National Pride and the Insecure Social Bond between People and the State

The Socio-emotional Context of National Identity in Post-Soviet Neoliberal Latvia

Datos Bibliográficos

ID11048427
AutoresIveta Ķešāne (0000-0002-0151-5407, Latvian Academy of Culture, autor de correspondencia)
Año2024
Volumen52
Número5
Páginas1173-1192
Fecha de publicación2024-09-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaNationalities Papers (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0090-5992 • E-ISSN: 1465-3923
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/nps.2023.71
OpenAlexW4387742333
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas3
Referencias citadas46

This article explores the socio-emotional dimension of national belonging in post-Soviet neoliberal Latvia from the perspective of national pride. I propose this perspective since national pride shapes the character of national belonging. Studies show that national pride in socioeconomic and political attainment is low in post-Soviet countries and Latvia particularly. Influenced by social bond and commitment theories, this study explores why this might be the case by establishing national pride as a relational emotion of national belonging. For understanding national pride it is not enough to explore how people relate to their states. It is also necessary to understand how the states relate to their people, whether they recognize their state constituents, their needs and feel pride in them, and whether they shape social bonds among people. This study explores this question: how does the character of state-society relationship accounts for the low national pride in post-Soviet neoliberal Latvia? To answer, I combine the analysis of the post-Soviet civil discourse and an in-depth exploration of the narratives of 59 emigrants that have left Latvia toward the West in the post-Soviet era. The bonds formed between the Latvian political elite and Western countries during the post-Soviet transformations brought into Latvia neoliberal ideas and policies that, I argue, formed an insecure state-society bond, eroding an opportunity for national pride to flourish and weakening national belonging

Context (archaeology · Geography · National identity · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Pride · Sociology · State (computer science · Eastern European Communism and Reforms · Gender Studies · Historical Geopolitical and Social Dynamics · Law · Multilingual Education and Policy