The evolution of the identity of nations

 

DAVID GELVES

UNIVERSIDAD DE LOS ANDES

 

How do national identities evolve? By using data of the digital archive of The New York Times, we propose a news-based approach to grasp the main perceived conceptual components of a nation’s identity. Following recent advances in semantic similarity measures, we analyze nation’s news as a component of a bipartite network that relates news to concepts. Aggregating news at nation level, we construct the Identity Space: the nation’s projection of the bipartite network Nation-Concept. Results reveal a dual perspective. On the one hand, most of the nations tend to be described by a relatively stable set of concept across time, albeit epochal moments produce structural changes. On the other hand, the Nation-Nation network – the Identity Space - is characterized by important topological changes in the centrality and connectivity across the 20th century. This network perspective is coherent with two of the most important attributes of national identity: temporal persistence, and progressive differentiation of a nation in the international community.