Bibliography of Flag-Related Books & Research Publications
for 2017–2019

By Scott D. Mainwaring and Steven A. Knowlton

(Expanded from Raven: A Journal of Vexillology 26 (2019): 105-115. Boston: North American Vexillological Association, ISSN 1071-0043.)

Flag-related scholarship takes place in many disciplines and is published in many places, beyond those sponsored by NAVA or other members of the International Federation of Vexillological Associations (FIAV). From time to time we like to provide a summary of these works for the benefit of vexillologists to draw upon in advancing their own research. Kenneth Reynolds compiled the first such bibliography for Raven 24, focusing on 2016–2017. In this issue we focus on 2017–2019. Although numerous on-line collections have been consulted, this bibliography is certainly not comprehensive; but it does, we hope, give a sense of the breadth and nature of this diverse scholarship.

Links in this document are in blue.

Contents

Books and Monographs. - 1 -

Articles, Papers, Chapters, and Theses. - 4 -

On the Confederate Flag. - 4 -

On the Psychology of Flags. - 11 -

On Other Topics. - 15 -

Index of Titles. - 38 -

 

Books and Monographs

Baker, Gilbert, and Dustin Black. Rainbow Warrior: My Life in Color. Chicago Review Press, 2019. ISBN 978-1-64160-153-5

From the publisher: In 1978, Harvey Milk asked Gilbert Baker to create a unifying symbol for the growing gay rights movement, and on June 25 of that year, Baker’s Rainbow Flag debuted at San Francisco’s Gay Freedom Day Parade. Baker had no idea his creation would become an international emblem of liberation, forever cementing his pivotal role in helping to define the modern LGBTQ movement. Rainbow Warrior is Baker’s passionate personal chronicle, from a repressive childhood in 1950s Kansas to a harrowing stint in the US Army, and finally his arrival in San Francisco, where he bloomed as both a visual artist and social justice activist. His fascinating story weaves through the early years of the struggle for LGBTQ rights, when he worked closely with Milk, Cleve Jones, and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Baker continued his flag-making, street theater and activism through the Reagan years and the AIDS crisis. And in 1994, Baker spearheaded the effort to fabricate a mile-long Rainbow Flag—at the time, the world’s longest—to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Stonewall uprising in New York City. Gilbert and parade organizers battled with Mayor Rudy Giuliani for the right to carry it up Fifth Avenue, past St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Today, the Rainbow Flag has become a worldwide symbol of LGBTQ diversity and inclusiveness, and its colorful hues have illuminated landmarks from the White House to the Eiffel Tower to the Sydney Opera House. Gilbert Baker often called himself the “Gay Betsy Ross,” and readers of his colorful, irreverent, and deeply personal memoir will find it difficult to disagree.

Carvajal Araya, María Isabel. Símbolos Nacionales de Costa Rica: La Otra Historia (National Symbols of Costa Rica: The Other History). Colección Identidad Cultural. Ciudad Universitaria Rodrigo Facio, Costa Rica: Editorial UCR, 2017. ISBN 978-9968-46-649-3

Cunningham, Anne C. The Confederate Flag. New York, NY: Greenhaven Publishing, 2018. ISBN 978-1-5345-0232-1

From the publisher: Is it a symbol of pride in one’s heritage or an ugly reminder of slavery and the fruits of racism? The issue of whether the Confederate flag belongs in front of government buildings, or even on Southern pride paraphernalia, has been a hot button for more than a century, long after the Civil War was fought and won. This book takes a close look at the flag’s origins, its controversial history, what meaning it has for Americans living today, and the ongoing debate on its use and display.

Doran, Corey Ross, and Silvia Forni. Art, Honor, and Ridicule: Asafo Flags from Southern Ghana. Toronto, Ontario: Los Angeles: Royal Ontario Museum, 2016. ISBN 978-0-88854-516-9

Note: Winner of the 2017 R. L. Shep Ethnic Textile Book Award by the Textile Society of America. "[It] makes outstanding scholarly contributions to a rich tradition of textile creativity in Africa, known mainly for its iconographic imagery linked to oral knowledge and its bold design executed in vivid colors. Based on decades of research, this work for the first time identifies and recognizes the individual artists and workshops who design and make the flags, the sensibilities and long history that inform their making and innovations to the present day, as well as the flags’ deep cultural meanings for wider communities. At the same time, the compelling writing and illustrations, and overall beautiful production, make the work highly appealing to broad audiences."

Fernández Peón, José Manuel. Origen de la bandera de España. Murcia España: Diego Marin Librero Editor, 2018. ISBN 978-84-17438-13-5

Galeana, Patricia. La bandera nacional. Testimonio de la construcción de la identidad mexicana. Estampas de México. Mexico City: Secretaría de Cultura, Instituto Nacional de Estudios Históricos de las Revoluciones de México, 2017. ISBN 978-607-8507-76-4

Note: Full text at https://inehrm.gob.mx/recursos/Libros/LaBanderaMexicana.pdf

Gerbaudo, Paolo. The Mask and the Flag: Populism, Citizenism, and Global Protest. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017. ISBN 978-0-19-049156-7

From the publisher: From the Arab Spring to the Spanish Indignados, from Occupy Wall Street in New York to Nuit Debout in Paris, contemporary protest bears the mark of citizenism, a libertarian and participatory brand of populism which appeals to ordinary citizens outraged at the arrogance of political and financial elites in the wake of the Great Recession.This book draws on 140 interviews with activists and participants in occupations and demonstrations to explore the new politics nurtured by the “movement of the squares” of 2011-16 and its reflection of an exceptional phase of crisis and social transformation. Gerbaudo demonstrates how, in waging a unifying struggle against a perceived Oligarchy, today’s movements combine the neo-anarchist ethos of horizontality and leaderlessness inherited from the anti-globalisation movement, and a resurgent populist demand for full popular sovereignty and the reclamation of citizenship rights. He analyses the manifestation of this ideology through the signature tactics of these upheavals, including protest camps in public squares, popular assemblies and social media activism. And he charts its political ramifications from Podemos in Spain to Bernie Sanders in the US, revealing how the central square occupations have been foundational to current movements for radical democracy worldwide.

Perry, Stephen D., ed. Pro Football and the Proliferation of Protest: Anthem Posture in a Divided America. Rowman & Littlefield, 2019. ISBN 978-1-4985-8918-5

From the publisher: [It] examines the take-a-knee NFL protests, a trend that has led to deep political divisiveness in America. The author explores this phenomenon by incorporating analysis of media coverage, impact on attitudes and behaviors, and racial, religious, gendered, and political perspectives. The analysis allows readers to recognize both positive and negative prejudice and to proscribe possible solutions for political divisiveness. Protesting, anthems, ceremonies, and media coverage all demonstrate that this issue is a communication issue. This book examines the voices on both sides of the kneeling controversy in order to uncover the points at which one side is communicating and the other side refuses to listen. The studies in this volume look at the protest through four lenses: historically, through media coverage, through impact on public behaviors and attitudes, and from racial, religious, gendered, and political identification perspectives. The contributors worked in conjunction with one another, incorporating different viewpoints into each chapter as they were completed. All studies were conducted under the guidance of the book’s editor to separate the work effectively and to end in a set of voices that complement each other and allow for overall conclusions and recommendations. This book is useful for a wide range of scholars including race, religion, political studies, gender studies, and communication studies.

Phillips, David F., Emmanuel Valerio, and Nozomi Kariyasu. Japanese Heraldry and Heraldic Flags. Danvers, Massachusetts: Flag Heritage Foundation, 2018. ISBN 978-1-4507-2436-4

From the publisher: Japanese heraldry is quite different from European heraldry in form and means of expression, but shares its basic function as a hereditary system of distinctive marks (called mon) to identify individuals, families, and institutions. The first section of the book is an extended essay by David F. Phillips, introducing the principles of the Japanese mon to those familiar only with Western heraldry (or no heraldry at all). The following section, by the noted illustrator Emmanuel Valerio, is entitled “Japanese Heraldry, Battle Flags and Standards in the Age of the Samurai.” The next essay, by the Japanese flag scholar Nozomi Kariyasu, is entitled, “Heraldic Devices on Modern Japanese Flags.” The text concludes with a bibliography provided by David F. Phillips. The book contains more than a thousand illustrations, including sixteen color plates and several flag charts.

Vile, John R. The American Flag: An Encyclopedia of the Stars and Stripes in U.S. History, Culture, and Law. ABC-CLIO, 2018. ISBN 978-1-4408-5789-8 https://www.abc-clio.com/ABC-CLIOCorporate/product.aspx?pc=A5502C

From the publisher: At a time when the U.S. flag is both a source of both pride and controversy, this volume provides the first encyclopedic A-to-Z treatment of the U.S. flag in American history, culture, and law. This title is a comprehensive resource for understanding all aspects of the American flag and its relationship to the American people. The encyclopedia provides a thorough historical examination of key developments in the flag’s design as well as laws and court decisions related to the flag and the First Amendment. In relation to the flag’s history, it also discusses evolving public attitudes about its importance as a national symbol. The encyclopedia contains illuminating scholarly essays on presentations of the flag in American politics, the military, and popular culture including art, music, and journalism. Additionally, these essays address important rules of flag etiquette and modern controversies related to them, from flag-burning to refusing to stand during the playing of the U.S. National Anthem.

Articles, Papers, Chapters, and Theses

On the Confederate Flag

Amira, Karyn. “The Decision Not to Furl the Confederate Flag in My Classroom.” Journal of Political Science Education 14, no. 1 (2018): 97–103. https://doi.org/10.1080/15512169.2017.1360187

Abstract: Over the last year and a half, a number of scholars, pundits, and journalists have criticized college campuses for coddling students by constructing environments that protect them from offensive opinions and evidence that disconfirms their prior attitudes. In this article, I suggest two pedagogical techniques that can help students encounter and digest evidence that may go against their preconceived worldviews and opinions: teaching rational versus irrational thought and quantitative research design and critique. Guiding undergraduates through empirical studies on sensitive topics and encouraging them to critique their findings in a rational, academic manner can help ease them into more reasoned and less reactionary discourse about race, gender, religion, politics, and any other controversial topic in today’s contentious climate. I use my own experience teaching students research design in the months following a race-related murder to illustrate the effectiveness of this method in an extreme circumstance.

Anderson, Thomas Craig. “How S. C. Daily Newspapers Framed the Removal of the Confederate Flag from the State House Grounds in 2015 Through Letters to the Editor and Editorials.” M.A., University of South Carolina, 2018. https://search.proquest.com/pqdtglobal/docview/2187687311/abstract/65A0C325C5214D9DPQ/17

Abstract: The removal of the Confederate flag from the State House grounds in Columbia, South Carolina during the summer of 2015 was an action that had been discussed previously in the state since the flag went up over the State House in 1961. While the state legislature acted swiftly to have the flag removed after Gov. Nikki Haley’s announcement on June 22, the two and a half weeks between her announcement and removal on July 10 was filled with opinions from citizens all across the state and in areas of the United States where Confederate monuments and memorials still have a public presence. Newspapers in the state facilitated a platform in which these varying opinions could be expressed between the readers with their letters to the editor section and provided some of their own views in the editorial section. These two sections of the local daily newspapers in South Carolina were examined for the arguments and primary points of concern made by the writers regarding the Confederate flag’s removal. Using critical literary analysis techniques developed by framing theorists, the letters to the editor and editorials in local newspapers across South Carolina revealed five distinct frames of perspective on the flag’s removal. Additionally, some of the writers also advocated for the flag to be removed or to stay. The results showed some distinct patterns between the circulation sizes of newspapers and regions of the state where the newspapers were published and what frames were used as well as calls to action regarding the flag.

Chaffin, LaTasha Y., Christopher A. Cooper, and H. Gibbs Knotts. “Furling the Flag: Explaining the 2015 Vote to Remove the Confederate Flag in South Carolina.” Politics & Policy 45, no. 6 (2017): 944–63. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12215

Abstract: Public policy scholars have long recognized the importance of focusing events in shaping policy change. We argue that the 2015 Charleston church shooting served as a focusing event that opened a policy window, leading to the vote to remove the Confederate flag from the South Carolina Statehouse grounds. While Democrats voted unanimously to remove the flag, we employ logistic regression models to explore the determinants of the decision to remove the Confederate flag in South Carolina among Republican state representatives. There is little evidence for the effect of district racial composition or electoral threat, but our model indicates that a few factors—intraparty legislator ideology, median household income in the district, percent urban in the district, and district educational attainment—best explain Republican decisions to furl the flag. These findings have implications for how policy makers respond to focusing events and our understanding of ongoing debates over the Confederate flag.

Cunningham, Anne C. The Confederate Flag. New York, NY: Greenhaven Publishing, 2018. ISBN 978-1-5345-0232-1

From the publisher: Is it a symbol of pride in one’s heritage or an ugly reminder of slavery and the fruits of racism? The issue of whether the Confederate flag belongs in front of government buildings, or even on Southern pride paraphernalia, has been a hot button for more than a century, long after the Civil War was fought and won. This book takes a close look at the flag’s origins, its controversial history, what meaning it has for Americans living today, and the ongoing debate on its use and display.

Frear, Christopher, Jane O’Boyle, and Sei-Hill Kim. “Regional Media Framing of the Confederate Flag Debate in South Carolina.” Newspaper Research Journal 40, no. 1 (March 1, 2019): 83–105. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739532918814464

Abstract: Content analysis of 400 news stories in three South Carolina newspapers examines the frames used about the Confederate flag debate in the first 25 days after the 2015 Charleston church massacre. Stories focused on the legislative process in removing the flag more than the flag’s symbolic meaning or the shootings. The three newspapers cited reasons to support removal nearly three times more often than reasons to oppose and showed some distinct regional differences. About two thirds of stories in Charleston and Columbia had a favorable tone (support) toward flag removal, whereas the Greenville newspaper coverage was largely neutral.

Glaub, Austin M. “The Confederate Flag in the White Rural North: A Political History.” B.A., Ball State University, 2018. http://cardinalscholar.bsu.edu/handle/123456789/201435

Abstract: The Confederate flag is perhaps the most divisive symbol in American history. It is historically associated with the Confederate States of America and the Southern United States. In the past century, however, it has transcended its regional bounds and become a prominent symbol within the “redneck” culture of the white rural North. Politically, the question over the Confederate flag’s role in the modern United States is perfectly divided along party lines. The Confederate flag has become intrinsically linked with the Conservative movement and the institutional Republican Party. This study seeks to examine and explain the political history of the Confederate flag as it has made its transition from a symbol of the South to a symbol of the white rural North.

Goldman, Brian, Pearl Chang, Joshua Meddaugh, and Mark Daddona. “Stimulating a Response: Does Exposure to the Confederate Flag Impact People’s Attitudes Regarding Social Dominance Orientation, Ethnocultural Empathy, and Their Political Beliefs?The Journal of Public and Professional Sociology 11, no. 1 (January 17, 2019). https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/jpps/vol11/iss1/2

Abstract: Minimal psychological research has looked at whether priming participants with the Confederate flag impacts psychological functioning. The current study examined whether Confederate flag priming and people’s political orientation would account for various indicators of how people reconcile in-group/out-group divisions- social dominance orientation (SDO) and ethnocultural empathy (EE). Previous research noted that exposing people to the Confederate flag activates schemas resulting in biased judgments of out-group members (Becker, Enders-Comber, Wagner, Christ, & Butz, 2012; Callahan & Ledgewood, 2016; Kemmelmeier & Winter, 2008). Other studies noted that exposure to the Confederate flag changed voter’s preferences for political candidates, such as Barack Obama due to the activation of negative feelings towards Blacks (Ehrlinger et al., 2011). The current study builds from such work by examining the political attitudes of 194 participants enrolled in a midsized, primarily minority-serving university in the southern United States. Participants were exposed to 30 seconds of either the Confederate flag or a control group condition (an Olympic flag). After the exposure, participants’ attitudes towards SDO and EE were reported. Findings indicated that political ideology interacted with the flag condition and that the disparities were most pronounced when people of a particular political orientation were exposed to the Confederate rather than Olympic flag condition. Specifically, when exposed to the Confederate flag conservatives reported more SDO (i.e., less endorsement of group equality) and less EE (e.g., empathic feelings). By contrast, for liberals EE empathic awareness subscale scores were especially higher in the Confederate flag condition. Multiple main effects also emerged in which liberals generally reported lower SDO and higher EE than conservatives did (regardless of the flag priming). Implications concerning the current political climate in the U. S. and information shortcuts for potential voting behavior are also discussed.

