Banaler Nationalismus

Banal nationalism refers to the everyday representations of the nation which build a sense of national solidarity in the citizenry. The term is derived from Michael Billig's 1995 book of the same name. Today the term is used primarily in academic discussion of identity formation and geopolitics.

Examples of banal nationalism include the use of flags in everyday contexts, national songs, the use of implied togetherness in the national press (for example, the use of terms such as the prime minister, the weather, our team etc...), patriotic clubs, and a variety of other symbols.

Michael Billig's primary purpose in coining the term was to clearly differentiate every day, endemic nationalism from extremist variants. He argued that the academic and journalistic focus on extreme nationalists, seperatist movements, and xenophobes in the 1980s and 90s obscured the modern strength of nationalism, by implying that it was a fringe ideology. He noted the almost unspoken assumption of the utmost importance of the nation in political discourse of the time, for example in the calls to protect Kuwait during the 1991 Gulf War, or the Falkland Islands in 1982.