Self-identifying as British (was: UKer)

[Joel S. Berson]

I wonder if there is not a built-in bias within the
self-identification question.  I can imagine persons (such as
myself), when asked what area/community they identify themselves
with, choosing as the highest rank the most local community (e.g.,
Berwick) and as the lowest rank the least local/most inclusive of
others (e.g., Britain).  Isn't identification with/loyalty to groups
sometimes described by sociologists/ethicists as involving concentric
circles, with the greatest identification/loyalty to the smallest
circle (family)?  Can that effect be separated out, in attempting to
count those who in some sense deny an identity as (e.g.) British?

Joel

At 2/7/2011 04:27 PM, Damien Hall wrote:
>It's not quite true that the only UKers to self-identify as British are the
>Northern Irish.
>
>That's actually an important question in the project I currently work on,
>Accent and Identity on the Scottish-English Border (our website is in my
>signature, the one ending in 'aiseb', if you're interested). We are working
>in four towns on the English-Scottish border, two on each side, and at one
>point ask interviewees about their personal identity, and give them a list
>of adjectives to choose between and rank according to how they feel about
>themselves: 'Scottish' or 'English' depending on the town, 'British',
>'European', 'Borderer', an adjective describing origin from that town
>('Berwicker' etc), and an adjective describing origin from their part of
>their nation ('Northerner' etc). People can choose any of these that are
>important to them, and have to place them along a line from 'Most
>important' to 'Least important'. We find that a significant number of
>people don't include 'British', but by no means all of them - so a good
>number of English and Scottish people on the border do self-identify as
>British these days.
>
>Alas, it's also no longer true that citizens of the UK are referred to as
>'UK subjects' - not since 1983:
>
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_subject#After_1983
>
>There is one very restricted category of people who are still subjects, but
>the mere fact of being a citizen of this particular monarchy doesn't make
>one a subject any more, as once it did.
>
>Damien
>
>--
>Damien Hall
>
>Accent and Identity on the Scottish-English Border
>Department of Language and Linguistic Science, University of York
>
>Tel. +44 (0)1904 322665
>Fax  +44 (0)1904 322673
>
>http://www.york.ac.uk/res/aiseb
>http://www.york.ac.uk/language/staff/academic-research/damien-hall/
>http://www.york.ac.uk/hrc/
>
>Times Higher Education University of the Year 2010
>
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