Huffmon, Scott H., H. Gibbs Knotts, and Seth C. McKee. “Down with the Southern Cross: Opinions on the Confederate Battle Flag in South Carolina.” Political Science Quarterly 132, no. 4 (2017): 719–41. https://doi.org/10.1002/polq.12700

Abstract: A horrific mass shooting in a black church in Charleston, South Carolina, became the mobilizing force for taking down the Confederate battle flag from the State House grounds in Columbia. In this article, we chronicle disputes over the Confederate flag in the American South and then turn our attention to the case of South Carolina. Using survey data from the Winthrop Poll (WP), we evaluate the opinions of South Carolinians toward the Confederate flag before and after the Charleston shooting. Before this senseless massacre, our findings show, there was a palpable racial divide in opinions toward the Rebel flag and sharp divisions among whites on the basis of certain demographics and sociopolitical attitudes.

Hutson, Stanley A. “Alabama Confederate Battle Flags: History, Preservation, and Interpretation.” M.A., Middle Tennessee State University, 2018. https://search.proquest.com/pqdtglobal/docview/2166880666/abstract/65A0C325C5214D9DPQ/30

Abstract: This thesis focuses on the preservation and interpretation of Alabama Confederate battle flags, mainly those at the Alabama Department of Archives and History.  I study the complex history of Confederate flags, along with the now almost singularly known ‘Rebel flag’, in order to better understand modern day preservation and interpretation attempts both at the ADAH and other historic venues across the United States.  This thesis explores the society that existed before the Civil War in the southern United States and how that unique culture was eventually tangibly embodied within those flags.  I also research the wartime use of Confederate flags to understand what they meant in the context of those times and how they were used as utilitarian military objects in combat, but took on greater meaning and developed in to a source of pride for the men who fought under them.  I then explore the post war history of the flags, from their repatriation to archival repositories across the South, to their use by the KKK, and their place in Southern culture.  Finally, I briefly explore contemporary issues concerning the flags and how those factors influence their preservation and interpretation.  Lastly, I discuss the latest trends at the ADAH concerning the preservation and interpretation of Alabama Confederate flags.

Lefever, Grant Burnette. “Furling the South Carolina Confederate Flag: Political Expediency or Cultural Change?” M.A., University of Mississippi, 2016. https://search.proquest.com/pqdtglobal/docview/1842419746/abstract/65A0C325C5214D9DPQ/230

Abstract: Until July 2000, three Confederate battle flags flew at the South Carolina State House—one in each Legislative chamber and a third on top of the State House dome, on the same pole and just below the U.S. flag and the state’s Palmetto flag. A legislative compromise that year removed the flags from the State House to a prominent site 100 yards away in front of the building, next to a memorial to South Carolina’s Confederate dead. Though it only moved the flag a short distance and to an arguably more visible location, the 2000 compromise was the culmination of over a decade of intense debate that convulsed the state’s political culture and deeply divided South Carolinians. In June 2015, a young white man named Dylann Roof entered a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina and gunned down nine African Americans, purely because of their race. The murders sparked national outrage and reignited intense debate over the Confederate flag’s continued presence at the South Carolina State House. Unlike fifteen years earlier and other failed efforts, this time legislation to remove the Confederate battle flag passed both houses of the General Assembly within two weeks of introduction. Less than a month after the horrific massacre, the last Confederate battle flag on South Carolina State House grounds was furled.

This thesis examines the lengthy debate over the Confederate battle flag in South Carolina within the context of the larger culture war taking place in the South over the region’s public symbols. The flag debate in South Carolina endures as the longest and most divisive battle of this culture war. This thesis investigates the particular social, historical, and political influences that caused the debate to unfold as it did in the state. It also evaluates the specific factors, or pressures, that generated the momentum necessary to move the Confederate flag on State House grounds in 2000 and to finally oust it in 2015. The analysis concludes that South Carolina lawmakers were motivated more by political expediency than by a commitment to racial equality and social change. Until July 2000, three Confederate battle flags flew at the South Carolina State House—one in each Legislative chamber and a third on top of the State House dome, on the same pole and just below the U.S. flag and the state’s Palmetto flag. A legislative compromise that year removed the flags from the State House to a prominent site 100 yards away in front of the building, next to a memorial to South Carolina’s Confederate dead. Though it only moved the flag a short distance and to an arguably more visible location, the 2000 compromise was the culmination of over a decade of intense debate that convulsed the state’s political culture and deeply divided South Carolinians. In June 2015, a young white man named Dylann Roof entered a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina and gunned down nine African Americans, purely because of their race. The murders sparked national outrage and reignited intense debate over the Confederate flag’s continued presence at the South Carolina State House. Unlike fifteen years earlier and other failed efforts, this time legislation to remove the Confederate battle flag passed both houses of the General Assembly within two weeks of introduction. Less than a month after the horrific massacre, the last Confederate battle flag on South Carolina State House grounds was furled.This thesis examines the lengthy debate over the Confederate battle flag in South Carolina within the context of the larger culture war taking place in the South over the region’s public symbols. The flag debate in South Carolina endures as the longest and most divisive battle of this culture war. This thesis investigates the particular social, historical, and political influences that caused the debate to unfold as it did in the state. It also evaluates the specific factors, or pressures, that generated the momentum necessary to move the Confederate flag on State House grounds in 2000 and to finally oust it in 2015. The analysis concludes that South Carolina lawmakers were motivated more by political expediency than by a commitment to racial equality and social change.

Lippard, Cameron D. “Heritage or Hate? A Pedagogical Guide to the Confederate Flag in Post-Race America.” Learning and Teaching: The International Journal of Higher Education in the Social Sciences 10, no. 3 (December 2017): 56–78. https://doi.org/10.3167/latiss.2018.100305

Abstract: The Confederate flag has been a hotly debated symbol of heritage or hate in the United States. In 2015, 54 per cent of Americans polled saw the flag as a symbol of “Southern pride” whereas 34 per cent saw it as racist. However, 27 per cent of Whites compared to 69 per cent of Blacks saw the flag as racist. In this article, I suggest how instructors can better explain this controversial topic within an America society that is “post-race”. First, I describe an opening activity to get students thinking about symbolism through flags. Next, I present a lecture that debunks myths about the flag’s meanings by presenting its factual history. Finally, I describe an open debate activity to complete the discussion and comprehension of the confederate flag. Student responses suggest that these lesson plans lead to a better understanding of its symbolism and its relationship to the continuing significance of racism in the U.S.

McNutt, Ryan K. “‘What’s Left of the Flag’: The Confederate and Jacobite ‘Lost Cause’ Myths, and the Construction of Mythic Identities through Conflict Commemoration.” Journal of Conflict Archaeology 12, no. 3 (September 2, 2017): 142–62. https://doi.org/10.1080/15740773.2017.1480419

Abstract: The use of battlefields and associated conflict sites provide tantalising hooks upon which to hang tapestries of grand narratives relating to regional and national identities, often defined by what the identities are not. This paper examines the unlikely connection between Jacobite and Confederate romanticism, and how battlefields, conflict related sites, and symbolic material culture are mobilised through active commemoration by some heritage groups in support of a created, mythic identity of a ‘Southern Celt’. Furthermore, it examines the production of a mythic history that whitewashes and recasts the Confederacy, the reality of the Civil War, and the Confederate Flag, while at the same time minimising, hiding, or ignoring competing narratives.

Mehl, Kayla R. “On Racial Barriers.” M.A., University of Texas at El Paso, 2018. https://search.proquest.com/pqdtglobal/docview/2055390501/abstract/65A0C325C5214D9DPQ/78

Abstract: My thesis examines: the nature of racial barriers, by what means racial barriers manifest in society, and the ways in which we can use racial barriers to evolve toward a more just society. I argue that within particular contexts a look of the Other will construct a racial barrier between racialized bodies. More specifically, when one perceives a threat from a look of the Other, one will undertake a particular—what social psychologists call—self-representation, in attempt to exhibit a particular type of persona they feel is called for in that context. Furthermore, I argue in my paper that racial barriers emerge not only in the presence of particular individuals, but also in the presence of unjust social structures. Thus, I show that one may experience two different types of racial barriers as a result of a perceived threat from the look of the Other. In order to do make this argument for social structures, I draw form the work of Iris Marion Young and her definitions of social structures and structural injustice. By putting Young’s work in dialogue with some fragments of Sartre’s, I am able to show that social structures also have a “look” and “face” and these faces may take the form of objects or symbols, such as the Confederate flag. I use the example of the Confederate flag to illustrate my point that some objects have a “face” of the social structure that is white supremacy. In the final chapter, I argue that at the junctures in which people of color perceive a threat in the form of racial barriers as lived experiences or racial barriers as social structures are trouble spots that need attention and reformation. I further argue that while racial barriers as social structures contravene in our attempts to achieve justice, some racial barriers as lived experiences are imperative for justice—they help people (particularly whites) become aware of the ways in which they are racially privileged or oppressed and thus, serve as measures in developing self-awareness and understanding how race continues to influence our judgement and behaviors.

Middleton, Billy. “‘Furl That Banner, Softly, Slowly’: Confederate Flags and the Historical Gaze in Gone With the Wind.” The Southern Quarterly 55, no. 2 (December 3, 2018): 153–70

Abstract: The article explores the application of competing histories of Confederate iconography in the 1939 film “Gone With the Wind” in multivalent ways. It employs a Lacanian theatrical framework adapted by writers Laura Mulvey and Tom Brown to examine the flag as a symbol of Southern pride during the American Civil War. The depiction of slavery in the film adaptation of Margaret Mitchell’s novel is discussed.

Murphy, Emma. “Displaying Heritage: Southern Identity through the Georgia State Flag Controversy.” M.A., University of West Georgia, 2017. https://search.proquest.com/pqdtglobal/docview/2001240570/abstract/65A0C325C5214D9DPQ/121

Abstract: As the country moved into the twentieth century, the view of the Confederate battle flag and its place in national memory has changed. This symbol, which became incorporated into the twentieth century white-southern identity, has struggled through the contentious memory of the Confederacy. The clashing narratives of the past and present take full form in the political speeches of prominent governors and civil rights leaders during the height of the Georgia state flag controversy in the mid-1990s. The paper uses the state of Georgia as a case study for the struggles of defining southern identity. Spanning from the late 1980s to the early 2000s, the fight to change the Georgia state flag exemplifies how deeply rooted the Confederate battle flag is to both individual and collective identity and memory. The related project, in partner with the Atlanta History Center, created a first-person female character who represents the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1955 for the Civil War exhibit entitled ‘Turning Point.’ The character not only humanizes the story of commemoration and memory, but also creates a connection to modern day discussions on proper Confederate commemoration.

Nawawy, Mohammed el-, and Mohamad Hamas Elmasry. “Is America ‘Post-Racist’? How AC 360 and The O’Reilly Factor Discursively Constructed the Charleston Church Shooting.” Journalism Studies 19, no. 7 (May 19, 2018): 942–59. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2016.1240016

Abstract: This study used critical discourse analysis to examine Anderson Cooper 360° (AC 360) and The O’Reilly Factor coverage of the 2015 Charleston, South Carolina church shootings and the subsequent controversy surrounding the removal of the Confederate Flag from South Carolina government grounds. While AC 360 used a “Good versus Evil” discourse to structure its reportage, suggesting that the shooting represented a series of battles between right and wrong, The O’Reilly Factor used the Charleston tragedy as a launching-off point to defend the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution. Although both shows drew attention to racism, they ignored the structural context of racism that makes racist violence thrive. Their coverage implied that America has moved into a post-racism era.

Sinclair-Chapman, Valeria. “(De)Constructing Symbols: Charlottesville, the Confederate Flag, and a Case for Disrupting Symbolic Meaning.” Politics, Groups, and Identities 6, no. 2 (April 3, 2018): 316–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/21565503.2018.1455597

Abstract: Political symbols such as the Confederate flag and Confederate monuments present a certain kind of “stickiness” in meaning, interpretation, and ownership. In some instances, a symbol is deeply tied to its referent, as is the case for the iconic “Hollywood sign” that sits atop the Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles. In other instances, a symbol is only distantly connected to its referent and is more informed by emotion than by details or facts, as I argue is the case for the Confederate flag. These socalled “condensation symbols” take on meanings that are shaped by politics, communities, and myths making them difficult to challenge or reframe. Using the actions of rapper Kanye West as an abbreviated case study, this paper proposes the possibility of disrupting symbolic meanings in ways that could make Confederate symbols less sticky in meaning and ownership, and perhaps less politically divisive.

Terrono, Evie. “Performance, Political Discourse, and the Problematics of the Confederate Flag in Contemporary Art.” Public Art Dialogue 8, no. 2 (July 3, 2018): 142–74. https://doi.org/10.1080/21502552.2018.1500210.

Weeden, L. Darnell. “A Growing Consensus: State Sponsorship of Confederate Symbols Is an Injury-in-Fact as a Result of Dylann Roof ’s Killing Blacks in Church at a Bible Study.” BYU Journal of Public Law 32, no. 1 (2017): 117–53

Abstract: The article focuses on the debates surrounding over Confederate symbols in the U.S. Topics discussed include challenges of Mississippi’s state flag on equal protection grounds constituting hate speech endorsing racial prejudice; establishment of injury-in-fact as a result of Dylann Roof ’s Killing Blacks in Church at a Bible Study; and NAACP v. Hunt court case on the same.

Wright, Joshua D., and Victoria M. Esses. “Support for the Confederate Battle Flag in the Southern United States: Racism or Southern Pride?Journal of Social and Political Psychology 5, no. 1 (May 5, 2017): 224-243–243. https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v5i1.687

Abstract: Supporters of the Confederate battle flag often argue that their support is driven by pride in the South, not negative racial attitudes. Opponents of the Confederate battle flag often argue that the flag represents racism, and that support for the flag is an expression of racism and an attempt to maintain oppression of Blacks in the Southern United States. We evaluate these two competing views in explaining attitudes toward the Confederate battle flag in the Southern United States through a survey of 526 Southerners. In the aggregate, our latent variable model suggests that White support for the flag is driven by Southern pride, political conservatism, and blatant negative racial attitudes toward Blacks. Using cluster-analysis we were able to distinguish four distinct sub-groups of White Southerners: Cosmopolitans, New Southerners, Traditionalists, and Supremacists. The greatest support for the Confederate battle flag is seen among Traditionalists and Supremacists; however, Traditionalists do not display blatant negative racial attitudes toward Blacks, while Supremacists do. Traditionalists make up the majority of Confederate battle flag supporters in our sample, weakening the claim that supporters of the flag are generally being driven by negative racial attitudes toward Blacks.

On the Psychology of Flags

Blake, Adam B., and Alan D. Castel. “Memory and Availability-Biased Metacognitive Illusions for Flags of Varying Familiarity.” Memory & Cognition 47, no. 2 (February 1, 2019): 365–82. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-018-0872-y

Abstract: Research on everyday attention suggests that frequent interaction with objects often does not benefit memory or metamemory for them. Across three experiments, participants gave confidence judgments and completed eight-alternative forced-choice tests of the US, Canadian, and Mexican flags. In Experiment 1, environmental availability was correlated with confidence for the US flag, despite similar recognition performance at a saturated time point in the US (July 4th) and a neutral time point (August 6th). In Experiment 2, participants that were asked to verbally describe the flags before judging and remembering them were less accurate and more overconfident than were controls. Experiment 3 utilized a draw-study paradigm wherein participants who first drew the flag had reliably more accurate recognition and confidence scores than those who only studied it. These findings illuminate a persistent metacognitive bias, demonstrate a powerful learning intervention, and extend theories of errorful learning by highlighting the role of attention.

