Homeland and Belonging as Factors of National Identity

Abstract

The core concept of the study, national identity, is hard to grasp and requires further definition and refinement. The question of home, as a first factor in this context, refers very strongly to the construction of identities as well as to individual and national representations since it expresses personal, social and cultural processes of belonging. Giving insights into experiences of rootedness, processes of de/relocalisation as well as the construction of national, cultural and religious boundaries, it constitutes a proper analytical factor for the elaboration of national identification in the context of personal, collective and historical circumstances.