Charlie Tims
Associate
Charlie Tims recently co-wrote Video Republic, a look at the social and political significance of internet videos. He is currently involved in producing a part of the TED prize in London.
at 10:46am
on Thursday, 24th March 2005
So the national identity debate's trundling into action again. We explored some these issues a while back at TateBritishness and further back still in Britain TM. Debates and discussions (a bit like the one in Prospect this month) tend to fall foul of either trying to dictatorially point what it is to be British, or end up characterizing values so opaque that they end up being more about humanity than a particular nation. The bigger issues about the systems of governance and power structures that make the construction of our identity possible as individuals, too often gets overlooked in the constant search for who we are as a whole. In anycase, on a lighter note it seems an apt moment to point out that figures published by the British Phonographic Industry this week clarify that Britain buys more music per capita than anywhere else in the world (3.2cds per head ' and that's before you get into downloads).
So the national identity debate's trundling into action again. We explored some these issues a while back at TateBritishness and further back still in Britain TM. Debates and discussions (a bit like the one in Prospect this month) tend to fall foul of either trying to dictatorially point what it is to be British, or end up characterizing values so opaque that they end up being more about humanity than a particular nation. The bigger issues about the systems of governance and power structures that make the construction of our identity possible as individuals, too often gets overlooked in the constant search for who we are as a whole. In anycase, on a lighter note it seems an apt moment to point out that figures published by the British Phonographic Industry this week clarify that Britain buys more music per capita than anywhere else in the world (3.2cds per head ' and that's before you get into downloads).
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