Chan, Eugene Y. “Exposure to National Flags Reduces Tax Evasion: Evidence from the United States, Australia, and Britain.” European Journal of Social Psychology 49, no. 2 (2019): 300–312. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2388

Abstract: There have been numerous theories from numerous academic fields explaining why individuals engage in tax evasion. Drawing broadly on Social Identity Theory, we predict that exposure to one’s national flag can reduce tax evasion by making salient one’s national identity, motivating one to sacrifice one’s self-interests for one’s country—which would presumably include paying one’s fair share of taxes. In three experiments, we found that exposure to American, Australian, and British flags reduced Americans’, Australians’, and Britons’ tax evasion in financially incentivized tasks (Experiments 1, 3) and increased tax-paying attitudes (Experiment 2). The effects arose because flag primes made salient participants’ national identities that then motivated them to help their country. We ruled out social norms and trust in authorities as alternative explanations. As such, flag primes might reduce tax evasion and in doing so improve the economic and societal welfare of a country.

———. “Exposure to the American Flag Polarizes Democratic-Republican Ideologies.” British Journal of Social Psychology 56, no. 4 (2017): 809–18. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12197

Abstract: Some prior research has suggested that exposure to the American flag tilts Americans towards Republicanism, while others have proffered that it brings outs a common ‘together’ perspective instead. We explore a third possibility – that it may actually polarize Americans’ political ideology. It is generally accepted that exposure to an environmental cue can shift attitudes and behaviours, at least partly or temporarily, in a manner that is consistent with that cue. Yet, the same cue can mean different things to different people. In the same vein, given how national identity and political ideology are intertwined in the United States, we hypothesize that the American flag should heighten different political beliefs depending on individuals’ political ideology. To Democrats, being American is to support Democratic values, but to Republicans, being American is to support Republican values. The American flag thus should heighten Democrats of their Democratic identity, and it should heighten Republicans of their Republican one. The results of an experiment with 752 American respondents who were representative of the US population supported this polarizing effect of the American flag. The theoretical and policy implications of the findings are offered.

Finell, Eerika. “National Identity, Collective Events, and Meaning: A Qualitative Study of Adolescents’ Autobiographical Narratives of Flag Ceremonies in Finland.” Political Psychology 40, no. 1 (2019): 21–36. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12512

Abstract: Although collective events are central to group identity processes, little is known about how young people experience and remember national ceremonies in which they have participated. This qualitative study analyzes 80 autobiographical narratives written by upper secondary school students about flag ceremonies from their past in Finland. The analysis reveals that the narratives fall into three categories ((Dis)honored, Deserved and Loved Flag) according to how the social context, participants’ actions, narrator’s role, and emotions are described, all of which combine to create a dense web of meanings associated with this common national ceremony. The results also indicate that different group contexts—family and peer group networks and the national context—are inextricably linked in the narratives and that the meanings associated with these contexts tend to fuse. The findings highlight the importance of analyzing national collective events and related autobiographical memories to better understand the sources of national identity’s emotional power.

Goldman, Brian, Pearl Chang, Joshua Meddaugh, and Mark Daddona. “Stimulating a Response: Does Exposure to the Confederate Flag Impact People’s Attitudes Regarding Social Dominance Orientation, Ethnocultural Empathy, and Their Political Beliefs?The Journal of Public and Professional Sociology 11, no. 1 (January 17, 2019). https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/jpps/vol11/iss1/2

Abstract: Minimal psychological research has looked at whether priming participants with the Confederate flag impacts psychological functioning. The current study examined whether Confederate flag priming and people’s political orientation would account for various indicators of how people reconcile in-group/out-group divisions- social dominance orientation (SDO) and ethnocultural empathy (EE). Previous research noted that exposing people to the Confederate flag activates schemas resulting in biased judgments of out-group members (Becker, Enders-Comber, Wagner, Christ, & Butz, 2012; Callahan & Ledgewood, 2016; Kemmelmeier & Winter, 2008). Other studies noted that exposure to the Confederate flag changed voter’s preferences for political candidates, such as Barack Obama due to the activation of negative feelings towards Blacks (Ehrlinger et al., 2011). The current study builds from such work by examining the political attitudes of 194 participants enrolled in a midsized, primarily minority-serving university in the southern United States. Participants were exposed to 30 seconds of either the Confederate flag or a control group condition (an Olympic flag). After the exposure, participants’ attitudes towards SDO and EE were reported. Findings indicated that political ideology interacted with the flag condition and that the disparities were most pronounced when people of a particular political orientation were exposed to the Confederate rather than Olympic flag condition. Specifically, when exposed to the Confederate flag conservatives reported more SDO (i.e., less endorsement of group equality) and less EE (e.g., empathic feelings). By contrast, for liberals EE empathic awareness subscale scores were especially higher in the Confederate flag condition. Multiple main effects also emerged in which liberals generally reported lower SDO and higher EE than conservatives did (regardless of the flag priming). Implications concerning the current political climate in the U. S. and information shortcuts for potential voting behavior are also discussed.

Grainger, Jonathan, Mathieu Declerck, and Yousri Marzouki. “On National Flags and Language Tags: Effects of Flag-Language Congruency in Bilingual Word Recognition.” Acta Psychologica 178 (July 1, 2017): 12–17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2017.05.004

Abstract: French-English bilinguals performed a generalized lexical decision experiment with mixed lists of French and English words and pseudo-words. In Experiment 1, each word/pseudo-word was superimposed on the picture of the French or UK flag, and flag-word congruency was manipulated. The flag was not informative with respect to either the lexical decision response or the language of the word. Nevertheless, lexical decisions to word stimuli were faster following the congruent flag compared with the incongruent flag, but only for French (L1) words. Experiment 2 replicated this flag-language congruency effect in a priming paradigm, where the word and pseudo-word targets followed the brief presentation of the flag prime, and this time effects were seen in both languages. We take these findings as evidence for a mechanism that automatically processes linguistic and non-linguistic information concerning the presence or not of a given language. Language membership information can then modulate lexical processing, in line with the architecture of the BIA model, but not the BIA+ model.

Guéguen, Nicolas, Angélique Martin, and Jordy Stefan. “Holding Your Flag: The Effects of Exposure to a Regional Symbol on People’s Behavior.” European Journal of Social Psychology 47, no. 5 (2017): 539–52. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2239

Abstract: Research has shown that exposure to the national flag alters people’s behavior and political and intergroup judgments. In several field studies conducted in an area of France with a strong regional identity, we examined the effect of the presence of the regional flag versus the national flag versus no flag on behaviors. Various situations (e.g., money solicitation, implicit helping behavior, food tasting) were tested in Brittany, on the French west Atlantic coast. Car drivers, passersby in the street, and patrons in bakeries were exposed to no flag versus the French flag versus the Brittany flag held by requesters or presented on a product or on a car. Findings showed that the regional flag increased helping behavior dramatically. Other studies also revealed that the presence of the Brittany flag reduced aggressiveness and influenced preference for food products. The power of a flag as a symbol that could increase in-group membership is discussed.

Muscat, Joseph, and Mary Anne Lauri. “The National Flag: An Agent of Prejudice?Social Psychological Review 20, no. 1 (2018): 5–17. https://shop.bps.org.uk/social-psychological-review-vol-20-no-1-spring-2018.html

Abstract: This study explored significant effects on prejudice towards foreigners expressed by Maltese individuals when exposed to the Maltese national flag, taking into consideration their nationalistic and patriotic tendencies. A volunteer sample of university students was surveyed via a web-based questionnaire where nationalism, patriotism and prejudice against foreigners were measured using the image of the Maltese flag as an experimental variable. Analysis of the results indicates that for the sample population, subtle exposure to the Maltese flag has the effect of reducing expressions of prejudice. These results provide some insight into the psychological factors that may mould reactions Maltese people have towards foreigners with consequent political and social implications.

Porat, Roni, Maya Tamir, Michael J. A. Wohl, Tamar Gur, and Eran Halperin. “Motivated Emotion and the Rally around the Flag Effect: Liberals Are Motivated to Feel Collective Angst (like Conservatives) When Faced with Existential Threat.” Cognition and Emotion 33, no. 3 (April 3, 2019): 480–91. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2018.1460321

Abstract: A careful look at societies facing threat reveals a unique phenomenon in which liberals and conservatives react emotionally and attitudinally in a similar manner, rallying around the conservative flag. Previous research suggests that this rally effect is the result of liberals shifting in their attitudes and emotional responses toward the conservative end. Whereas theories of motivated social cognition provide a motivation-based account of cognitive processes (i.e. attitude shift), it remains unclear whether emotional shifts are, in fact, also a motivation-based process. Herein, we propose that under threat, liberals are motivated to feel existential concern about their group’s future vitality (i.e. collective angst) to the same extent as conservatives, because this group-based emotion elicits support for ingroup protective action. Within the context of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, we tested and found support for this hypothesis both inside (Study 1) and outside (Study 2) the laboratory. We did so using a behavioural index of motivation to experience collective angst. We discuss the implications of our findings for understanding motivated emotion regulation in the context of intergroup threat.

Satherley, Nicole, Danny Osborne, and Chris G. Sibley. “Who Is for (or Against) the National Flag? Ideological and Identity-Based Motivators of Attitudes.” Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1111/asap.12169

Abstract: Although national flags arguably reflect a unified nation, support for a particular flag design may vary across ideological cleavages within the electorate. Here, we examined the impact of system-challenging and system-justifying ideologies, as well as political party support, on support for flag-change in a large (N = 13,559) nationally representative sample of New Zealand adults. As hypothesized, system-justifying ideologies (e.g., conservatism, right-wing authoritarianism, historical negation, and symbolic exclusion) correlated negatively with flag change support, whereas system-challenging ideologies (e.g., support for multiculturalism) correlated positively with support for change. Yet, consistent with an identity politics perspective, support for the National Party—the center-right/conservative party in New Zealand whose leader advocated change—correlated positively (rather than negatively) with support for changing the flag. These results demonstrate the countervailing effects of system-justifying and system-challenging ideologies on support for change, and identify a boundary condition of conservatives’ opposition to change (namely, party support).

Satherley, Nicole, Kumar Yogeeswaran, Danny Osborne, and Chris G. Sibley. “If They Say ‘Yes,’ We Say ‘No’: Partisan Cues Increase Polarization Over National Symbols.” Psychological Science 29, no. 12 (2018): 1996–2009. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797618805420

Abstract: Real-world tests of the impact of partisan cues on voters are scarce because they require assessing how citizens’ attitudes changed toward an issue from before to after it became politically divisive. During the 2015–2016 New Zealand flag referendums, the leader of the (center-right) National Party and then–Prime Minister, John Key, championed changing the flag—a move strongly contested by the (center-left) Labour Party. Accordingly, we measured New Zealanders’ attitudes toward changing the flag using national longitudinal panel data collected in 2013, before the change was proposed, and again in 2016 at the height of the debate (Ns = 6,793–6,806). Registered voters who supported the National Party were more likely to shift from opposing to supporting the flag change, whereas those who supported the Labour Party were more likely to shift from supporting to opposing the change. These data demonstrate the powerful impact of partisan cues on political attitudes in a real-world setting.

Wang, Lili, and Peng Zuo. “Flag Backlash: Why Does the Presence of the American Flag Reduce Product Evaluation?Psychology & Marketing 34, no. 7 (2017): 693–707. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.21016

Abstract: The American flag is often incorporated into product branding. However, little research has investigated how the use of American flag imagery as a marketing tool for products influences consumer behavior. The present research examines (1) whether the presence of the American flag on a product affects consumers’ evaluation of products and (2) the social cognitive mechanisms underlying the effect of the flag on product-related judgments. This research provides evidence that the presence of the American flag on a product induces negative product evaluation (Study 1). This negative effect is found to be moderated by participants’ trait level of psychological reactance (Study 2) and mediated by participants’ outrage (Study 3a) and perceived persuasion (Study 3b). When the American flag’s link with the product is broken, its negative impact on product evaluation disappears (Study 4).

Zhang, Tengxiao, Shiyu Feng, Buxin Han, and Si Sun. “Red Color in Flags: A Signal for Competition.” Color Research & Application 43, no. 1 (2018): 114–18. https://doi.org/10.1002/col.22165

Abstract: The color-in-context theory and ecological valence theory suggest that color preference depends on the context and ecological object that define the psychological meanings of colors. The present study was conducted to identify the preference for the color red in national flags across the world. We explored 192 national flags across the world and found that red was the most frequently used color. Through a systemic examination of symbolic meanings behind use of the color red in flags, it was also found that the color red was often attached with an aggressive connotation. In contrast, the flags of the selected international collaborative organizations did not appear to prefer red. These results support the hypothesis of “red flag preference” in real-world competitive contexts. Limitations and future research directions are also discussed.

On Other Topics

Adi, Ana, Roman Gerodimos, and Darren G. Lilleker. “‘Yes We Vote’: Civic Mobilisation and Impulsive Engagement on Instagram.” Javnost - The Public 25, no. 3 (2018): 315–32. https://doi.org/10.1080/13183222.2018.1464706

Abstract: Social media have become increasingly central to civic mobilisation and protest movements around the world. Emotions, symbols, self-presentation and visual communication are emerging as key components of networked individualism and connective action by affective publics challenging established political norms. These emerging repertoires have the potential to reignite civic engagement, although their coherence and sustainability have been questioned. We explore these phenomena through an examination of Instagram use during the 2014 Romanian presidential election. Voting irregularities during the 1st round, particularly affecting the diaspora, gave rise to an impulsive civic movement utilising social media to express solidarity and drive turnout in the 2nd round. Using an original coding framework, we look at how narratives of identity, community and engagement were visually constructed by users on Instagram; the activities, settings, spaces, objects and emotions that comprised this multi-authored story. Our analysis reveals the creation of a loose “me too” collective: an emotionally charged hybrid of self-presentation and participation in a shared moment of historic significance, which otherwise lacked particular norms, political agendas or hierarchies. The civic movement on Instagram materialised primarily through photos documenting the act of voting; an imagined community that combined co-presence in physical space with virtual solidarity through photos of ballots, flags and landmarks. The platform appears to favour impulsive, symbolic and affective expression rather than rational or critical dialogue. As in other cases of post-systemic grassroots engagement, individuals came together for a short period of time and expressed the need for change, although this remained largely an abstract signifier.

Ahn, Ji-Hyun, and Tien-wen Lin. “The Politics of Apology: The ‘Tzuyu Scandal’ and Transnational Dynamics of K-Pop.” International Communication Gazette 81, no. 2 (2019): 158–75. https://doi.org/10.1177/1748048518802947

Abstract: This article examines how transnational cultural flows such as K-pop create intensified regional dynamics and conflicts by looking at a specific case called the ‘Tzuyu incident’. A young Taiwanese member, Chou Tzuyu, of the K-pop girl band TWICE apologized for waving a Republic of China’s flag on a Korean TV show in an apology video released on JYP Entertainment’s official YouTube channel. The video soon went viral among K-pop fans around the globe, especially in Taiwan, China, and Korea, creating a transnational discursive space that vividly captures the complex dynamics among various actors such as the local media, the transnational entertainment corporation, fans, as well as the artists. Through a close inspection of the apology video made by Tzuyu and JYP entertainment, as well as the responses generated in China and Taiwan, this article examines the complicated power dynamics of a variety of players involved in the production and consumption of K-pop. The article argues that geopolitics in the Tzuyu incident is manifested in gendered narratives, showing the uneven power relations between the entertainment company, consumers, and the artist as well as that between China and Taiwan.

Aji, Rojil Nugroho Bayu, Thomas Nugroho Aji, and Mr Nasution. “National Anthem and Nationalism in Football.” Atlantis Press, 2018. https://doi.org/10.2991/icss-18.2018.10.

