Abstract
For decades states overseas have held citizenship ceremonies to create conscientious and loyal citizens. Citizenship ceremonies are, however, also a new cultural phenomenon in Western Europe. Every year a large number of people obtain citizenship in a new country and thereby they become members of another people/folk - in the political sense. Within the last few years this conclusion of the naturalization process has been celebrated in the Nordic countries by the holding of citizenship ceremonies. By musical performances, speeches, food and drink, and by the absence and presence of national symbols the people and the nation are performed in both words and doings. In taht sense the people/folk that is enacted at the specific ceremonies is not definite - it is ambiguous. From a performative and comparative perspective the article examines four citizenship ceremonies in three Nordic countries - Denmark, Norway and Sweden - and analyses how the people/folk and the nation state are enacted at these ceremonies. Furtehermore the article, by briefly referring to ceremonies in Australia and Great Britain, is analysing various but at the same time intertwined versions and ideas of citizenship and people/folk are performed at the ceremonies.
| Original language | Danish |
|---|---|
| Journal | Nord nytt - Nordisk tidsskrift for folkelivsforskning |
| Volume | 102 |
| Pages (from-to) | 31-51 |
| Number of pages | 20 |
| ISSN | 0008-1345 |
| Publication status | Published - 2007 |
Keywords
- Faculty of Humanities