Conflicting identities within Scotland

If national identity is a broader concept than ‘political' nationalism, then cultural identity is wider in turn than national identity. Stuart Hall outlines how a variety of different identities can come into conflict, such as race, gender, political allegiance and social class,

Instead of thinking of national cultures as unified, we should think of them as constituting a discursive device which represents difference as unity or identity. They are cross-cut by deep internal divisions and differences, and ‘unified' only through the exercise of different forms of cultural power. 19

The particular form of ‘cultural power' that unifies Scottish national identity is the use of history and tradition, and I shall focus upon this towards the end of this section. At present, I am more concerned with illustrating some of the ‘deep internal divisions' inherent in contemporary Scottish society, as these differences are the root of the conflict of identities within Scotland.

A number of different identities are discernable in Scotland, many of which form binary opposites, giving rise to the notion of ‘conflict'. I will focus on four of these binary opposites, and the overarching relationship between them, illustrated in Figure 1:

The above diagram shows how the different facets of Scottish life and identity are inextricably linked, and are in some senses complimentary (for example the link between football and religion). For the sake of clarity, no link is shown between the rural identity and the religious one, and although this link undeniably exists, it is not the same source of conflict in rural areas.