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Update to a comprehensive survey of 43 contemporary 18th-century images of the United States flag ran in NAVA News 167 (April-June 2000), pp. 6–12.

See NAVA News 203: 2-3

This chapter first examines the history and role of the Bulgarian flag in the constitution of Bulgarian national identity, a process which began in the second half of the nineteenth century. It then proposes a semiotic model of the identity, one that centers its constructed character and flexibility while performing social interactions. A basic divide between the communicative resources of the self places a person’s individual characteristics in opposition to collective ones. The national flag and colors are interpreted among the expressive forms of the collective identity, in the subcategory of constitutive features for which an individual has no choice. An interpretation of the value flows for identity in social intercourse follows, modeled as an “ego economy” where the reception and production of recognition from and for others is seen as an “ego currency”. This model demonstrates that the particular efficacy of national symbols is amplified by the efficacy of the “nationalist libido”. The use of the nationalist flags, colors, symbols, and narrative in new media thus prepare a fertile ground for the emerging digital populism, one that is masterfully employed by right-wing figures with significant political results and disquieting prospects for the future.

This paper is a semiotics analysis of national symbols, especially national flags, seeking to insert its emergence in the context of the formation of the modern National States. The methodological approach is critical and interdisciplinary, capitalising on the contributions of Semiotics, History, Sociology and Philosophy. The flag of Brazil is analysed in a detailed manner, as a complex symbol, formed of shapes, colours, natural elements and words. From the historical point of view, the flag of Brazil is a symbol, which safeguards the past of the Brazilian Empire inside the symbol of the Republic of Brazil. From the semiotic point of view, one can see in the plan of expression a set of symbols, which allows us to realise the level of significance, there lying the dialectical conflicts of the history of Brazil. From the point of view of the current political scene, it seeks to analyse the new and main role played by the national flag, in its re-emergence among many demonstrations, and the rebirth of nationalism, within the context of economical, moral and political crises. This allows us to assess the meaning of Brazilian modernity and its future challenges.

This chapter looks at the role of flags as national symbols in Hungary. It does so through three case studies. The first flag discussed is the current national colours (red, white and green). It is followed by the so-called ‘Árpád stripes’ (red and white), the colours attributed to the first royal dynasty of Hungary. Finally, the flag of Budapest, the capital city of Hungary, is examined from a historical perspective, with special focus on its relationship with the national colours.

Scotland is to the United Kingdom what the Saltire is to the Union Flag. What it means to be Scottish, what form Scottish identity takes, and how the narratives of Scottish identity and belonging have been constructed and have evolved over time is a story woven into the relationship between these two flags. One a symbol of national identity and the other the symbol of a much larger intranational unity, the history of their coming together is one of negotiated settlement, legal and political compromise, a balancing of competing claims for legitimacy and control over the historical discourse. This chapter explores the origin of the Saltire as the national flag of Scotland, its emergence in symbolic representation of resistance to English power and domination, and the struggle between these two nations that is mirrored in the eventual configuration of the Union Flag. The chapter then traces the shifting contours of the social, cultural, and political landscape of Scotland through various narrative ideologies to demonstrate how the contemporary debate over national identity is symbolised in the complex colour-coded representations of these two flags.

This article argues that public schools play a key role in producing and transmitting American civil religion. Data from classroom observations, college-age informants, and the author's experiences reveal that civil religion in schools is manifested in daily rituals such as the pledge of allegiance; in holiday observances, with activities such as music and art; and in the social studies curriculum. Analysis of these data permits one to describe the beliefs, symbols, and rituals of American civil religion. The data further show that the practice of civil religion in schools plays a dual role: while it socializes American youth to a common set of understandings, it also sets off subgroups of Americans whose backgrounds or beliefs prevent them from participating fully in civil religious ceremonies.

When one examines current national anthems and flags, one finds a great deal of variety. What explains this variation? Possible factors include a nation's world-system position and its degree of modernization. Specifically, I analyze the ways in which world-system position and modernization affect the design or configuration—the syntactic structure—of the symbols national leaders adopt to convey their nation's identity. Findings reveal a link between a nation's world-system position and the structure of its symbols. Leaders of core nations adopt more basic anthems and flags than their semiperiphery and periphery counterparts. However, modernization has no such influence.

This paper is designed to provide a critical engagement with Michael Billig's seminal thesis of Banal Nationalism (1995), perhaps the most influential study of everyday forms of nationhood. With an increasing number now focusing on the (re) production, dissemination and negotiation of the national through routine texts and practices (cf Foster, 2002; Edensor, 2002; Madianou, 2005; Brubaker et al., 2006; Bratsis, 2006) and others employing the concept of banality in relation to non-national (Gorringe, 2006) and post-national identities (Aksoy and Robins, 2002; Szerszynski and Urry, 2002; Beck, 2006; Cram, 2001), it would seem like an opportune moment to assess Billig's contribution and also the limits of his approach.

This research examined the psychological underpinnings of concern for national symbols and ritualistic-ceremonial activities or "symbolic involvement." We propose and test a distinction between symbolic and "instrumental" involvement or concern for the functionality of national institutions and their capability to provide instrumental benefits to citizens. Items comprising the two constructs were found to be empirically distinct, evidenced by statistically reliable and orthogonal dimensions in exploratory factor analysis. Moreover, evidence based on divergent patterns of relations with various forms of national membership indicates that symbolic and instrumental involvement are rooted in distinct motivational concerns related to identity expression and object appraisal, respectively. These findings suggest that national symbolism evokes a psychological attachment to the nation as an abstracted social entity, but not as a concrete functional system.

Michael Billig's book, Banal Nationalism, published in 1995, has a significant international reputation and is one of the books most commonly quoted in Anglophone studies on nationalism. This article follows on from the various books and articles that were published for the 20th anniversary of the book and underlines the way in which the posterity of this thesis is partly based on a misunderstanding, or a misappropriation. In a context in which the end of nations seemed imminent, Banal Nationalism aimed to demonstrate that, on the contrary, nationalism was indeed spread massively and invisibly throughout the world, and particularly in established Western democracies. Yet today this book is considered one of the founding texts of the bottom-up approach to national identity, which puts individuals at the heart of the fabrication of nations. This article discusses how this interpretation has come about.