How Is It Done? Metaphors for Constructing Identities

Abstract

Many young Europeans now seem to construct their wider political identities in the way that Anderson once described national identities (1991): as imagined communities. Young people, who have grown up post-Cold War, in a more diverse society than their parents, who are digital social media natives, are consequently less nationalistic, more accepting of diversity, and shift between multiple identities flexibly and contingently. They are not ‘citizens of anywhere’ (Goodhart 2017), but capable of feeling attachment to local, national, European and global identities. Many have a strong sense of communal values, but seek to change and extend rights in these areas. The chapter concludes with some suggestions for how schools, states and the European Union might respond to these findings.