We examine the emotional bases of Welsh identities in relation to social action and political participation. The role of group emotion has been neglected in social identity research on nationality. We investigate the importance of emotion as a product of identity and context, as a mediator of social action, and as a basis for collective identity definition itself. Our aim is to assess how Welsh identity is defined, examine its emotional bases, and investigate how this orients people to different political projects, including assimilation with England, devolution, and independence. Key findings: (1) While the Welsh language clearly plays an important role in national identity in Wales, there is also variation in how and why it is important. (2) For Welsh speakers, these relate to strategic concerns about the relationship between Wales and England, and have consequences for how non-Welsh speakers are positioned within the national category. (3) For non-Welsh speakers, orientations to the Welsh language relate more to their need to define or claim their own place within the national category. (4) Welsh language ability in turn has the potential to impact on support for political action – such as Welsh national autonomy – through its influence on one’s sense of national identity. (5) These effects are accentuated in contexts where the Welsh language is more prominent. In such contexts, not speaking Welsh can increase one’s identification as English, as well as undermining Welsh identification. (5) Emotions such as anger play an important role in explaining how perceived threats to identity, coupled with a sense of historical illegitimacy, create conditions under which more radical strategies (e.g., an arson campaign) are considered. (6) As well as being shaped by social identities, the nature and sharedness of others’ emotional reactions also help to shape the identities that emerge as a basis for action. This project examines the emotional bases of Welsh identities in relation to social action and political participation. The Welsh context is ripe for a study of national identity. There is no clear consensus concerning the issue of independence among the Welsh and the range of views is broad and dynamic. A critical feature of Welsh identity is the Welsh language, which provides a marker of national identity that is also a way of differentiating and even excluding the English. The Welsh context therefore provides an arena in which theoretical debates about national identity and its contested nature can be considered. We apply a social identity approach that takes into account the emotional aspects of identity to help us understand social action. The research is planned in three related phases: 1) interviews and survey, 2) field experiments, and 3) laboratory experiments. The initial phase will gather evidence concerning the different identity groupings, and the nature of their associated identity projects. In the second phase we address the flexibility of Welsh identity and investigate the ways in which emotions, identity salience, and identity conflicts vary as a function of comparative context and audience, and how people define their Welsh identity.

Data collection methods included face-to-face interviews, questionnaire-based surveys (hard-copy and web-based), telephone interviews, and lab-based experiments. Participants were adults recruited in Wales. A total of 1685 were recruited.