relative heterogenisation of peripheral regions and minority culture in political terms, expressed through the assertion of difference -- of local, regional, ethnic and other identities. This heterogenisation may be defined in cultural terms as differentiation or in structural terms as expressing relative distancing from the centres of power. The factors giving form and content to these movements seem to reflect institutional arrangements made by the centres in an effort to integrate peripheral communities. In other words, expressions of localism are linked to the manner and structure of integration in the social system or society in question. This puts focus on public institutions as integrating mechanisms and possible arenas of struggle for control. Paraphrasing Jenkins (this volume), comparing Northern Irish and Welsh nationalism, the character of nationalist movements is inextricably bound up with the processes of modern state formation. The focus on structures and relations of incorporation or integration is a general theme uniting the present collection of articles, although this observation alone does not do justice to the breadth of perspectives taken.