Abstract
In a previous study by the author, in which participants were asked to comment on `life in the 1990s', two major narratives around time were identified (within and across interviews) as `conservative' and `liberal'. The former emphasizes present degeneration and nostalgic recapitulation, the latter progress and the relative superiority of the present over the past. This dual accounting around time is framed in this article, after Billig et al., as an `ideological dilemma' and as such constitutive of a dynamic dialectical debate which ensures that no one perspective assumes total authority. The negotiation of these contradictory ideas is explicated and analysed with particular reference to discussions around nostalgia and political critique.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
