Introduction

As recent history suggests, developments typically associated with
the term ‘globalization’ go hand in hand with assertive and resurgent
nationalisms — both enhancing and reconfiguring national identities.
We might include in this category of globalization attributes the
following: emerging forms of economic interdependence, the more
widespread global circulation of news, information, and mediated
forms of culture associated with digital media technologies,
enhanced forms of physical mobility for leisure travelers and some
categories of labor. In the era of mass customization and the rise of
identity politics, it should not be surprising that nationalism is an
important aspect of current forms of globalization. We are very
familiar with the notion that the assertion of unique identity markers
has become a mass phenomenon — and a strategy for addressing
the economization of social relations at the national and individual
level. Without placing too much weight on the homol-ogy, we might
note the similarity between self-branding and nation branding: the
recognition that, in the global economic context, the ability to channel
and capture attention is a crucial one. The displacement of ‘trust
relations’ by rationalization and bureaucratization described by
James Carey (1983) as symptomatic of the rise of electronic
communication is followed rapidly by the rise of ersatz
personalization and individuation.