Territorial identity: The "third category" of identity in Normative Pluralism

Abstract

Normative Pluralism is a field of academic literature that attempts to reconcile the growing diversity within modern states by defining rules and norms to manage the relationships between differing identity groups. For the most part, normative pluralism has been focused on reconciling the relations between groups who exhibit one of two categories of identity: national identities and cultural identities. Much of the debate within the field of normative pluralism is in defining within which category an identity should be included and which rights and responsibilities should be assigned to it. However, there is another form of identity that while increasing in frequency and strength has been almost completely ignored by frameworks of normative pluralism---territorial identity. This presented thesis contends that territorial forms of identity comprise a "third category" of identity that frameworks of normative pluralism must address. More precisely, this thesis analyses the academic literature of normative pluralism and finds that, despite the strong connection between territory and identity, territorial identities are invisible in the academic debate within normative pluralism. This thesis explains the power and stability of territorial identities within the public sphere by outlining a theory of how territorial identities are formed, maintained, and transmitted through the relationship of three distinct phenomena: territoriality, narrative, and banal flagging. In a case study, the thesis reveals practical evidence of territorial identity, and the three phenomena that construct it, by analyzing the text of the editorials by three Albertan newspapers over the span of a single year.