Introduction : nationalism and belonging

Abstract

The peer-reviewed articles included in this special issue of Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism are based on presentations delivered at the 24th Annual Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism (ASEN) Conference ‘Nationalism and Belonging’, which took place at the London School of Economics and Political Science on 1–3 April 2014. Chaired by Eleanor Knott and Joseph Downing, the conference addressed a wide range of theoretical subthemes and empirical case studies within the broad topic of the relationship between the nation and belongingness. Bringing scholars and academics from various interdisciplinary fields, the three-day conference explored the various political and cultural aspects of such linkages that have been most contested in the academic literature. It is with these two dimensions and with their articulation in changing multinational and multicultural contexts that the articles presented in this journal issue are primarily concerned.