In this chapter, we will explore what ‘national identity’ means to people, and how we might get at this. In the following chapter, we look at the connection between national identity and politics.

In this chapter, we:

• explore what people in Scotland mean when they say they are ‘Scottish’, in the context of other social identities they have.
• examine whether flags are the dominant expressions of being Scottish, or whether other symbols are more significant.
• analyse the relationship between being Scottish and being British, between ‘national’ and ‘state’ identities.
• ask what people use as ‘markers’ of national identity, such as place of birth, ancestry and residence.
• assess how they judge the claims of others to ‘being Scottish’, whose claims they accept and whose they reject in terms of being ‘one of us’.