Alawode, Sunday Olayinka, Oluseyi Olufunke Adesanya, and Olufunsho Cole Agboola. “National Symbols as Commemorative Emblems in Nigerian Films.” European Scientific Journal, ESJ 14, no. 2 (2018): 100. https://doi.org/10.19044/esj.2018.v14n2p100

Abstract: Nigerian films worldwide are the entertainment offerings of the nation, a burgeoning industry with steady increase growth rate and contributing substantially to the GDP of the nation. National symbols are objects, entities and relics representing an idea, concept, character that may be physical, abstract, religious, cultural, and linguistic among others in a sovereign context and beyond. Symbols or objects that connected together may not have anything in common in reality but by association and common agreement, they have come to represent each other in social contexts; a symbol may arbitrarily denote a referent, icon and index. In the case of Nigeria, the National flag, Anthem, Pledge, Currency, language, Coat of arms, National institutions like the National Assembly complex, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), images of past leaders, historical monuments like the Unknown Soldier (representing military men who died in the cause of protecting the nation), dresses are some of these national symbols. Apart from commemorative historical functions, national symbols are also used to represent hard work, credibility or truthfulness, as well as ethnic differentiation, religious affiliation, cultural background, social status, professional orientation, class distinction among others. Theorizing with Gate-keeping and Framing Analysis, this study adopts a content analysis design which is the study of recorded human communications, an objective and systematic analysis of the contents of any document that are manifest. It is often used to investigate the level of presence of a given content in mass communication. The study selected thirty video films between 2010 and 2015 through a systematic sampling with a random start. Content categories include genre of film, type of symbol, setting of symbol, purpose of symbol, cultural implication of symbol, positioning of symbol, symbiotic relations, prominence, and direction of presentation among others. The study presumed that the nation is replete with communicative, symbolic emblems commemorating historical, cultural, religious, social and family landmarks in nationhood but that these items of symbols are minimally represented in the films that stand as cultural products and identity of the nation in the international community. Findings of the study have dire implications for the critical assessment, representation and image or identity of the nation for the past, present and the future.

Ali, Grace Aneiza. “Rituals, Remembrance, Rupture, and Repair: The Jhandi Flag in Contemporary Guyanese Art.” Asian Diasporic Visual Cultures and the Americas 5, no. 1–2 (2019): 195–200. https://doi.org/10.1163/23523085-00501010

Beginning text: Across Guyana, clusters of colourful jhandis (ceremonial Hindu prayer flags) mounted on tall bamboo poles staked in the ground are a common sight in private home shrines, front yards, temples, public spaces, and near bodies of water to indicate that a Hindu prayer ceremony (puja) has been performed. In their ubiquity, these multicoloured jhandi flags signal Hinduism as the nation’s second most common religion. As objects, they serve as a sobering reminder of how Hinduism in Guyana, a former British colony, is historically linked to the colonial desire for the cheap labour of Indian bodies, and why it evolved as a dominant spiritual practice. From the nineteenth to the early twentieth centures, a system of indentured servitude replaced the enslavement of African peoples with Indian and Chinese labour. Between 1838 and 1917, over five hundred ships crossed the kal pani [Hindi for “dark waters”], depositing more than a quarter-million men and women from India to Guyana’s Atlantic coast. Over the last eight decades, as Indians laboured on British-owned sugar plantations and rice fields, the rituals and ceremonies they practiced and creatively invented served as a sacred gesture to protect them from the violence and trauma that came with their new identities as migrants on foreign soil. These flags were also staked to honour the Hindu god Hanuman, a symbol of strength and energy, to mark the fields of Indian landowners, and to celebrate one’s Hindu heritage.

Angosto-Ferrandez, Luis F. “Mausoleums, National Flags and Regime Crises: Comparing Spain and Venezuela.” Politics, Religion & Ideology 19, no. 4 (October 2, 2018): 471–93. https://doi.org/10.1080/21567689.2018.1537606

Abstract: In this paper I undertake a comparative analysis of the symbolic function played by national flags and two specific mausoleums in the configuration of contemporary politics in Spain and Venezuela. In both countries there are signs of political instability, and national flags and the two mausoleums I examine (Francisco Franco’s in Spain and Hugo Chávez’s in Venezuela) have become pivotal to the political manoeuvring of different social factions. The comparison reveals that the national flags in Venezuela and Spain present distinguishable types of multivocality, attending to the differential capacity that they have to facilitate identification and mobilization among various political factions. As for the mausoleums, comparison grounds the argument that their extra-symbolic scaffolding (determined by the combination of location, architectural status and management regime) conditions the type of political manoeuvring they generate and the potential efficacy they can have as foci of collective identification and mobilization.

Annabell, Taylor, and Angelique Nairn. “Flagging a ‘New’ New Zealand: The Discursive Construction of National Identity in the Flag Consideration Project.” Critical Discourse Studies 16, no. 1 (January 1, 2019): 96–111. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2018.1521857

Abstract: New Zealanders were presented with the opportunity to change the national flag and opted to retain the current New Zealand flag, despite arguments that it was unable to reflect national identity adequately. This article unpacks the particular version of national identity constructed in discourse in the infographic, Our Nation. Your Choice. which was released prior to the final referendum that determined the outcome of the Flag Consideration Project. We used Fairclough’s (1992. [Discourse and social change. Cambridge, England: Polity Press]) critical discourse analysis to examine the discursive construction of national identity by the Flag Consideration Panel that oversaw the process. The authoritative assertion of national identity on behalf of New Zealanders emphasised inclusiveness and unity by acknowledging cultural diversity. Biculturalism was confined to an old understanding of New Zealand identity while the ideology of multiculturalism, not yet officially implemented, was positioned as common-sense. There was a focus on situating New Zealand in a global context to distance New Zealand from colonisation and connection to Britain. The positive, cohesive conceptualisation of New Zealand suggested that the Flag Consideration Project was, in fact, an exercise in re-positioning New Zealand in the global context, in which the national flag would represent the national brand rather than contribute to national identity.

Arthur, Catherine E. “Flying the Nation’s Colours: Commemorations of the Past and the National Flag of Timor-Leste.” In Political Symbols and National Identity in Timor-Leste, edited by Catherine E. Arthur, 37–69. Rethinking Peace and Conflict Studies. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98782-8_2

Abstract: This chapter explores the role of flags in commemorations of the past, the representation of national identities, and their role in imaginings of nationhood. Taking the national flag of Timor-Leste and the Fretilin party flag as case studies, it examines how an historical national identity and heritage can be enshrined in these powerful symbols. Tracing the recent history of the half-island and the Indonesian occupation (1975–1999), these two flags demonstrate the fluid nature of symbols, and how their meanings can be flexible to adapt to changing political circumstances. In the post-independence state, the national and Fretilin flags are two of the most widely recognised symbols of resistance, struggle, and suffering, in light of the recent past, and are thus fundamental markers of contemporary East Timorese nationalism.

———. “From Fretilin to Freedom: The Evolution of the Symbolism of Timor-Leste’s National Flag.” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 49, no. 2 (June 2018): 227–49. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022463418000206

Abstract: Since regaining its independence in 2002, nation-building has been the focus of much scholarly research on Timor-Leste. National identity construction is a crucial aspect of this process, yet the ways in which this identity is officially represented has been largely overlooked. This article takes the national flag of Timor-Leste as a case study to explore the ways in which a historic East Timorese national identity has been symbolically constructed and visually embodied. By considering the potency of flags in an East Timorese cultural context, and by analysing the origins of Timor-Leste’s flag alongside that of the political party Fretilin (Frente Revolucionária do Timor-Leste Independente), it becomes clear that post-independence re-imaginings of its symbolism have rendered it a powerful national symbol in the contemporary nation-state.

Baasch, Rachel. “Bodies, Buildings, and Borders: Navigating the Divided Nation through Contemporary South African and Palestinian Art Practice.” African Arts 51, no. 2 (2018): 32–43. https://doi.org/10.1162/afar_a_00401

Beginning text: This paper navigates the phenomenon of the divided nation through the work of contemporary South African artists Thando Mama, Sikhumbuzo Makandula, and Ndikhumbule Ngqinambi. I position the work of these artists practicing in a post-apartheid nation-state alongside the work of contemporary Palestinian artists Larissa Sansour and Khaled Jarrar, who respond to the ongoing struggle of the stateless Palestinian nation divided by colonialism and Israeli apartheid. Each of these artists critiques the construction of the modern nation-state using symbols such as the national flag, the national anthem, the passport and postage stamp, and physical walls and buildings. Underpinning this inquiry is the desire to imagine the parameters of a nation-state premised on the ideal of sharing space and time in the future: How can one alter existing national frameworks to create the conditions for coexistence and tolerance? What are the lessons we have learnt from past failure, and what would a desirable yet realistic future nation-state look like? Human beings are capable of learning from past mistakes and improving on old structures, methods, or systems in the future. Understanding the parts of a framework that have negative repercussions in one place can allow for an alteration of that framework to suit a different context with similar problems or histories. One of the defining characteristics of nationalism is that it generates racist ideology. According to Steven Grosby (2005: 5) nationalism regularly “injects hatred of what is perceived to be foreign, whether another nation, an immigrant, or a person who may practice another religion or speak a different language.” This aspect of nationalism is at the center of discussions around nations and nation-states in the twenty-first century.

Bálint, Varga. “Egy Össze Nem Álló Kép Mozaikjai: Az Osztrák-Magyar Monarchia Dualitásának Kortárs Reprezentációja (Pieces of a Fragmented Picture: Contemporary Representations of the Duality of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy).” Aetas 32, no. 4 (2017): 5–20

Abstract: The paper investigates the various ways in which the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy was represented, both officially and unofficially. It examines the creation of the official state symbols (the very name of the dual state, its flag, coat of arms, anthem, commemorative practices) and their dissemination. The representations of the dual state will be compared to other political representations within Austria-Hungary, mostly in the academic and artistic circles. The paper argues for the fragmented nature of the representations of the dual state and its limited resonance among citizens. The only major exception to this pattern was during the early years of World War I, when the duality of the state became more tangible for all citizens.

Barakat, Fadwa. “Designing Inclusivity: Reconstructing the Meaning of the Seven Pointed Star Symbol in the Jordanian Flag through Design Thinking.” Ph.D., University of Plymouth (United Kingdom), 2017. https://search.proquest.com/pqdtglobal/docview/2001156744/65A0C325C5214D9DPQ/184

Abstract: This thesis is an attempt to explore the Jordanian community of today with its multi-ethnic fusion and its social practices that often appear rooted in the past. It is an examination of what possible series of symbols could be formed from a collective view of the diverse ethnicity in Jordan and that could be culturally relevant to the seven-pointed star of the Jordanian flag. This has been an investigation structured around Design Thinking processes using a mixture of qualitative methods integrated with a social science methodology. The qualitative data collection methods involved close contact between the research participants and the author in such a way that emergent topics could be explored. Accordingly, the first major practical contribution of the research provided a series of prototypes that established ‘terminologies’ that were discovered, evaluated and reflected upon through design processes and supporting documentation. This was followed by a testing stage designed to show the cultural diversity and acceptability of both the symbols/ and the final artefacts. Three main tests were conducted in 2016: 1. Semi-structured interviews with participants selected at random from seven different ethnic groups according to country of origin. 2. Public exhibitions in Jordan and Plymouth with audiences from diverse research backgrounds (e.g. users or consumers of designs). 3. A workshop with Jordanian designers (students and practitioners). The methodology adopted during each test included the sharing of the author’s work and personal experiences and invited feedback that could be used to validate and build on the Research Question. The stories and discourse produced a wide array of social patterns that are referred to as ‘findings’. The results emphasised a relationship between social communal values and the historic stories related by the participants. It was hoped that by having the opportunity to involve users throughout the process and by discussing open-ended questions, that the most objective valuations possible would be achieved. However, a deficiency occurred during the process of testing prototypes, which had the effect of decreasing the reliability of the test. It also emerged that correlating all the data proved more difficult to produce answers as accurately and consistently as possible. Subsequently the author is proposing a number of follow-on design research methodologies, investigating and exploring further the significant values embodied in the Jordanian flag. Namely: Faith in one God Humanity Humility National spirit Virtue Social justice Aspiration Despite these difficulties, however, this research-based activity proved to be an invaluable achievement in terms of personal practice and recorded data as a result of testing the open ended-questions and demonstrated the ability to produce design documentation with its own unique features.

Barraclough, Jeffrey. “The Great Amoskeag Flag.” Historical New Hampshire 70, no. 2 (2017): 100–101

Abstract: The article discusses the history of great Amoskeag Flag, produced by workers at Amoskeag Manufacturing Company in 1913, which became a symbol of patriotism and America’s industrial power during the World war I. It  ordered by a wealthy businessman Colonel George Fabyan of Chicago, Illinois, who later sold it to Marshall Field and Co. of Chicago. It presents the photograph of the Amoskeag workers with the flag on June 29, 1914, by Harlan A. Marshall.

Beek, Walter van, Jan-Bart Gewald, and Phanuel Kaapaman. “A Contested Ritual of Unity: The Herero Red Flag Day.” Journal of Ritual Studies 31, no. 2 (2017): 29–46

Abstract: In a long and silent row the men and women walk the path along the double row of palm trees in a small and quiet grove in the heart of Okahandja; they are heading for the graveyard at the back of the grove, a plain rectangular enclosure with a few tombs, some in view, others covered with straw. Their advent in a long respectfully silent throng, is halted three times, when Chief Tjinaani Maharero, the current head of both the Tjamuaha/Maharero dynasty as well as the Maharero Royal Traditional Authority, at the head of the procession kneels down and offers a lengthy prayer to the departed ancestors. The men around him, each of them in uniform, kneel with him, behind them men and women bend over a little or just stand to attention to resume their slow walk only after he says ‘Muazuu? I tuazuu’.

Ben-David, Anat, Adam Amram, and Ron Bekkerman. “The Colors of the National Web: Visual Data Analysis of the Historical Yugoslav Web Domain.” International Journal on Digital Libraries 19, no. 1 (2018): 95–106. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00799-016-0202-6

Abstract: This study examines the use of visual data analytics as a method for historical investigation of national Webs, using Web archives. It empirically analyzes all graphically designed (non-photographic) images extracted from Websites hosted in the historical .yu domain and archived by the Internet Archive between 1997 and 2000, to assess the utility and value of visual data analytics as a measure of nationality of a Web domain. First, we report that only 23.5% of Websites hosted in the .yu domain over the studied years had their graphically designed images properly archived. Second, we detect significant differences between the color palettes of .yu sub-domains (commercial, organizational, academic, and governmental), as well as between Montenegrin and Serbian Websites. Third, we show that the similarity of the domains’ colors to the colors of the Yugoslav national flag decreases over time. However, there are spikes in the use of Yugoslav national colors that correlate with major developments on the Kosovo frontier.

Benoit, William L. “A Functional Analysis of Visual and Verbal Symbols in Presidential Campaign Posters, 1828–2012.” Presidential Studies Quarterly 49, no. 1 (2019): 4–22. https://doi.org/10.1111/psq.12503

Abstract: This study analyzes American presidential campaign posters from 1828 to 2012 using the Functional Theory of Political Campaign Discourse. It advances the theory by investigating a hitherto unexplored medium, posters; more importantly, visual elements (e.g., the bald eagle) were analyzed along with words. Acclaims were more frequent than attacks; no difference occurred in the functions of early and recent posters. Visual symbols used acclaims even more than verbal symbols. Character was a more frequent topic than policy; the relative proportion of these two topics did not change over time. Visual symbols discussed character even more than verbal symbols.

Benwell, Matthew C., Andrés Núñez, and Catalina Amigo. “Flagging the Nations: Citizens’ Active Engagements with Everyday Nationalism in Patagonia, Chile.” Area (2018). https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12517

Abstract: Geographical scholarship examining banal and everyday nationalism has tended to frame national flags as abstract and passive objects that are taken for granted and incorporated into the daily lives of citizens in mindless ways. In contrast, this paper acknowledges flags as lively material objects that can be enrolled by citizens to make political points and generate certain “affective atmospheres.” It argues that the recognition of agency in debates concerning everyday nationalism needs to be pushed further to acknowledge the conscious and active negotiations of national objects like flags, to account for the diverse ways nations can be practised and performed by citizens. To illustrate our arguments we focus on the memories and reflections of citizens involved in protests in the Aysén region of Chilean Patagonia in 2012. During these incidents, citizens deployed different flags in provocative ways to draw attention to their reclamations and apply pressure on the Chilean state to improve socio-economic conditions in the region. The legacies of events like the 2012 protests and the associated (re)appropriation of national flags enables an interrogation of citizens? everyday identifications with nations in this border region of Patagonia. More broadly, we use the example to call for the materialities of flags as active objects to be the subject of further geographical inquiry, as one way to reinvigorate explorations of political agency and everyday nationalism.

