Hierarchies of Belonging: National Identity and Political Culture in Scotland and Quebec

Nationalism has long been a potent political force in Scotland and Quebec. Hierarchies of Belonging explores the construction of national identity and nationalism and shows how they affect the ways in which citizens of Scotland and Quebec understand their relationship to the nation and the state.

Ailsa Henderson analyses linguistic, racial, cultural, economic, and political diversity in Scotland and Quebec in both historical and contemporary contexts. Challenging the assumption that nationalism in Scotland can be characterized as "civic" in contrast to an "ethnic" model in Quebec, Henderson adopts a more complex model of national identity that distinguishes between nationalistic rhetoric, which is invariably civic in form, and public understandings of belonging, which tend to rely on ethnic markers. In Hierarchies of Belonging she demonstrates that nationalist rhetoric and a sense of belonging affect how citizens feel about the state, the nation, and each other.