Image-Making Movements: Welsh Nationalism and Stereotype Transformation

Abstract

Despite much scholarly interest in stereotyping, stigma, and collective identity construction, collective action aimed at changing negative ethnic images has received little attention. Using Welsh nationalism as an “image-making movement,” this analysis shows how activists use framing strategies to construct a positive alternative image. Specifically, image makers use symbols of difference, dominance, resistance and transcendence, drawn from their own history and culture, as “frame aligners” that link their claims about themselves to values from the dominant culture. Yet their opponents also mobilize competing values to resist these claims. The analysis suggests that collective identities are transformed both through conflict between dominant and oppositional cultures, and through conflict within competing elements of the dominant culture itself. Data include interviews with Welsh “image makers,” nationalist publications, and editorials in mainstream British newspapers.