Berndsen, Mariëtte, and Nicolay Gausel. “Support for National Flag-Displays in Times of Change: A Question of National Identification?Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1111/asap.12171

Abstract: Flag-displays can be used within national groups to communicate majority supremacy over ethnic minorities. In two studies set in an Australian context (N = 88 and N = 102), we explain how mode of national identification (glorifying identifiers versus attached identifiers) differently predicts support for multicultural values and national flag-displays. In line with the hypotheses, we found that attached identifiers were more supportive of multicultural values and national flag-displays by ethnic minorities than glorifying identifiers. In contrast, glorifying identifiers supported flag-displays by the majority more than did the attached identifiers. Study 2 demonstrates that glorifying identifiers’ use of the national flag is explicitly meant to exclude other groups. As expected, support for multicultural values and endorsement of the flag as an exclusion tool helped to explain the relationship between identification and flag-displays. As such, results revealed the attitudes behind a novel form of prejudice that is currently on the rise.

Berry, Bruce. “Flag Of Defiance: The International Use of the Rhodesian Flag Following UDI.” South African Historical Journal (2019): 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/02582473.2018.1561749

Abstract: The international response to Rhodesia’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) was to proclaim the colony to be in a state of rebellion, the government in Salisbury to be illegal, and to request the United Nations to apply sanctions against the ‘rebel regime’. The ensuing political impasse resulted in the need to promote a more distinctive national identity and the symbols to reflect this newfound independence. The first, and most obvious, change came with the adoption of a new national flag on the third anniversary of UDI on 11 November 1968. As the most visible symbol of post-UDI Rhodesia, the international use and display of the new flag became the subject of demonstration and controversy. This paper shows how the green and white Rhodesian flag came to highlight Rhodesia’s contested statehood when flown outside the country during the UDI period. Rhodesia’s new flag became a symbol of the country’s defiance, and the emotion it evoked, and continues to evoke, causes controversy even to this day.

Biddiscombe, Perry. “Branding the United Nations: The Adoption of the UN Insignia and Flag, 1941–1950.” The International History Review (2019): 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/07075332.2018.1546216

Abstract: This article contends that the symbols of the United Nations (UN) have played a vital role in establishing the organization’s identity and in protecting its personnel. The design and usage of these emblems developed in a number of steps in the 1940s and early 1950s, a process dominated mainly by Americans. Although private admirers of the UN originated a number of serviceable and aesthetically pleasing designs, products mainly of their own self-initiative, the emblems chosen by the UN were prepared by professional designers, starting with an Office of Strategic Services (OSS) team operating under the aegis of the U.S. State Department. The author compares this process to product ‘branding’, and he also sees it as reflecting a longstanding claim to predominance in the internationalist project by technical specialists. In the 1940s, this dynamic revealed itself in rivalry between an elite of liberal internationalist technocrats and ‘populist internationalists’, the former coming to determine the character and choice of UN emblems. Members of the OSS design team had backgrounds in advertising and – not surprisingly – produced a logo-like design. The ultimate product of this process, a UN flag, was adopted in 1947, but it was treated by early UN bureaucrats like a protected trademark of the UN, at least until popular pressure-driven by an outpouring of mass emotion at the time of the Korean War – forced its release for broader public use.

Connell, John. “Fiji, Rugby and the Geopolitics of Soft Power. Shaping National and International Identity.” New Zealand Geographer 74, no. 2 (2018): 92–100. https://doi.org/10.1111/nzg.12184

Abstract: In this century, sport has steadily become a more visible and marketable part of everyday life and of global political significance. States have consequently used sport as a means of soft power in order to develop a positive international presence and, usually to a lesser extent, affirm national identity. Sport diplomacy is usually associated with mega-events and large states, but Fiji has used its prowess in rugby, and its Sevens victory in the 2016 Olympic Games, to promote itself globally, strengthen its national image and support government claims to legitimacy. The government emphasised Fijian values to construct a banal nationalism, in the face of ethnic divisions, and external concerns over repression of civil society. At least ephemerally, Fiji acquired new international recognition, and the government gained national legitimacy, indicating the expanding role of sport in geopolitics.

Coombs, Danielle Sarver, Cheryl Ann Lambert, David Cassilo, and Zachary Humphries. “Flag on the Play: Colin Kaepernick and the Protest Paradigm.” Howard Journal of Communications (2019): 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/10646175.2019.1567408

Abstract: San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s decision to protest the national anthem of the United States by taking a knee sparked widespread attention, much of it negative. This research examines the mainstream media coverage of Kaepernick’s protest. Our analysis identified an overarching theme that permeated all coverage: a focus on the method of protest (kneeling) versus the message of the protest (social justice). More specifically, we uncovered six interrelated frames that can be examined and understood through the theoretical lens of the protest paradigm: Kaepernick himself; individual action; virality; power and influence; professional risk; and deflection and distraction. By understanding these frames, we can begin to develop a better understanding of how individual actors—including athletes—can use their platforms to raise awareness and spark discussions around important issues, using their celebrity to amplify voices that otherwise might go unheard, as well as the possible consequences of those actions.

Damaso, Mafaldo. “Unstable Mediation: Regarding the United Nations as a Visual Entity.” Ph.D., University of London, Goldsmiths’ College (United Kingdom), 2017. https://search.proquest.com/pqdtglobal/docview/2001427175/65A0C325C5214D9DPQ/182

Abstract: This project constitutes the first multifaceted exploration of the modes of visual self presentation of the UN, which I see as operating partially independently from the organisation’s communication strategy. I am particularly interested in reflecting on the use of images as rhetorical devices and in contributing to strengthening the overlap between visual culture, rhetoric and UN studies. The thesis aims to respond to the question ‘What are the central characteristics of the modes of visual presentation of the UN?’ and, secondarily, ‘What do these modes of visual presentation reveal with regard to the spectatorship of the UN?’ To answer the first question, I analyse the UN flag and emblem, the publicness of the meetings of the General Assembly and the Security Council and, finally, the figure of the Goodwill Ambassador. However, my analysis considers not only these individual images but also the visual network that they originate. Of particular concern is the position of this network vis-à-vis the organisation’s internal conflicts and the UN’s aim of public support for its mission, which is in tension with the limited modes of engagement that are available to its viewers. I address the second question in the final chapter, which brings into play two artistic interventions: Pedro Reyes, The People’s United Nations (2013-2014) and Goshka Macuga, Bloomberg Commission: The Nature of the Beast (2009-2010). I regard them as foregrounding possible modes of activated viewership that are vital within a contemporary image world in which the UN’s modes of presentation constitute one of several rhetorical networks to be negotiated.

Davidson, Brenna, and Trisha T. C. Lin. “To Knee or Not to Knee: An Examination of Twitter Visual Content during the 2017 NFL National Anthem Protests in the United States.” In 22nd ITS Biennial Conference, Seoul 2018. Seoul: Seoul: International Telecommunications Society (ITS), 2018. https://www.econstor.eu/handle/10419/190368

Abstract: In the past few years, the American public has faced many domestic and divisive hardships including, but not limited to, those centered on racial prejudice and police brutality (LeFebvre & Armstrong, 2016). In fact, these two issues are what sparked the NFL national anthem protests (NAPs), in which athletes kneel during the national anthem. After President Trump’s tweets to openly condemn the NAPs in 2017, public opinions showed polarized responses. In order to analyze the communication patterns and meanings of NAPs visual Tweets, this study is grounded upon the social identity theory (SIT; Tajfel & Turner, 1979) and adapts Van Zomeren et al.’s (2012) dynamic dual pathway model (DDPM). This study’s proposed research framework allows for greater understanding of how social identity, grievances, and coping approaches (emotional route: affective responses; instrumental route: efficacy) factor into image content shared during a polarized protest. In order to understand social media discussions of NAPs’ supporters the NFL, this study conducts visual content analysis of relevant Twitter image tweets after Trump’s posts aroused heated debates. This investigation attempts to understand how protest supporters used different digital coping methods in response to protest opposition (such as different affective responses or responses that are efficacy-eliciting). This study uses images as the primary data source for Twitter content analysis because they have a different intention than text-based social media messages as images present symbols to users, allowing them to establish references quicker. This study collects image tweets using the most viral hashtag #TakeAKnee via the Twitter Advanced Search function from September 24, 2017 (the peak of web search penetration for NAPs) to October 21, 2017 (when the NAPs web search penetration dropped after the second peak). The code scheme includes 4 codes and 18 sub-codes that has been developed based on relevant theoretic concepts about protests. Emerging new codes can be recognized from recurrent patterns that appear during the data analysis. Along with the researcher, another trained coder analyzed the image tweets, resulting in acceptable intercoder reliability. The findings of this study have shed light on the complex nature of the NFL national anthem protests and the social identity projection for Twitter users who support the NAPs. Specifically, the social identity of minority support was most prevalent while the social identities of constructive patriotism and sports fandoms was minimal, suggesting that although anti-protest mobilizers may be able to increase the volume of online dialogue, they are unable to shift the focus of the protest away from its original purpose. Additionally, reciprocal affective responses (i.e. sympathy and admiration) were expressed more in the image tweets than shared affective responses (i.e. anger and sarcasm), contradicting previous studies on protest emotions and collective action motivators. Practically, this research is significant because as the NAPs could possibly start anew in the 2018 NFL season, addressing the concerns of the citizens (identified through visual analysis of Twitter images) can be beneficial in resolving the primary issues surrounding the protests. Finally, as few studies have used visual tweet analysis to investigate social movements or protests (see Cowart et. al, 2016; Kharroub & Bas, 2016; Wetzstein, 2017), this study contributes to this emerging form of content analysis.

Dubner, Barry Hart, and Mary Carmen Arias. “Under International Law, Must a Ship on the High Seas Fly the Flag of a State in Order to A Void Being a Stateless Vessel? Is a Flag Painted on Either Side of the Ship Sufficient to Identify It?University of San Francisco Maritime Law Journal 29, no. 2 (2017): 99–153.

Feng, Yunhe, Wenjun Zhou, Zheng Lu, Zhibo Wang, and Qing Cao. “The World Wants Mangoes and Kangaroos: A Study of New Emoji Requests Based on Thirty Million Tweets.” In The World Wide Web Conference - WWW ’19, 2722–28. San Francisco, CA, USA: ACM Press, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1145/3308558.3313728

Abstract: As emojis become prevalent in personal communications, people are always looking for new, interesting emojis to express emotions, show attitudes, or simply visualize texts. In this study, we collected more than thirty million tweets mentioning the word “emoji” in a one-year period to study emoji requests on Twitter. First, we filtered out bot-generated tweets and extracted emoji requests from the raw tweets using a comprehensive list of linguistic patterns. Then, we examined patterns of new emoji requests by exploring their time, locations, and context. Finally, we summarized users’ advocacy behaviors and identified expressions of equity, diversity, and fairness issues due to unreleased but expected emojis, and concluded the significance of new emojis on society. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first to conduct a systematic, large-scale study on new emoji requests.

Forni, Silvia. “Of Patterns and Markets: The Making and Unmaking of Asafo Flags.” Critical Interventions 12, no. 1 (January 2, 2018): 22–35. https://doi.org/10.1080/19301944.2018.1421806

Abstract: This essay focuses on the metamorphosis of asafo flags from layered and complex performative artworks to objets d’art circulating on the international art market and featured in museum exhibitions. While the trajectory outlined is common to many African art objects, the relatively recent history traced in this case study makes it possible to identify the players that have contributed to this specific semantic transformation and reflect on their roles. The increased international visibility of asafo flags on the one hand affected the monetary value of these objects on the market, on the other, generated interesting creative feedbacks on the local and global art scene. By connecting these two spheres of circulation and value the essay challenges a dichotomic understanding of African art objects and argues for more layered and complex object biographies.

Gilson, Brian. “Ethno-Symbolism and Government Discourse in Azerbaijan.” M.S., Oklahoma State University, 2016. https://search.proquest.com/pqdtglobal/docview/1841902981/abstract/65A0C325C5214D9DPQ/231

Abstract: Symbolism utilized by the government of Azerbaijan encodes values, attitudes, and myths that are an inheritance from the past. Understanding of the codes and symbolism utilized can potentially provide insight into contemporary decision-making by Azerbaijan. Governmental discourses of national identity are interrogated for historical and contemporary meaning. Six symbolic resources are explored using methods of discourse analysis through a lens of ethno-symbolism. The official seal of Azerbaijan, the national flag, the national anthem, the official seal of the Baku 2015 European Games, a Soviet-era tourist map, and the romance novel Ali and Nino are analyzed for the historical and contemporary identity claims that are encoded within. In particular, the representations of national identity that are contained, as well as the claims, relationships, and allegiances that are being communicated are explored to illuminate the complex interactions of history, territory, ethnicity, and culture that constitute national identity. A cultural history is constructed from an analysis of the chosen symbols that serves to inform both historic and contemporary Azerbaijani identity. Despite intense transformational forces, Azerbaijani national identity draws on values, attitudes, and myths that have been a continuous feature of the ethno-territorial identity of the Azerbaijani Turks.

Grgić, Stipica. “Pantheon on a Tablecloth: Yugoslav Dictatorship and the Confrontation of National Symbols in Croatia (1929-1935).” Nationalities Papers 46, no. 3 (May 2018): 458–70. https://doi.org/10.1080/00905992.2017.1357029

Abstract: This paper questions the effects of the state- and nation-building that occurred in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia during the 6 January Dictatorship (1929–1935) and points to the importance of symbols during this process. By using an ethno-symbolist approach and extending it to “banal nationalism,” the article analyzes some of the most prominent and influential symbols from within an everyday environment. Using the Croatian ethnic space as a framework, the article traces the population’s attitudes toward the Yugoslav national flag and representations of King Alexander – two of the most forced symbols in the centralized Yugoslav one state and one nation concept of nation-building. The regime possessed all the mechanisms of power necessary to impose these symbols, though most Croats clearly felt no connection to them. Despite severe penalties, they opposed the regime’s plans for national reconstruction of the country by displaying Croatian flags and various symbolic representations of Stjepan Radić – as a martyr of the Croatian nation. By linking this problem to specific studies that deal with the development of nationalism, this paper outlines the struggle between Yugoslavism and Croatianism through acceptance and resistance toward the Yugoslav symbolism.

Gunn, Brendan. “Northern Ireland and the Union ‘Fleg’: Linguistic Associations in a Disputed Geographical Area.” In Handbook of the Changing World Language Map, edited by Stanley D Brunn and Roland Kehrein, 1–12. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73400-2_42-1.

Halpern, Monda. “‘A Spectacular Incident . . . Had Somehow Eluded My Attention’: The Impact of Cyril Levitt and William Shaffir’s Book, The Riot at Christie Pits (1987).” Histoire Sociale/Social History 50 (2017): 423–34. https://doi.org/10.1353/his.2017.0042

Abstract: The year 2017 marks three decades since the 1987 publication of The Riot at Christie Pits. The book chronicles the events of August 16, 1933, when Toronto experienced one of the most violent riots in Canadian history: young Jewish men retaliated after Nazi sympathizers unfurled a swastika flag at a neighbourhood baseball game. Despite the brutality of the riot, however, it would be 54 years until scholars Cyril Levitt and William Shaffir would document the event. Why did scholars ignore it for so long? Neither Canada, Toronto, nor Jews were invested in rehashing such a dreadful incident. Since the appearance of The Riot at Christie Pits, however, attention to the riot has increased, and its legacy has been viewed in a more positive light.

Hammering, Klaus K. Yamamoto. “Propriety, Shame, and the State in Post-Fukushima Japan.” Ph.D., Columbia University, 2016. https://search.proquest.com/pqdtglobal/docview/1781978714/abstract/65A0C325C5214D9DPQ/267

Abstract: This dissertation tracks the effects of state recognition across a series of vanishing and emerging social worlds in post-Fukushima Japan. Based upon two years of fieldwork, the dissertation focuses on ethnographic sites at which the failure of state subjectivization activates both a reinvigoration of state discourse, and the formation of counter-discourses within the temporality of Japan’s endless “postwar” (sengo). In so doing, the dissertation seeks to disclose the social violence and iteration of shame as it is mobilized by the state to produce an obedient subject – willing to die for the nation in war – and as the failure to conform precipitates alternate socialities that may be either opposed to or complicit with state interests.

