| Abstract: | Using a case study from the border region of southeast Hungary, this paper makes the argument that national identity is experienced as a segmented structure of Selves and Others of varying social distances, rather than a binary Self and Other. It also posits that only some of these Others, those perceived to be the most familiar and threatening, are useful for members of a nation to use in thinking about themselves, either in alliance or opposition. In this Hungarian case, the most useful Others for defining Hungarian identity in alliance and opposition are, respectively, the Western and Balkan Other . |
