Transnationalism and the fragmentation of national identity

This volume is a result of the research project “The Impact of Globalization and Transnationalism on the Fragmentation of the State and National Identity in Ethnic/National Minority, Borderland and Diasporic Cases“ i.e. the ways national identity of the new post-socialist generation Lithuanians is shaped in global and local contexts and on the impact of transnationalism or ‘trans-nation-state-ism’ on their identity transformation. It is focused on the young generation (born in late 1980s – early 1990s) of Lithuanian citizens and/or persons of Lithuanian background in ethnic/national minority, borderland, and diasporic cases and aims to investigate the impact of fragmentation caused by globalization and transnationalism on their sense of national belonging. In the first – ethnic/national minority – case Russian minority is taken as a reference group to unfold the issue of the adherence to the national narrative vis-à-vis transnational attachments. In the borderland case – Poland – Lithuania’s state border area and the local population situated on both sides were approached with the aim to find out how the local population makes identifications with and loyalties to the state they live in and to the trans-border state. In the third, “diasporic” case, focus was on immigrant Lithuanians in the two global cities of London and Chicago aiming at understanding of the immigrant ways of adherences and assertions to the state(s) as well as their ethnic-national-transnational belonging