The ethnographic sites of which I write concentrate on: the compulsory enactment of propriety in public school ceremonies, and the refusal by teachers to stand for, bow to the “national flag” (kokki), and sing the “national anthem” (kokka), the self-same imperial symbols under which Japan conducted World War II; a group of Okinawan construction workers in the old day laborer district of Tokyo, Sanya; the stigmatized “radical” (kageki) leftist student organization, the Zengakuren; the “internet right-wing” (netto uyoku) group, the Zaittokai, whose street protests are performed live before a camera; and “Fukushima,” where the charge of guilt has short-circuited memories of the Japanese state sacrificing its citizens during World War II.

As a foil for the remaining ethnographic sites, the obviousness of giving “respect” (sonchō) to state symbols in public school ceremonies discloses the formation of subjects in a constitutive misrecognition that eliminates – or kills – difference in the enactment of social totality. A veritable stain on which the Japanese state drive to war was dependent, the singular figure of the sitting teacher formed part and parcel of what rightist politicians referred to as the “negative legacy” (fu no rekishi) of World War II. S/he constituted the object of an overcoming that – alongside the Okinawan construction worker, the “radical” (kageki) leftist, the “resident foreigner” (zainichi) as object of Zaittokai hate speech, and “Fukushima” – at once marked the ground of intensification and failure of state discourse. For the graduation ceremony of March, 2012, the official number of teachers who refused to stand and sing fell to “1” in Tokyo, where the state employs 63,000 teachers.

With neither family ties, romantic involvements, nor social recognition that would confirm their masculinity, the vanishing day laborers of Sanya made all the more insistent reference to the trope of otoko or ‘man.’ Closely articulated with the mobster world of the yakuza with which many workers had connections, the repetition of masculinity in work, gambling, and fighting constituted a discourse that repulsed the shaming gaze of general society. Thus, the excessive life-style of the otoko was located at the constitutive margins of the social bond of propriety, where he also provided a dying reserve army of labor that could be mobilized to undertake the most undesirable tasks, such as work at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

Echoing the death of Sanya, the Zengakuren numbered in the tens of thousands in the 1960s and 1970s, but had dwindled to under 100 active members in 2012. While the anti-war “strike” (sutoraiki) constituted the apotheosis of the Zengakuren discourse, their espousal and shameless mandate of “violent” (bōryoku) revolution subverted the origins of the Zengakuren into a prohibitive discourse which replicated the form of state rhetoric, and demanded the eradication of the Stalinist from within their own ranks.

No less shameless than the Zengakuren, the emergent hate speech of the “internet right-wing” (netto uyoku) iterated state discourse among the working poor. Having grown from 500 to 10,000 members within only four years, the Zaittokai’s notorious hate speech aspired to the instantaneous effect of “killing” (korosu) another legacy of World War II: the “resident foreigner” (zainichi). Yet, replicating online forms of writing, the iterability of their performative triggered repetition, and in a shamelessness specific to cyberspace – in which the reciprocity of the gaze and shame were lacking – the Zaittokai directed their paranoid speech at the state, whose representatives were said to be controlled by zainichi.

Lastly, “Fukushima” marked the apogee of the effectivity and failures of the state in containing both the excesses of capitalism, and the “negative legacy” (fu no rekishi) of World War II, the memories of which were short-circuited by radioactive outpour.

Haynes-Venerable, Raihana Jacqueline. “A Flag Is Not a Person.” M.F.A., Mills College, 2019. https://search.proquest.com/pqdtglobal/docview/2226615000/abstract/65A0C325C5214D9DPQ/4.

Henckels, Caroline. “Dishonouring the Australian Flag.” SSRN Scholarly Paper. Rochester, NY: Social Science Research Network, 2018. https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=3218797

Abstract: Dishonouring a nation’s flag, usually by way of burning, is a form of protest with provocative symbolism. The selective policing of flag use in Australia reveals much about the culture of flag veneration inculcated in Australian society during since the Howard era. Flag burners have been arrested and prosecuted for the offences of disorderly and offensive behaviour, but those who have employed the flag in support of nationalistic or anti-immigration causes have not attracted such opprobrium. Yet, successive attempts to criminalise flag burning have never resulted in the enactment of flag protection legislation – in part on account of a desire on the part of conservative politicians not to martyrise flag-burners, but also due to the vulnerability of such legislation to legal challenge for incompatibility with the implied freedom of political communication protected by the Constitution. High Court authority suggests that it would be difficult for such legislation to survive Constitutional scrutiny unless the relevant provisions were narrowly tailored to welfare concerns such as public safety or public order, and that an objective of preventing offence cannot be a legitimate reason to suppress political communication.

Horvath, George. “The Semiotics of Flags: The New Zealand Flag Debate Deconstructed.” In Language and Literature in a Glocal World, edited by Sandhya Rao Mehta, 115–26. Singapore: Springer Singapore, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8468-3_7

Abstract: This chapter is a discursive deconstruction of the New Zealand Flag Debate prior to the flag referenda which took place in New Zealand. The first referendum was held in November and December, 2015 and the second one was held in March, 2016. The study is used as a framework for glocalization as it analyzes and explains how flags can be perceived as semiotic signs for language and interpretation. Following a brief diachronic comparison to similar flag debates in Canada in 1963, South Africa in 1994, and continuing ones in Australia, the study engages in a theoretical discussion, attempting to ground it within the scope of semiotics and discourse analysis. The discourse theory of Laclau and Mouffe (1985) is applied, utilizing the language of description to interpret the empirical data and challenge structuralist theory. The claims that meaning is produced through relational difference and the interplay of signs, that discourses gain identity by their relational difference to others and finally, that signs are fixed to a particular application only through dominant discourses, are used to frame this debate. Following the theoretical analysis, an analysis of John Key’s speeches applying Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory is provided. The focus is on empty and floating signifiers used arbitrarily by the Prime Minister who was the main driver behind the flag change debate. Here, by way of conclusion, the practices and events implicating the production and reproduction of the discourse are investigated.

Howard, Karen. “Puerto Rican Plena: The Power of a Song.” General Music Today 32 (November 16, 2018): 104837131880997. https://doi.org/10.1177/1048371318809971

Abstract: In order to bring music of Puerto Rico to the general music classroom, it is important to understand the sociocultural and sociohistorical context of the music. The traditional genre of plena shares cultural threads with West Africa, Spain, and indigenous (Taíno) culture. Commonly known as El Periodico Cantado (the singing newspaper), plena songs give updates on what people are feeling and current events effecting the community. The plena song Que Bonita Bandera (What a Beautiful Flag) is explored for its potential uses in elementary and secondary general music classes.

Ishio, Yoshito, Kevin D. Dougherty, and Izumi Niki. “American Flags in Religious Congregations in the United States.” Journal of Church and State 61, no. 3 (2018): 431–50. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcs/csy080.

Jarman, Neil. “A Bitter Peace: Flag Protests, the Politics of No and Culture Wars.” In The Legacy of the Good Friday Agreement: Northern Irish Politics, Culture and Art after 1998, edited by Charles I. Armstrong, David Herbert, and Jan Erik Mustad, 109–32. Palgrave Studies in Compromise after Conflict. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91232-5_7

Abstract: This chapter explores the role of protest within the Protestant Unionist culture in response to political initiatives that are considered to be a threat to its status, position and identity. Beginning with a discussion of the 2012–13 flag protests, the chapter seeks to contextualise them within the wider contemporary international cycle of protests, including those of the Arab Spring and Occupy movements. It then traces the specific style and form of protests within Northern Ireland from the opposition to the civil rights movement in the 1960s, the Ulster Workers Council strike in the 1970s and the mobilisation against the Anglo-Irish Agreement in the 1980s. It concludes that while the insistence on no change has remained consistent, the efficacy of oppositional protests has become less effective as a means of popular resistance.

Jorgensen, Darren. “Flags and Landscapes: Border Art from the Australian Goldfields.” World Art 8, no. 2 (2018): 207–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/21500894.2018.1522370

Abstract: In 1993, eighty-five paintings from the Australian mining town of Kalgoorlie, executed with cheap paints on cardboard and canvas board, were exhibited in San Diego by the Border Art Workshop/Taller de Arte Fronteriza (BAW/TAF). By the 1990s, the BAW/TAF was well known for making border art, a term that described art about living on the borderlands of Mexico and the United States. This exhibition of art by the so-called ‘fringe dwellers’ of Australia, Aboriginal people who were living poor on the outskirts of Kalgoorlie, suggests that like border theory, border art is a concept relevant outside North America, and that borders are not only constructed between countries, but within them. In Australia there is an infra-national border between Indigenous and settler populations, between races, and this border is inscribed in these paintings. For these artists of Kalgoorlie chose above all to paint Aboriginal flags and landscapes, envisaging their sovereignty and land rights within the Australian nation-state. The paintings also testify to the cosmopolitan, inter-Aboriginal society on the fringes of Kalgoorlie, as desert people mix with local Wongathi and Noognar and Yamatji to the east. Kalgoorlie is not only a frontier town hosting settler and Indigenous populations, but an Aboriginal diaspora that has become unsettled since colonisation.

Kalim, Salma, and Fauzia Janjua. “#WeAreUnited, Cyber-Nationalism during Times of a National Crisis: The Case of a Terrorist Attack on a School in Pakistan.” Discourse & Communication 13, no. 1 (February 1, 2019): 68–94. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750481318771448

Abstract: Seeing language as a social practice and national identities as a product of discourse, the study intends to analyze discursive practices employed on social media to create the discourses of sameness and difference in times of national crisis. Following the discourse historical approach, I have illustrated how argumentative strategies and topos have been strategically employed to draw boundaries between Us and Them. In this exploration of exclusionary rhetoric, I have also underlined the use of images, memes and hashtags in the meaning-making process. The study illustrates not only the ways in which the discourse of national identities are constructed, but also how the existing pillars of Pakistani national identities have been transformed and dismantled on social media following a national tragedy. By investigating the digital practices and discourses, this study seeks to understand the construction of Pakistani national identities from bottom-up discourses.

Kambon, Ọbádélé Bakari. “Afrikan=Black Combat Forms Hidden in Plain Sight: Engolo/Capoeira, Knocking-and-Kicking and Asafo Flag Dancing.” Journal of Pan African Studies 12, no. 4 (2018): 327–63

Abstract: This paper presents a Pan-Afrikan tri-continental analysis of Afrikan/Black combat sciences, and in this, it challenges the erroneous notion that the dance-like movements of Afrikan combat sciences originated in attempts to trick enslavers. Therefore, this work demonstrates that Afrikan combat sciences, regardless of location, grow out of a shared worldview informed by practical considerations that are effective and time-tested. Further, the contemporary expressions of Engolo/Capoeira, Knocking-and-Kicking, and Asafo Flag Dancing are examined by means of a comparison between natural vs. unnatural responses to oppression.

Klapeer, Christine M., and Pia Laskar. “Transnational Ways of Belonging and Queer Ways of Being. Exploring Transnationalism through the Trajectories of the Rainbow Flag.” Identities 25, no. 5 (2018): 524–41. https://doi.org/10.1080/1070289X.2018.1507958

Abstract: This article discusses the trajectories of the rainbow flag through the concept of transnationalism and sets up a theoretical exchange between transnational migration research, critical sexuality studies, and queer scholarship. By engaging with the analytical differentiation between transnational ‘ways of being’ and ‘ways of belonging’ this article reads these concepts through a queer lens, while also challenging some of their underlying assumptions. We are asking if, and in that case how, the rainbow flag can be regarded as a visible manifestation of transnational ways of queer being, and as a floating signifier filled with different meanings through quotidian acts and diverse and unequal queer ways of being – interlinked as it is with global hegemonies and colonial genealogies besides signifying local specificities – but nevertheless somehow indicating transnational ways of queer belonging to an imagined queer community.

Li, En. “The Controversial Flag Dress: Collective Memory, Cyberspace and Civil Society in a Rising China.” East Asian Journal of Popular Culture 5, no. 1 (2019): 43–53

Abstract: A 2001 magazine photo in China turned into a political drama on the Internet: Zhao Wei, one of the country’s best-known actresses, posed in a dress imprinted with a Japanese navy flag. The image caused a furor among Chinese netizens, forcing Zhao to make a public apology. By analysing Zhao’s online responses and the public discourse surrounding her lack of historical sensitivity, this article investigates the relations between state-sanctioned education and individual responses, the expanding Internet as a new way for people to hear different voices and form opinions, and the state’s behind-the-scenes manipulation. Furthermore, an investigation of the dynamic relationship between civic engagement and the manipulative state explains how nationalism is represented and perceived in the context of China’s rise.

Linklater, Andrew. “Symbols and World Politics: Towards a Long-Term Perspective on Historical Trends and Contemporary Challenges.” European Journal of International Relations 25, no. 3 (2019): 931–54. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354066118806566

Abstract: The role of symbols in world politics remains on the margins of the study of international relations. There has been no systematic discussion of how to promote theoretically informed empirical analyses of their role in earlier epochs and in the current era. This article defends a long-term perspective on symbols that emphasises their relationship with the overall historical trend towards societies of greater magnitude and destructive power. It advances a preliminary classification of analytically distinguishable core symbols in order to support future inquiries into symbols in state-organised societies and symbols that have been central to attempts to create wider solidarities. A long-term perspective on symbolic realms is important in order to understand the relationship between ‘national’ and ‘cosmopolitan symbols’ in the current era. Current challenges in the symbolic sphere illustrate more general trends in human societies, namely, problems in constructing wider symbolic frameworks that permit closer cooperation between groups in the context of increasing levels of interconnectedness.

Lopez, Donald S., Jr. “A Prayer Flag for Tārā.” In Religions of Tibet in Practice, Abridged. Princeton University Press, 2018. Originally published 1997.

Lurie, Shira. “Liberty Poles and the Fight for Popular Politics in the Early Republic.” Journal of the Early Republic 38, no. 4 (2018): 673–97. https://doi.org/10.1353/jer.2018.0069

Abstract: A liberty pole was a wooden mast with a flag or sign that expressed opposition to the government as tyrannical. During the American Revolution, Patriots raised liberty poles to symbolize their resistance to British rule. In most cases, redcoats tore them down, eliciting fights with Patriot pole-raisers. In the 1790s, grassroots Republicans revived the practice of raising liberty poles to protest the Washington and Adams administrations as monarchists and tyrants. Echoing the British response, the Federalist supporters of government destroyed the poles, leading to vicious confrontations in both person and print. <p> Using a case study drawn from Reading, Pennsylvania in 1799, this essay argues that liberty poles operated as the flashpoint for conflict over the place of protest in the new nation among grassroots partisans. Republicans advocated for an activist citizenry that aimed to impede any unjust exercise of federal power. Federalists, however, argued that representative government implied an obligation for citizens to defer to their elected officials. By raising and destroying liberty poles, both sides put into practice the type of popular participation they envisioned for the republic.

Machura, Stefan, Stephanie OP Jones, Alexandra Würgler, Joanna Cuthbertson, and Alannah Hemmings. “National Identity and Distrust in the Police: The Case of North West Wales.” European Journal of Criminology 16, no. 1 (January 1, 2019): 60–80. https://doi.org/10.1177/1477370818764835

Abstract: Trust in the police, as defined by perceived procedural fairness, just decisions and effectivity, may be impacted by deep political divisions among the population, especially where citizens adopt opposing national identities. In Europe, North West Wales is one such area. Nationalism is intensified by language issues (Welsh vs. English) and historical experiences of UK institutions. A sample of 207 residents living within the local authority of Gwynedd were asked to take part in the study. A questionnaire survey addressed how much trust in the police ultimately depends upon national identity as expressed by preference for the Welsh language, trust in UK institutions and attitudes towards political symbols. Other factors tested included personal experience of the police, the influence of news reports and police TV series, as well as the perceived effectiveness of the police in addressing crime. Trust in UK institutions, preference for the Welsh language and news reporting were found to have most influence on trust in the police.

