In this paper, Rapport uses interviews with workers in a Scottish hospital to explore what Scottish national identity looks like.

Rapport, N. (2012) 'Tensile nationality': National identity as an everyday way of being in a Scottish hospital, Anthropology in Action, 19(1), pp. 60-73. Available at: https://www.proquest.com/docview/1768218337/C2FF1F64E2574706PQ/1?accountid=12269&sourcetype=Scholarly%20Journals (Accessed: 3 April 2024).

He describes the different ways national identity is understood by the research participants and how many of them can seem to be quite banal or ordinary, vague and fuzzy. The kinds of conceptions of national identity discussed in this research are in contrast to theories that national identity comes from activities like flag waving events and marches.

What do you think about these expressions of national identity? Are you "Scottish"? Does any of this resonate with your experience of "Scottishness"? If you are not Scottish, can you relate to any of the ways national identity is expressed in the Scottish context and apply it to your own lived experience?

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