Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review 2005, 41(4): 675-692

"Many a Hungarian can't help being Hungarian": a Sociological Description of National Identification

Jarosław Kilias

Institut sociologie, Varšavská univerzita, Varšava

This article discusses the topic of national identification. The author's aim is to define the appropriate conceptual framework for describing nationality, while taking into account the pluralistic character of the nation and the related contextual and multi-levelled nature of national identification. In the author's view, the concept of 'identification' more accurately applies to individual nationality than the category of identity does, owing to the latter's undesirable subjectivism, methodological individualism, and its occasional references to an over-intellectualised concept of the individual. Scientists who use the second of these two terms tend, moreover, to conflate descriptions of individual and collective phenomena. In an effort to substantiate and elaborate his arguments the author draws on the Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek and presents an analysis of the national identification of the novel's multi-national protagonists. He demonstrates that national identification is multi-levelled and variable, depending on particular situations and institutional frameworks. The author's description shows that the best method of analysing individual nationality may be by examining the individual's set of social roles and institutions rather than describing individual identifications.

Published: August 1, 2005Show citation