Martucci, David B. “Reclaiming the Colors: Flags of the Second New Hampshire Continental Regiment.” Historical New Hampshire 71, no. 1 (2018): 2–19

Abstract: The article looks at the flags of the Second New Hampshire Continental Regiment during the Revolutionary War. Topics discussed include the national and regimental Revolutionary War flags, the controversy over the flags’ history, and the colors of the flags’ fields. Also mentioned are the design of the buff flag created by Benjamin Franklin, the American flags seized by Great Britain’s Ninth Regiment of Foot, and the conservation of the flags by the New Hampshire Historical Society.

Mauss-Copeaux, Claire, and Etienne Copeaux. “Le drapeau turc, emblème de la nation ou signe politique? (The Turkish Flag, a National Emblem or a Political Sign?).” Cahiers d’études sur la Méditerranée orientale et le monde turco-iranien, no. 26 (1998). http://journals.openedition.org/cemoti/633

Abstract: Ce début de recherche sur les symboles de la nation en Turquie prolonge des travaux antérieurs sur la mémoire collective et sur l’image en tant que récit iconographique (cartes analysées en tant qu’images, photographies d’événements historiques : Copeaux, 1994, et Mauss-Copeaux, 1996). Notre propos est d’examiner ici l’usage social du drapeau national dans la Turquie d’aujourd’hui où sa fréquence d’apparition dans la vie publique et même privée frappe très vite l’observateur extérieur....

Mebtoul, Mohamed. “L’appropriation du drapeau national au cœur du mouvement social en Algérie (The national flag reappropriated by Algerian demonstrators).” Multitudes 75, no. 2 (2019): 5–12

Beginning text: Comment lire la présence imposante du drapeau national dans les cinq manifestations (22 février, 1er, 8, 15 et 22 mars 2019) organisées dans toutes les villes d’Algérie ? Ce présentéisme totalisant du drapeau national a incontestablement une profondeur historique et anthropologique. Il redonne un sens pertinent à la Nation réappropriée, cette fois-ci par la population qui surgit dans l’espace public. Le drapeau national est soulevé avec fierté par toutes les catégories sociales, permettant d’observer l’impressionnant métissage culturel, social et sexué qui transcende les différences régionales et culturelles instrumentalisées par le politique.

Mee, Tracey. “Australian National Identity: Somewhere Between the Flags?” Ph.D., University of Wollongong, 2018. https://ro.uow.edu.au/theses1/248

Abstract: The Australian national flag is the primary symbol of the nation. The flag produces and reproduces national identity through its presence in all spheres of the public domain. This thesis is an examination into the national flag’s representational force. It focuses on how the flag makes meaning in accordance with dominant discourses of nation and nationhood through an analysis of its uses and applications across a range of institutional sites. The thesis also takes into consideration the meaning-making potential of the national flag for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This work deploys a wide-range of historical and contemporary sources that include art and literary responses to the flag. The thesis also draws on a range of theoretical works on nation alongside the use of vexillology as a focused study of flags. A critique of the messages and meanings that the Australian national flag transmits raises important questions pertaining to the way the nation is constructed and maintained. While the thesis does not proffer a definitive solution to the many complexities surrounding Australian national identity, it offers the opportunity for further study as debates about changing the flag continue to circulate in the public sphere.

Middleton, Angela. “The ‘Illustrious’ Hariata Hongi and the Authorship of Hōne Heke’s Letters.” New Zealand Journal of History 52, no. 2 (2018): 87–115

Abstract: Profiles the life and political activities of wahine toa Hariata Hongi. Discusses her role in Ngāpuhi politics during the war of 1845 and whether letters signed by her first husband Hone Heke were penned by her.

Militz, Elisabeth. “Towards Affective Nationalism: Bodies, Materials and Encounters with the Nation in Azerbaijan [Dissertation Precis].” Gender, Place & Culture 26, no. 2 (2019): 296–300. https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2018.1484704

Excerpt: In my dissertation I propose a specific feminist perspective on nationalism. Rather than focusing on masculinist and disembodied framings of national projects, I turned to the felt experiences of belonging and alienation in a world that structures and governs people through national categories. I investigated different ways in which national bodies and places emerge, what a national flag can do, what national symbols feel like and how encounters with national representations connect and disconnect different people across time and space.

Mitchell, Jocelyn Sage, and Ilhem Allagui. “Car Decals, Civic Rituals, and Changing Conceptions of Nationalism.” International Journal of Communication 13 (March 15, 2019). https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/8993

Abstract: With the onset of the Gulf diplomatic crisis in June 2017, citizens and expatriate residents in Qatar affixed patriotic decals to their cars in a show of support. Using visual evidence and ethnographic interviews gathered between August 2017 and September 2018, we analyze Qatari and expatriate participation in this shared ritual of nationalism, and what each group’s participation meant to the other. Our conclusions highlight the growth of civic nationalism narratives in Qatar as a response to the diplomatic crisis, and a corresponding reduction in regional ethnic narratives of communal belonging.

Moore, Jennifer E. “The Artist as Reporter: Drawing National Identity during the U.S. Civil War.” Journalism History 44, no. 1 (April 1, 2018): 2–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/00947679.2018.12059187

Abstract: This article examines how the pictorial press during the U.S. Civil War constructed nationalism and national identity to its readers. Illustrated content was studied in the nation’s two leading pictorial publications, Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper and Harper’s Weekly: A Journal of Civilization. Asking how the war was reported visually, the researcher studied selected issues from these two periodicals to reveal how drawings by artist-reporters used flags and flag iconography to communicate sentiments of nationalism. By focusing on pictorial reporting, the narratives crafted by these early visual journalists presented unique ideological constructs about what it meant to be on the Northern or Southern side of this conflict. Using visual semiotic methods to ascertain both denotative and connotative meanings embedded in pictorial news, this study found that national identity was most often associated with a white, male public with connections to the military and government.

Morales-Ramirez, Carlos A. “The Puerto Rican Flag - A Study in Vexillology.” Research in Social Sciences and Technology 3, no. 3 (2018): 42–67

Abstract: This study tests Puerto Ricans’ knowledge about the national and municipal flag, since it is known that teaching with flags is part of the social studies standards of the island. Two questionnaires were provided to 50 participants to test their knowledge of the national, municipal and Latin American flags. For the national and municipal flags, the participants were asked to provide the symbolism. A total of 96% drew the national flag correctly, although no one identified all the symbolisms correctly. Only 2% of the participants identified all Latin American flags correctly. A Chi-square test was performed to test if flag knowledge and level of education were independent variables. The test value was 0.30 which is greater than the P > 0.10; therefore, the null hypothesis was accepted: Ho = the level of schooling of the participants and their knowledge of the Puerto Rican flag are independent.

Morales-Ramirez, Carlos A. “Cartographic Vexillology of Subnational Flags in North America.” Review of International Geographical Education Online 8, no. 2 (2018): 221–39

Abstract: Maps are present in flags as part of their design and are more common in subnational flags. This study analyzed 4,804 subnational flags in North America -- the continent with the most flags with maps -- to identify if maps are incorporated, the area the maps represented and the presence of the theme of location. The theme of location is one of the Five Themes of geography established in 1984 to aid geography education. It provides a conceptual base to teach geography and geographic concepts. Of the total number of subnational flags studied, 9% (429) have a map on them. Most of the flags were observed in the United States due to the large number of political subdivisions and subnational flags. Of this, 24% (105 of 429) incorporate the theme of location. Most of the flags with this theme are from the United States and from second level political subdivisions. With this information, educators are encouraged to engage students in critical thinking activities that promote flag, map and location knowledge. Activities can focus on the map itself or the combination of flags and maps.

Moreira, Corina Maria Rodrigues. “Entre monumentos e bandeiras: o patrimônio como operador de leitura / Between monuments and flags: heritage as reading operator.” Patrimônio e Memória 14, no. 2 (December 12, 2018): 401–15

Abstract: Este artigo pretende refletir a respeito de algumas narrativas produzidas em torno de evento ocorrido em 2013 – um protesto realizado contra a Proposta de Emenda à Constituição/PEC 215, que prevê mudança de regras para a demarcação das terras indígenas no país –, durante o qual o Monumento às Bandeiras foi “pichado” e “pintado” na cidade de São Paulo. Para tanto, toma por referência a ideia de patrimônio como um operador de leitura, ou seja, um termo que possibilita a análise de determinado fenômeno social, colocando-se como eixo para o estabelecimento de relações entre as múltiplas dimensões que o conformam. Isto permite perceber como se expressaram, nesse evento, os processos de fabricação dos sentidos de lugar e de pertencimento e sua íntima relação com as dinâmicas do lembrar/esquecer, do identificar/diferenciar, do destacar/ocultar e das relações de poder que as caracterizam.

Nam, Benjamin H., Min Jung Kim, Racheal C. Marshall, Sibak Sung, and Luke Lunhua Mao. “On the Road to the Olympics: A Phenomenological Approach of National Identity in South Korean National Short-Track Speed Skaters.” Sport in Society 21, no. 12 (December 2, 2018): 1917–38. https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2018.1445993

Abstract: This study adopted a phenomenological approach to explore both sociocultural and socio-psychological factors of South Korean national athletes competing in the Olympics. In the given phenomenon, South Korean media often portrays the importance of winning medals in the Olympics as a means of promoting social and national cohesion, and the society often expects and demands that athletes win medals in the Olympics to glorify their nation. When they fail to win medals, the society feels disappointed in the results. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to draw on empirical findings through qualitative interviews with 10 of the current South Korean national short-track speed skaters to examine their national identity to participate in the Olympics to promote new insights on national athletes’ holistic well-being.

Ngoun, Kimly. “From a Pile of Stones to a National Symbol: Preah Vihear Temple and Norodom Sihanouk’s Politics of Postcolonial Nation-Building.” South East Asia Research 26, no. 2 (June 1, 2018): 194–212. https://doi.org/10.1177/0967828X18775557

Abstract: Existing studies of the Cambodia-Thailand conflict over the Khmer temple of Preah Vihear tend to regard the temple as nationally significant to both countries. However, little is known about how the border temple complex has emerged from obscurity to symbolize the nation in Cambodian nationalist discourse. Therefore, this article seeks to examine the stakeholders, contexts, and specific political situations implicated in the emergence of the ancient temple as a site of national significance. It links the temple’s rise to national prominence in Cambodia to the broader context of Prince Norodom Sihanouk’s politics of postcolonial nation-building. I argue that Sihanouk had a strong stake in the temple and the conflict over it with Thailand. His investment in the project of nationalism in relation to the temple was an important resource in pursuing his wider political objectives in building the post-independence Cambodian nation.

Popa, Sebastian Adrian, and Delia Dumitrescu. “National but European? Visual Manifestations of Europe in National Parties’ Euromanifestos since 1979.” Party Politics 23, no. 5 (September 1, 2017): 526–37. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354068815610963

Abstract: The architects of the European project made a significant effort to create a set of symbols for the community (such as the EU flag, the map of Europe, the anthem, etc.), and recent evidence suggests that the main European values are nowadays spontaneously associated with them. We know little, however, about if and when national political actors choose to display these symbolic visual manifestations of Europe. In this study, we examine the presence of such symbols in parties’ Euromanifestos since the first European elections. The presence of EU community symbols is correlated with several factors, suggesting that the display is consistent both with a policy-driven and with a vote-seeking logic. We explore at length the implications of these results for future visual analysis of parties’ European messages and for the larger issue of European identity.

Price, Joseph L. “Postures of Prophetic Action in American Sports.” In The Prophetic Dimension of Sport, edited by Terry Shoemaker, 51–57. SpringerBriefs in Religious Studies. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02293-8_6

Abstract: There are two kinds of civil religion for which sports serve as a denomination. The priestly kind features testimonies of faith by athletes and celebrates devotion to sports as religious behavior. In the prophetic kind athletes challenge the status quo by using the public platform of sports to decry the roots of injustice. This chapter, a response to the previous chapters, commends the analyses of prophetic dimensions of sports that are introduced by the contributors to this book.

Rabson, Steve. “The Transformation of Hi No Maru in Postwar Okinawa: From Symbol of Hope to Object of Contempt.” Critical Asian Studies 49, no. 4 (October 2, 2017): 597–605. https://doi.org/10.1080/14672715.2017.1377091

Abstract: Starting in the early 1950s, the Japanese flag hi no maru was a cherished symbol in Okinawa of the movement for an end to the postwar U.S. military occupation and reversion to Japanese sovereignty. The flag represented an appeal for liberation from U.S. military rule that dragged on for twenty years (1945–1972) after mainland Japan regained its sovereignty in 1952; and, for elimination, or at least reduction, of the overwhelming size and number of American bases on the island. However, the 1969 Okinawa Reversion Agreement between the U.S. and Japanese governments broke both of the Japanese government’s promises that, after reversion, Okinawa would have no nuclear weapons, and that U.S. bases would be reduced to mainland levels. The grossly disproportionate U.S. military remains to this day, and a “secret agreement” permits the United States to bring back nuclear weapons. Today many in Okinawa associate hi no maru with this discriminatory policy which imposes 74 percent of the total U.S. military presence in Japan on this small island prefecture comprising 0.2 percent of the nation’s land area. For historians, the flag also represents atrocities committed by Imperial Japanese soldiers during the Pacific War and the Japanese government’s continuing reluctance to acknowledge them.

Rosputinský, Peter, and Mária Rošteková. “The rainbow flag in diplomatic communication.” Hermès, La Revue No 81, no. 2 (August 10, 2018): 54–60

Abstract: The display of the rainbow flag -- the international symbol of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender social movements -- by the embassies and representative bodies of sending states on the territory of certain receiving states is a new phenomenon in contemporary diplomatic practice. This study focuses on diplomatic communication, exploring the objectives of sending states that choose to make use of the rainbow flag, along with the question of its intended audience and the reasons that motivate this communication choice.

Silva, Amós Coêlho da. “‘As Fronteiras Da Verdade Em “O Navio Negreiro.”’ The Borders of the Truth in ‘The Slaver Ship.’Rev. FSA, Teresina 15, no. 6 (2018)

Abstract: The “truth” among the memories that would occur is for poetry, just as the documentation of what has occurred is for history. However, in both there are slits in the discourse on its object, although in the “truth” a philosophical foundation is coined in the first case, and in the second, to ensure with documentation, what happened and their respective scientific values. We will observe on how the poetic gaze occasionally discerns the fissures that undermine the consistent scientific configuration of history, with the emergence of a new exegesis, in a comparative perspective, from the poem “Tragedy at the Sea (The Slaver Ship)” to discuss what is a historical truth in comparison with literary truth, through an interdisciplinary evaluation between Literature and historical facts. The mnemonic element is fitting to the real. The mythical language as a truth in illo tempore. Is the poetic truth higher than that of History? The poetry of Castro Alves through stylistic devices and intertextual formulations in defense of a new truth about the Brazilian flag. (English)

Stevenson, Ana. “In Flag-Rante: Julia Gillard and the Infamous ‘Flag Scene’ in ABC’s At Home with Julia.” The Journal of Popular Television 6, no. 3 (October 1, 2018): 381–403

Abstract: In 2011, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation financed and produced a controversial sitcom based on the life, characteristics, and politics of incumbent Prime Minister Julia Gillard. At Home with Julia (2011) examined Gillard’s private life by fictionalizing her de facto relationship with partner Tim Mathieson. Before, during, and after it aired, the series became a media spectacle as print, digital and broadcast journalists debated the propriety of the parody/satire. Media hype peaked in response to a fleeting scene in which the main characters appear cuddling under the Australian flag. Drawing on scholarship about postfeminism, this article examines the representation of single/unmarried women in popular culture and the characterization of political women in television dramas. The media commentary surrounding At Home with Julia denounced the ‘flag scene’ in the strongest terms, yet this reportage also conveyed an underlying unease towards the series’ candid depiction of sexuality. Most significantly, journalists collectively failed to adequately distinguish between Gillard, the prime minister, and ‘Julia’, the fictional character. Such a failure, this article suggests, enabled and excused the media’s subsequent and far more visceral sexualization of Australia’s first female prime minister. Although the public clearly understood the fictional premise of At Home with Julia, the Australian media fabricated a ‘sex’ scandal that came to be read onto the body of Gillard herself.

Storm, Karli-Jo T. “Unpacking the Georgian Nation: Examining the Symbolic Boundaries of Group Membership through National Iconography.” Identity 18, no. 3 (July 3, 2018): 195–217. https://doi.org/10.1080/15283488.2018.1487300

Abstract: This article concerns a lesser-studied aspect of nation-building in Georgia: the role of national iconography in the reproduction and reaffirmation of a Georgian national identity. National iconography is a tool commonly used by states to legitimize and solidify the ties among the territory, nation, and state in the imaginations of both domestic and foreign audiences. By examining key pieces of Georgian national iconography, the article examines the symbolic boundaries of the resultant national identity as well as what room remains for members of Georgia’s diverse religious, linguistic, and socio-cultural minority groups in the overall official meta-narrative.

Tefera, Goshu Wolde. “Racial and Ethnic Identity within the Ethiopian Diaspora in the United States and Their Political Engagement in Ethiopia: The Case of the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area.” M.A., Syracuse University, 2016. https://search.proquest.com/pqdtglobal/docview/1823641159/abstract/65A0C325C5214D9DPQ/243

Abstract: This research looks at ethnic and racial identities of Ethiopians in the Washington DC metropolitan area in relation to efforts aimed at upward mobility and regarding their political involvement within their country of origin. It is based on eight interviews with Ethiopian immigrants, a historical analysis, as well as my involvement with the wider Disapora community through my internship with the Government of the District of Columbia Mayor’s Office on African Affairs (MOAA) during summer 2015. This allowed me to interact with local community groups and leaders, as well as observe public events held by members of the Ethiopian Disapora. The findings indicate that racial and ethnic identity can influence upward mobility as well as political engagement. It argues a sense of Ethiopian nationalism or ethnic affiliation is expressed in part through affiliation with, and display of, particular versions of their home country’s flag, providing a public yet low-key way of political engagement. World Systems and Marxist theories are used to show that ‘race’ is one of the major markers of identities in the United States, where the mode of production is capitalism. Ethiopians’ self-identification in terms of race and ethnicity does not matter necessarily because the state and the system of production in the United States locate them along a racialized spectrum of belonging. Since class is mediated by race, racial identity is not something they want to take on but it is forced up on them. As part of the larger population of Black immigrants, Ethiopians find themselves lumped into a certain category by the dominant society and thus bond along racial, regional or ethnic lines. As I observed during my internship at the MOAA, although Ethiopians tend to associate more amongst themselves socially, they appreciate their collective identity in the work place and other public spaces. The study also attempts to explore the connection between racial and ethnic identity and political engagement, particularly the politics of nationalism. Lastly, it draws on the broader implication of Ethiopia’s Pan-African consciousness claiming that the country’s development is closely connected to its ability to make a common cause – not just at political level – with African nations regionally, continentally and globally.

Tsuji, Yuichiro. “Stand for the National Flag and Sing the National Anthem.” Cardozo Public Law, Policy and Ethics Journal 2, no. 3 (2019). https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=3384513

Abstract: In 2016, during a pre-season National Football League (“NFL”) game, a player refused to stand during the national anthem, challenging the well-established tradition to pay respect to the American flag and national anthem. Instead, he sat as a protest against past racial discrimination. The NFL rulebook, at the time, contained no provisions regarding what players could or could not do during the national anthem. Former President Barack Obama defended this young football player, saying that his protest shows concern about legitimate issues. The Japanese Constitution of 1947 (the “Constitution”) is modeled on the objectives of American democracy. However, unlike the U.S. Constitution, the Japanese Constitution clearly states that “[f]reedom of thought and conscience shall not be violated.”

Underwood, Joseph L. “Art, Honor, and Ridicule: Asafo Flags from Southern Ghana.” African Arts 51, no. 2 (May 10, 2018): 89–92. https://doi.org/10.1162/afar_r_00408.

Vosters, Helene. “Stitch-by-Stitch: An Unsettling Labour of Re-Inscription.” Canadian Theatre Review, April 25, 2018. https://doi.org/10.3138/ctr.174.004

Abstract: On Canada Day 2017, author Helene Vosters hosted a Stitch-by-Stitch Unsettling Canada 150 sewing circle and picnic. Despite intermittent thundershowers, with umbrellas and soggy red thread in hand, a group of twenty to thirty intrepid stitchers embroidered text from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s (TRC) 94 Calls to Action onto Canadian flags. By the time Canada 150 reached its Canada Day zenith, Vosters asserts, it had already become increasingly apparent that the story of a beneficent Canadian nation committed to equity and multicultural inclusivity that the celebrations sought to engender had been significantly eclipsed in mainstream and social media by critiques of the sesquicentennial’s ahistorical premise and its disregard for the ongoing violent effects of settler-colonialism. Against this backdrop, Vosters weaves reflections of the sewing circle as a labour of reinscription with an inquiry into the value (and pitfalls) of embracing what Stó:lō scholar Dylan Robinson and settler scholar Keavy Martin call everyday “aesthetic actions.”

Vowinckel, Annette. “Photographic Nuisance. Stern Photographers Thomas Höpker and Harald Schmitt in the GDR.” Journal of Modern European History 16, no. 1 (February 1, 2018): 126–50. https://doi.org/10.17104/1611-8944-2018-1-126

Abstract: In 1975, the West German Stern magazine appointed photographer Thomas Höpker and his wife, author Eva Windmöller, as correspondents in East Berlin. When Höpker left in the fall of 1976, Harald Schmitt became his successor. While Höpker was critical as well as unnerved by daily life under socialism, Schmitt felt comfortable in the GDR and developed a view that was both ironical and sympathetic to East German culture and population. Starting from a close reading of Höpker’s and Schmitt’s work, the article focuses on how power was made visible in their work in the second half of the 1970s and in the early 1980s. In some cases, power is visualized symbolically through flags and emblems; in other cases, it becomes visible in a gesture, poise or facial expression. Not surprisingly, East German authorities felt mocked by their publications. Höpker left voluntarily after less than two years. And, paradoxically, the more sympathetic Schmitt was eventually expelled from the GDR. East German officials realized that their visual authority was undermined, and in the absence of an institution that would effectively restrict photojournalism, they eventually rid themselves of what had long become a photographic nuisance.

Walker, Grant H. “Launching Flags for Charles Sergison’s Ship Models.” Nautical Research Journal 62, no. 4 (2017): 289–304.

Index of Titles


#WeAreUnited, Cyber-Nationalism during Times of a National Crisis: The Case of a Terrorist Attack on a School in Pakistan

(De)Constructing Symbols: Charlottesville, the Confederate Flag, and a Case for Disrupting Symbolic Meaning

‘A Spectacular Incident . . . Had Somehow Eluded My Attention’: The Impact of Cyril Levitt and William Shaffir’s Book, The Riot at Christie Pits (1987)

‘As Fronteiras Da Verdade Em “O Navio Negreiro.”’ The Borders of the Truth in ‘The Slaver Ship.’

‘Furl That Banner, Softly, Slowly’: Confederate Flags and the Historical Gaze in Gone With the Wind

‘Yes We Vote’: Civic Mobilisation and Impulsive Engagement on Instagram

“‘What’s Left of the Flag’: The Confederate and Jacobite ‘Lost Cause’ Myths, and the Construction of Mythic Identities through Conflict Commemoration

A Bitter Peace: Flag Protests, the Politics of No and Culture Wars

A Contested Ritual of Unity: The Herero Red Flag Day

A Flag Is Not a Person

A Functional Analysis of Visual and Verbal Symbols in Presidential Campaign Posters, 1828–2012

A Growing Consensus: State Sponsorship of Confederate Symbols Is an Injury-in-Fact as a Result of Dylann Roof ’s Killing Blacks in Church at a Bible Study

A Prayer Flag for Tārā

Afrikan=Black Combat Forms Hidden in Plain Sight: Engolo/Capoeira, Knocking-and-Kicking and Asafo Flag Dancing

Alabama Confederate Battle Flags: History, Preservation, and Interpretation

American Flags in Religious Congregations in the United States

Art, Honor, and Ridicule: Asafo Flags from Southern Ghana

Australian National Identity: Somewhere Between the Flags?

Bodies, Buildings, and Borders: Navigating the Divided Nation through Contemporary South African and Palestinian Art Practice

Branding the United Nations: The Adoption of the UN Insignia and Flag, 1941–1950

Car Decals, Civic Rituals, and Changing Conceptions of Nationalism

Cartographic Vexillology of Subnational Flags in North America

Designing Inclusivity: Reconstructing the Meaning of the Seven Pointed Star Symbol in the Jordanian Flag through Design Thinking

Dishonouring the Australian Flag

Displaying Heritage: Southern Identity through the Georgia State Flag Controversy

Down with the Southern Cross: Opinions on the Confederate Battle Flag in South Carolina

Egy Össze Nem Álló Kép Mozaikjai: Az Osztrák-Magyar Monarchia Dualitásának Kortárs Reprezentációja (Pieces of a Fragmented Picture: Contemporary Representations of the Duality of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy)

Entre monumentos e bandeiras: o patrimônio como operador de leitura / Between monuments and flags: heritage as reading operator

Ethno-Symbolism and Government Discourse in Azerbaijan

Exposure to National Flags Reduces Tax Evasion: Evidence from the United States, Australia, and Britain

Exposure to the American Flag Polarizes Democratic-Republican Ideologies

Fiji, Rugby and the Geopolitics of Soft Power. Shaping National and International Identity

Flag Backlash: Why Does the Presence of the American Flag Reduce Product Evaluation?

Flag Of Defiance: The International Use of the Rhodesian Flag Following UDI

Flag on the Play: Colin Kaepernick and the Protest Paradigm

Flagging a ‘New’ New Zealand: The Discursive Construction of National Identity in the Flag Consideration Project

Flagging the Nations: Citizens’ Active Engagements with Everyday Nationalism in Patagonia, Chile

Flags and Landscapes: Border Art from the Australian Goldfields

Flying the Nation’s Colours: Commemorations of the Past and the National Flag of Timor-Leste

From a Pile of Stones to a National Symbol: Preah Vihear Temple and Norodom Sihanouk’s Politics of Postcolonial Nation-Building

From Fretilin to Freedom: The Evolution of the Symbolism of Timor-Leste’s National Flag

Furling the Flag: Explaining the 2015 Vote to Remove the Confederate Flag in South Carolina

Furling the South Carolina Confederate Flag: Political Expediency or Cultural Change?

Heritage or Hate? A Pedagogical Guide to the Confederate Flag in Post-Race America

Holding Your Flag: The Effects of Exposure to a Regional Symbol on People’s Behavior

How S. C. Daily Newspapers Framed the Removal of the Confederate Flag from the State House Grounds in 2015 Through Letters to the Editor and Editorials

If They Say ‘Yes,’ We Say ‘No’: Partisan Cues Increase Polarization Over National Symbols

In Flag-Rante: Julia Gillard and the Infamous ‘Flag Scene’ in ABC’s At Home with Julia

Is America ‘Post-Racist’? How AC 360 and The O’Reilly Factor Discursively Constructed the Charleston Church Shooting

Japanese Heraldry and Heraldic Flags

L’appropriation du drapeau national au cœur du mouvement social en Algérie (The national flag reappropriated by Algerian demonstrators)

La bandera nacional. Testimonio de la construcción de la identidad mexicana

Launching Flags for Charles Sergison’s Ship Models

Le drapeau turc, emblème de la nation ou signe politique? (The Turkish Flag, a National Emblem or a Political Sign?)

Liberty Poles and the Fight for Popular Politics in the Early Republic

Mausoleums, National Flags and Regime Crises: Comparing Spain and Venezuela. 18

Memory and Availability-Biased Metacognitive Illusions for Flags of Varying Familiarity

Motivated Emotion and the Rally around the Flag Effect: Liberals Are Motivated to Feel Collective Angst (like Conservatives) When Faced with Existential Threat

National Anthem and Nationalism in Football

National but European? Visual Manifestations of Europe in National Parties’ Euromanifestos since 1979

National Identity and Distrust in the Police: The Case of North West Wales

National Identity, Collective Events, and Meaning: A Qualitative Study of Adolescents’ Autobiographical Narratives of Flag Ceremonies in Finland

National Symbols as Commemorative Emblems in Nigerian Films

Northern Ireland and the Union ‘Fleg’: Linguistic Associations in a Disputed Geographical Area

Of Patterns and Markets: The Making and Unmaking of Asafo Flags

On National Flags and Language Tags: Effects of Flag-Language Congruency in Bilingual Word Recognition

On Racial Barriers

On the Road to the Olympics: A Phenomenological Approach of National Identity in South Korean National Short-Track Speed Skaters

Origen de la bandera de España

Pantheon on a Tablecloth: Yugoslav Dictatorship and the Confrontation of National Symbols in Croatia (1929-1935)

Performance, Political Discourse, and the Problematics of the Confederate Flag in Contemporary Art

Photographic Nuisance. Stern Photographers Thomas Höpker and Harald Schmitt in the GDR

Postures of Prophetic Action in American Sports

Pro Football and the Proliferation of Protest: Anthem Posture in a Divided America 3

Propriety, Shame, and the State in Post-Fukushima Japan

Puerto Rican Plena: The Power of a Song

Racial and Ethnic Identity within the Ethiopian Diaspora in the United States and Their Political Engagement in Ethiopia: The Case of the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area

Rainbow Warrior: My Life in Color

Reclaiming the Colors: Flags of the Second New Hampshire Continental Regiment 33

Red Color in Flags: A Signal for Competition

Regional Media Framing of the Confederate Flag Debate in South Carolina

Rituals, Remembrance, Rupture, and Repair: The Jhandi Flag in Contemporary Guyanese Art

Símbolos Nacionales de Costa Rica: La Otra Historia (National Symbols of Costa Rica: The Other History)

Stand for the National Flag and Sing the National Anthem

Stimulating a Response: Does Exposure to the Confederate Flag Impact People’s Attitudes Regarding Social Dominance Orientation, Ethnocultural Empathy, and Their Political Beliefs?

Stitch-by-Stitch: An Unsettling Labour of Re-Inscription

Support for National Flag-Displays in Times of Change: A Question of National Identification?

Support for the Confederate Battle Flag in the Southern United States: Racism or Southern Pride?

Symbols and World Politics: Towards a Long-Term Perspective on Historical Trends and Contemporary Challenges

The ‘Illustrious’ Hariata Hongi and the Authorship of Hōne Heke’s Letters

The American Flag: An Encyclopedia of the Stars and Stripes in U.S. History, Culture, and Law

The Artist as Reporter: Drawing National Identity during the U.S. Civil War

The Colors of the National Web: Visual Data Analysis of the Historical Yugoslav Web Domain

The Confederate Flag

The Confederate Flag in the White Rural North: A Political History

The Controversial Flag Dress: Collective Memory, Cyberspace and Civil Society in a Rising China

The Decision Not to Furl the Confederate Flag in My Classroom

The Great Amoskeag Flag

The Mask and the Flag: Populism, Citizenism, and Global Protest

The National Flag: An Agent of Prejudice?

The Politics of Apology: The ‘Tzuyu Scandal’ and Transnational Dynamics of K-Pop

The Puerto Rican Flag - A Study in Vexillology

The rainbow flag in diplomatic communication

The Semiotics of Flags: The New Zealand Flag Debate Deconstructed

The Transformation of Hi No Maru in Postwar Okinawa: From Symbol of Hope to Object of Contempt

The World Wants Mangoes and Kangaroos: A Study of New Emoji Requests Based on Thirty Million Tweets

To Knee or Not to Knee: An Examination of Twitter Visual Content during the 2017 NFL National Anthem Protests in the United States

Towards Affective Nationalism: Bodies, Materials and Encounters with the Nation in Azerbaijan

Transnational Ways of Belonging and Queer Ways of Being. Exploring Transnationalism through the Trajectories of the Rainbow Flag

Under International Law, Must a Ship on the High Seas Fly the Flag of a State in Order to A Void Being a Stateless Vessel? Is a Flag Painted on Either Side of the Ship Sufficient to Identify It?

Unpacking the Georgian Nation: Examining the Symbolic Boundaries of Group Membership through National Iconography

Unstable Mediation: Regarding the United Nations as a Visual Entity

Who Is for (or Against) the National Flag? Ideological and Identity-Based Motivators of Attitudes